Some of the world’s leading thinkers and practitioners of ‘Service Design’ will take part in the bi-annual ServDes conference, between April 9 and 11, to explore how the field is transforming service-based industries to work more effectively for customers.

Service Design is the activity of planning and organising people, infrastructure, communications and the materials of a service in order to improve its quality for customers.

Dr Daniela Sangiorgi, senior lecturer in design at Lancaster University, said: “Services have moved from being a peripheral activity in a manufacturing-centred economy, to become an engine for growth and a key contributor of employment.

“This transformation has been fully recognised with a flourishing of service innovation and service research studies.

“The ServDes 2014 conference will provide a forum for the exchange of the latest thinking and research in this exciting and relatively-new field. It is a real coup for Lancaster University to be hosting this event, which could lead to new ideas that help improve the way we all live our lives in the future.”

The conference will be attended by academics, designers and organisations interested in exploring how design can be applied to service innovation, and how service design can drive change in societies, businesses and communities.

Key speakers include Dominic Campbell from Futuregov. A digital government specialist and social innovator with a background in government policy, communications and

technology-led change, Dominic will talk about the use of new media, design and social strategies to deliver public service transformation and social innovation.

Workshops and sessions at the event will be run by academics and experts from all over the globe, including from universities and organisations in Australia, Turkey, Norway, Denmark, Brazil, Greece and the Netherlands.

More information about ServDes is available by emailing www.servdes.org