The Design Education Summit 2025 invites you to step into The Wonder Lab — a bold, hands-on experience where design mindsets come to life through stories and immersive experiences. Be inspired by visionaries, practitioners, entrepreneurs, and our most important voices — the youths. This is more than a conference. It’s a vibrant, action-oriented space to reimagine education together.

Explore the intersection of design, technology, and future thinking at ArtScience Museum through a guided visit to an inspiring exhibition on positive futuring, which showcases imaginative and hopeful visions of tomorrow. This will be followed by a hands-on workshop introducing 3D modelling using iPads. Designed for educators, this session aims to spark fresh perspectives on design education and equip participants with practical digital tools to foster creativity and innovation in the classroom.

Key Details

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Deepen awareness of disability inclusion through a guided exploration at Enabling Village.

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Foster empathy and inspire inclusive action through meaningful conversations with the community and project partners behind initiatives supported by the I’mable Public Education Movement and DesignSingapore Council.

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Encourage intersectoral partnership by showcasing how diverse collaborators—across design and community – can co-create inclusive projects and solutions.

Some of the most powerful leadership skills—adaptability, collaboration, and presence—are best learned not through theory, but through doing. This experiential workshop uses the craft of improvisational theatre to help participants build those capabilities in real time. Through a series of tailored, scenario-based exercises, participants will practice thinking on their feet, embracing change, and responding with creativity and empathy. Real workplace examples shape the experience, grounding each activity in context and purpose. Along the way, participants will discover how improv techniques—like active listening, presence, and “yes, and”—can unlock trust, teamwork, and bold, decisive action.

Key Details

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Learn to employ active listening, think on your feet and respond in the moment, fostering quick, innovative thinking, and adaptability.

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Learn to overcome self-doubt and silence the inner critic.

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Recognise the significance of collaborative support and aim to cultivate a work atmosphere built on trust.

Step into the world of design thinking through immersive play at HIDDEN’s Gamification Lab. In this 45-minute interactive session, co-founder Jun Wei leads educators through a live demo, lab tour, and bite-sized gameplay to experience key design mindsets in action. Held at Singapore Science Park in collaboration with CapitaLand, this hands-on journey shows how gamification can powerfully connect learning with creativity. Perfect for educators seeking fresh ways to spark engagement and 21st-century competencies in classrooms —from primary schools to tertiary institutions.

Key Details

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Demonstrate how the five DesignSingapore design mindsets are embedded in real-world creative processes through HIDDEN’s journey as a gamification studio.

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Provide educators with an immersive and hands-on understanding of how game-based learning can cultivate design thinking in both students and staff.

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Offers educators inspiration, tools, and potential collaboration pathways for applying gamification in curriculum, team-building, or school enrichment contexts.

How can we strengthen our ‘human core’ to create an intentional response to AI induced change? Leadership is about taking charge of change – both personal and organisational. Learn the tools to take charge and create the next best version of yourself to thrive in change by strengthening your MetaSkills™ – the foundational human skills that you need to develop other skills. “Intentional Curiosity” is one such MetaSkill™ that will put you on this journey of taking intentional charge of change. Let’s co-create a mental workout to strengthen your curiosity muscle. This will make you a better designer, a better professional, a better leader, and above all a better human.

Key Details

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To understand principles behind training your mental muscle of curiosity, which lies at the very heart of human learning.

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To master empathy you don’t just need to know what it is, but also understand what it constitutes of. The session will take you through key mental muscles that constitute empathy, and how to train them.

Discover inclusion through the lens of design and lived experiences in this two-part learning journey. Start with a guided trail through Enabling Village, led by persons with disabilities, and uncover how everyday spaces are intentionally designed to be inclusive. Then, join an interactive sharing session led by Vivita, alongside three project partners—Bold at Work, The Possible Class, and Design Sojourn—from the Real World Co-Design Platform, a collaboration between SG Enable and the DesignSingapore Council. Gain grounded insights into how inclusive ideas are co-created with students and communities through the power of design thinking.

Key Details

1.

Deepen awareness of disability inclusion through a guided exploration at Enabling Village.

2.

Foster empathy and inspire inclusive action through meaningful conversations with the community and project partners behind initiatives supported by the I’mable Public Education Movement and DesignSingapore Council.

3.

Encourage intersectoral partnership by showcasing how diverse collaborators—across design and community – can co-create inclusive projects and solutions.

In a world where leadership demands both foresight and reflection, this walking trail offers a unique way to engage with space, design, and change. Winding through Rochester Park’s black-and-white bungalows to the sleek architecture of Fusionopolis and Geneo, each stop reveals more than a place—it reveals a mindset. One shaped by reinvention, intentionality, and vision. Designed to spark reflection, this experience invites participants to consider how our built environment mirrors evolving values and ambitions. Along the way, insights emerge—not just about architecture or planning, but about leadership, culture, and the power of place to shape how we live, work, and grow.

Key Details

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Leadership and Place: How space reflects ambition and shapes collective mindset.

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Architectural Evolution: From colonial bungalows to purpose-built science precincts.

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Design in the Urban Realm: Intentionality in sightlines, integration, and public realm.

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Heritage as Resource: Adaptive reuse and continuity in a high-growth context.

Drawn to Lead is a fun, hands-on workshop that uses simple drawing exercises to explore big ideas in leadership and organizational systems. No art skills are needed—just curiosity and an open mind. As the session unfolds, participants move from playful sketches to deeper reflections, connecting visuals to themes like next-gen leadership, inspiration, and personal worldview. By the end of the session, each participant leaves with a sketchbook of insights and a renewed perspective on how creativity can unlock clarity, confidence, and connection in leadership. A surprising, refreshing entry point into complex ideas —one pencil stroke at a time.

Key Details

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A greater understanding of your organizational themes, AND a sketchbook of material drawn during the workshop, connecting into the learning content, and expanding on their personal processes.

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Use their Sketchbook and Drawing tools as a catalyst to continue their journey with art as a skill, a passion, an exploration.

It’s 2045. Singapore scorches at 40°C. Green promises are everywhere—but are they real? Step into our escape room challenge, where you’ll investigate a company’s bold sustainability claims and uncover the uncomfortable truths beneath. This immersive experience is more than just a game—it’s a test of your courage to confront greenwashing, challenge assumptions, and act under pressure. Come with curiosity, leave with clarity—and a deeper understanding of what it takes to lead with courage in a world on the brink.

Key Details

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Understand of the impact and behaviours associated with diets and travel-related carbon emissions to drive business action that mitigate these impacts.

Nurture your child’s inner designer through a hands-on challenge that sparks curiosity, courage, and creative thinking! In this immersive, playful experience in the PLAY+MAKE space at Children’s Museum Singapore, children will get to design a never-been-built city using surprising materials such as slime! They will get to think outside the box, explore bold ideas and activate their innate designer instincts. Nothing is impossible – the limit is one’s imagination! Children who complete a challenge will receive a STEM Challenge Cards Set sponsored by The James Dyson Foundation (while stocks last). This is a satellite event of the Design Education Summit 2025 that is co-organised by Children’s Museum Singapore and DesignSingapore Council with support from The James Dyson Foundation.

Key Details

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Open children up to the joys of designing (design through play).

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Introduce children to the various design mindsets.

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Enhance the well-being of children (and parents) through the possibility of design.

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Registration link will be available soon.

Sustainability is not just a goal but a design disposition: a mindset and daily practice that shapes how we see, create, and act. This workshop empowers participants to internalize sustainability as a core value, using design thinking to transform intentions into tangible, systemic action. The experience is reflective, collaborative, and action-oriented, aligning with the Design Education Summit’s focus on agency, reflection, and real-world impact.

Key Details

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Internalise sustainability as a personal and collective design disposition.

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Apply design thinking tools to address real-world sustainability challenges.

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Inspire innovation by reimagining products, services, or systems for a sustainable future.