Launched in 2004, Budapest Design Week was initiated by the Hungarian Design Council with the objective of contributing to raise social awareness of the economic and social role of design, enhancing trust in design and facilitating communication between the actors of this field. This series of events is supposed to call the attention of economic policy-makers and Hungarian businesses to the potentials of design: design integrated in business processes and corporate culture creates new quality and by adding value to the products and services, it raises competitiveness and provides a competitive edge over peer companies. Budapest Design Week is already a 10-day festival of programs – between the 5-19 October – , which marks a strong position in the long line of European festivals. The festival offers more than 150 programs in 2018 and four partnering cities: Debrecen, Győr, Sopron and Pécs. Apart from social usefulness, the festival attempts to place an emphasis on the economic role of design: it aims to draw the attention of economic policy-makers and Hungarian entrepreneurs to the potentials of design, the importance of a design-conscious way of thinking, which supports the competitiveness of Hungarian businesses and provides them with a competitive eadge over rivals by delivering more added value. Budapest Design Week attempts to visualise design as a set of innovative tools and approach, which would harmonically meet the functional and social demands and produce an indispensable device for the creation of products and services. To support this aim, the events include programs both for the public at large (inaugurations of exhibitions, programs for children, thematic tours, workshop visits) and for the profession (round table discussions, professional lectures, conferences, prize winning galas, etc.), and other elements that would explicitly support the work of economic policy-makers (investors’ meetings, introduction of case studies, lectures, workshops). Beside their own programs, organisers also provide a chance for professional partners to introduce themselves (museums, institutions, schools, shops, design studios, galleries, etc.). Budapest Design Week staff is striving to produce a diversity of genres so that the public could enjoy a great variety of the appearance of design, from industrial design to fashion, from interior design to designer graphics or from service design to UX/UI design. This series of events takes place every autumn by focusing on a theme or introducing an honorary guest country. The festival is coordinated and financed by the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office, and is organized by the Hungarian Design Council. You can browse through the official catalogue of the events HERE and the handy Design Map HERE https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=161&v=Qblm3sY5u8c Text: Budapest Design Week, Photo: Pixabay