Cash boost to BAA/RIBA venture

The Design Council has donated 22 000 from its special projects fund in order to help develop a cross-sector forum following the BAA/Royal Institute of British Architects’ initiative Agenda for Change.

“It gives us enough cash to start the programme and get the second round going,” says marketing consultant Julie Fitzsimmins.

Fitzsimmins is to project manage a programme of five events in the coming year. The subjects which have been selected to be tackled are: commissioning, briefing and design management; contracts and purchasing; education; investment in design; and continued professional development.

“In many ways, there is as much pressure coming from the client side as the design side” to change the way work is carried out, says Fitzsimmins.

The events will take the form of debating lunches, workshops, case studies and research programmes, according to Caroline Cole, head of the RIBA Clients’ Advisory Service.

Fitzsimmins hopes that a number of publications, produced on the back of the RIBA’s seminar in October which looked at designing the customer experience, will be sponsored.

Organisations supporting the initiative include British Airways, British Design and Art Direction, Disney, Orange, J Sainsbury and Design Week.