What we’re about
Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT) is a diverse community of 9,500+ members. We've been meeting monthly since 2015 to explore the world of design thinking as a human-centred design and living systems approach to innovation and solving complex problems – to help create positive outcomes for people, our planet, and business. We're one of the top design thinking meetups globally.
The vision for the SydDT meetup from the get go was to build a connected community and ecosystem of people from a diverse range of design and business practices, industries, contexts, and roles… to learn and share. To get exposed to what others are doing and see what's possible.
We’re proud to see this in our community – our members are experience designers, researchers, service designers, startup founders, product people, consultants, academics, anthropologists, architects, software engineers, project managers, medicos, engineers, and many other roles.
We keep it pretty casual with plenty of time for networking before jumping into talks, panels, and workshops on a broad range of topics - with a healthy Q&A that often turns into a group discussion. You can read a bit about the history and journey of our community and events here.
New members are welcome! If you’re not already a member, feel free to join our community. Each meetup audience is curated to a degree to make sure we have a mix of new people, as well as the committed regulars.
We’d love to hear from you if you’re keen to speak – or if there’s someone you think we should invite to speak.
Thanks
Ben Pecotich, Kylie Mageropoulos, Kate Linton & Lucas Mara
Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT) Organising Team
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- SydDT #108: Visual Thinking with Alan Chen & Diana Ayoub from Sh8peshiftersThoughtworks, SydneyA$10.00
We're lucky to have Alan Chen and Diana Ayoub from Sh8peshifters kicking off SydDT for 2025 with a visual thinking workshop!
Visual thinking is a powerful tool for reflecting, problem solving, and mapping out ideas. In this interactive session, you’ll get started with sketchnoting, a visual note-taking process that uses hand-drawn images and text to convey information.
No drawing skills needed! Just come along and explore how you can make visual thinking your superpower!
Come join us for some fun conversations with interesting people in and around the design thinking community. New members are welcome!
SPEAKERS
Alan Chen
Co-founder & Visual Storyteller, Sh8peshifters
Alan is the co-founder of Sh8peshifters, a Sydney-based creative agency that specialises in communication design.Over the past 25 years, Alan has built a diverse career, working as an illustrator, graphic designer, art director, film director, writer, producer, strategic designer, academic, and teacher. No matter the medium, storytelling is Alan’s passion and superpower.
Diana Ayoub
Co-founder & Visual Storyteller, Sh8peshifters
Diana is the co-founder of Sh8peshifters and a learning specialist with extensive experience in instructional design and education.Over the past decade, she has taken on a plethora of roles including graphic, web and multimedia designer, illustrator, animator, academic, and teacher.
Diana has developed several courses in design and along with Alan, has presented and spoken about creativity, learning and visual storytelling at design and leadership conferences.
EVENT SPONSORS
This meetup is brought to you by Thoughtworks, Sh8peshifters, and Dynamic4. - SydDT #109/Adelaide Design Thinking #1: What Does Design Mean in Adelaide?Scyne Advisory, AdelaideA$0.01
RSVPs ARE OPEN ON THE ADELAIDE DESIGN THINKING MEETUP PAGE. GET YOUR FREE TICKET HERE!
We're excited to be launching Adelaide Design Thinking (AdlDT)!
We're collaborating with Natasha Ballantyne, Maria Raymond, John Robinson, and Monique Moushis - who are Adelaide locals - to help convene a connected community and ecosystem of people from a diverse range of design and business practices, industries, contexts, and roles… to learn, share, and get exposed to what’s possible.
The focus of our first meetup will be to explore the vital role of design in South Australia, and co-design what the community wants from this meetup. Let's call it drinking our own champagne… or South Australian red 😃
The Format
This won't be a passive experience… it will be an interactive and participatory experience to co-design Adelaide Design Thinking (AdlDT).There will be plenty of time to meet each other, catch up with old friends, and make plenty of new ones.
Ben Pecotich will be hosting a panel with some amazing Adelaide designers (to be announced soon) who'll set the scene by sharing their experience. That will flow into open space so everyone can engage and participate however they're comfortable.
Key Topics of Discussion
- The Future of Design in Adelaide: Engage in a forward-looking discussion on the evolving landscape of design in our city. What opportunities and challenges lie ahead for designers in Adelaide? How can design drive more people-centred services through better digital and non digital experiences, innovation, and accessibility?
- Shaping Future Meetups: As part of our collaborative approach, we'll co-design how future Adelaide Design Thinking meetups will be structured. What topics would you like to see? What format promotes the most meaningful dialogue? Your input is invaluable!
Join us for a fun night of inspiration, conversation, and community-building as we collectively shape our future gatherings... and be part of the inaugural AdlDT. We look forward to seeing you there!
EVENT SPONSORS
This meetup is brought to you by Aplo, Dynamic4 and Scyne Advisory. - SydDT #111/IxDA Byron Bay: Regenerative Leadership, Design & InnovationTAFE NSW Connected Learning Centre (CLC) Byron Bay, Byron BayA$0.01
RSVPs ARE OPEN ON THE IxDA BYRON BAY MEETUP PAGE. GET YOUR TICKET HERE!
SydDT is going on tour again, this time to hang out with our friends at IxDA Byron Bay. Our first collaboration! Join us for the first IxDA Byron Bay event of 2025 and SydDT #109.
IxDA Byron Bay will host Ben Pecotich. He's a designer, coach, and founder of Dynamic4 – a social enterprise and B Corp focused on leadership, design, and innovation.
Ben will kick off with a 30-minute talk, diving into the world of regenerative leadership and the ways we can design and innovate solutions that benefit people, place, and planet while fostering personal and community wellbeing.
He coaches and works alongside leaders to solve problems that matter by designing and building business models, products, and services that customers and teams love, make money, and do great things for people and our planet… all while increasing wellbeing.
For those interested in exploring these ideas further, Ben will also be running an immersive workshop during the day of the event, focusing on putting regenerative leadership, design, innovation into action. More details soon...
Panel
Following the talk, Ben will host a panel featuring Nor Rivien's Dan Leverington (Founder/Commercial Sustainability Concierge, Ocelli Group), and other local thought leaders (announced soon). The talk and discussion will explore key questions such as:- Why regenerative?
- How do we design, build, and launch business models, products, and services that are more regenerative, benefiting customers, teams, and communities?
- How do we make regeneration a practical reality within teams, organisations, and our everyday lives?
This event will provide practical insights for designers, leaders, innovators, and anyone interested in creating meaningful change in their community. Let’s dive into how regenerative design can help us make a positive impact in our work, lives, and society at large.
Come along to connect, learn, and be inspired by Ben’s experiences and the stories from our local panellists. Together, let’s explore how design and innovation can create happier communities for all of us.
SPEAKERS & PANELLISTS
Ben Pecotich
Design & Innovation Director/Founder, Dynamic4
Ben Pecotich is a designer, coach, and founder of Dynamic4 – a social enterprise and B Corp focused on leadership, design, and innovation for happier communities… and making the transition to more regenerative ways of living and doing business.He coaches and works alongside leaders to solve problems that matter by designing and building business models, products, and services that customers and teams love, make money, and do great things for people and our planet… all while increasing wellbeing.
For 30+ years, Ben has led, designed, and delivered strategic change in financial services in Australia, NZ, Asia, the UK, and Europe. He takes a human-centred design and living systems approach to bring together strategy, design, and tech. During this time he’s also founded over 20 startups/social enterprises.
Ben's the author of Solve Problems That Matter: Design, Build & Launch Your Social Enterprise Idea and co-founder of the Sydney Design Thinking meetup.
Other speakers/panellists coming soon...
EVENT SPONSORS
Thanks to our event sponsors Business NSW, Dynamic4, and Just Digital People for making this possible.
