Speak at the NZDW 2027

Design Conference

We're looking for 12 people willing to talk about how the work actually got made. Not the case study version: the decisions, the constraints, and the bits that went sideways.

NZ Design Week runs from Monday 1 to Tuesday 9 March 2027 under the theme Restore + Reimagine, anchored at the Design Depot, Shed 10 on Queen's Wharf. The Design Conference closes the festival across the final two days. Monday 8 March belongs to speakers working here in Aotearoa. Tuesday 9 March is the international programme. Submissions on this page are for the Monday.

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Entry Guidelines

What the day 
looks like

Twelve sessions, across four strands, three in each:

  • Branding, storytelling, digital and identity
  • Built environment, infrastructure and materials
  • Industrial design, making and supply chains
  • The business of design

Talks run upstairs at Shed 10, 25 minutes each including Q&A at your discretion. Audience questions at the end are yours to take or skip. Either way, you can carry the conversation downstairs to the workshop space after your session if you wish. That space is yours until the next speaker needs it.

What makes a 
submission work

Two questions decide most of it, and they are the first two on the form.

  • Name at least two specific pieces of work you will show. Named projects, named clients, named products. Not “recent work”, not “our portfolio”.
  • Describe one decision that changed the outcome, and why you made it. The strongest submissions include one that did not go the way you expected.

Everything else follows from those two answers: the title, the description, the slides.

If a partner sits 
behind your session

Use the ‘anything else’ field at the end of the form. Tell us if you have an organisation in mind who might support your session, or if you are in a position to support it yourself. Sponsorship does not decide whether a submission is chosen, but it does help us cover the costs of putting this event on for the industry.

Submissions

Submissions close 30 September 2026. We confirm speakers through September, ahead of the first programme announcement. Slides are due in January 2027, and talks take place on Monday 8 March 2027.

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