How has this year's conference evolved from last year, which I hear was originally supposed to be a one-time event?

Willem: We got such incredible feedback from last year, so we had to do it again. This year, we really shifted the scope of the conference and almost doubled the amount of participants to over 500. We brought in larger, outside organizations, including (blank)lab/Project M, Core 77, and more. We had richer events, and tried to move from just a conference to an overall experience.

Andrea: We incorporated a wider variety of events such as the evening social mixer and gala, to cultivate an informal setting so people could really interact with speakers. We were also really excited about the first-ever Core77 Live 1 Hour Design Challenge, so that attendees could get to know each other and work collaboratively -- which isn't always the case for many conferences.

The design challenge (which was to re-imagine the Next TV Dinner) was definitely one of my favorite activities of this weekend. What were each of your roles throughout the planning of the conference?

WIllem: I would say that with only nine people on the committee, everyone was really involved in every decision. I'm a senior studying graphic design at RISD, and I created all the design for the weekend, organized all of the special events, was responsible for all media and public relations, coordinated duties between other committee members, and organized many panels, including Communication for Design Activism, Information & Data Design, and Integration of Design & Business.

Andrea: I'm actually a Chemical Engineering major in my last year at Brown, and was also on the committee last year. This year, I was in charge of finances, fundraising, and the budget in general. I also put together the Medical Design panel.

How was the idea for A Better World By Design initially born, and how did it come to be a Brown-RISD product?

Andrea: The idea originally began from an Engineers WIthout Borders event that was held at Brown a couple years ago, and we wanted to expand and amplify on that spirit from a design standpoint. Working with RISD just made perfect sense.

Willem: Brown and RISD have lots of things that they do separately, but in terms of collaboration, this is probably the biggest event. Ten years ago, there is no way that we would have worked together. I think Better x Design is the start of a new era of collaboration.

Aside from the fact that it is completely student-run, how does A Better World By Design differ from all the other design conferences out there?

Willem: We picked the people and groups that really fulfilled our goals of using design for social good and building community. I think our conference is unique in that that this is a humanist perspective many professionals don't usually get in their day-to-day. In fact, Stefan Behnisch told us yesterday that he was so refreshed by Better x Design, because he is so used to conferences full of bitter architects. And look at Jan Chipchase, Emeka Okafor, Stuart Harshbargar -- I thought Stuart's talk on Revolutionizing Prosthetics was one of the coolest, and what he does is not traditionally thought of as 'design'.

Andrea: Definitely. After listening to all of these speakers this weekend, I kept thinking, why do designers and engineers have different names? They do the same thing!

What would you say was the greatest challenge you faced in the planning process?

Willem: Over the summer, the board was in three separate continents -- everyone was scattered, and coordination was a little difficult.

Andrea: Fundraising. We had to really depend on our creativity -- all of the printed materials and social spaces were donated, and Design Within Reach even donated several pieces of furniture. Aside from travel, all of the speakers came for free -- which is a true testament to how much they believe in this.

From the original vision of what Better x Design was intended to accomplish, have there been any unexpected results that have come out of it?

A new way of thinking. You could say that A Better World by Design used to be 'ad hoc'...and now it is a business model. We're raising capital, not just money.

Andrea: You know, I think we're one of the things contributing to Providence becoming a design mecca. Better x Design is really starting to put Providence, Rhode Island on the map.