Save the Date: SDSI Open #4 – “Back to the Human Future”

Friday, 12 June 2026

Adatu Fabrika, Kuldīga, Latvia, address: Kalpaka iela 4, Kuldīga

Live on YouTube: Watch here

Time: 14:00 – 18:00 EEST

Free and open to all

Now in its fourth edition, SDSI Open is the flagship hybrid conference of the Erasmus Mundus Master's programme in Service Design Strategies and Innovations (SDSI). Held annually in the vibrant town of Kuldīga, Latvia, and livestreamed worldwide, this half-day event brings together a diverse community of designers, civil servants, students, educators, and community members to explore how design can shape just, sustainable, and meaningful futures.

This year's theme, "Back to the Human Future," invites us to turn our attention back to what remains deeply and irreducibly human. Through bodies, behaviours, relationships, and collective life, we ask what it means to design with, for, and as humans in times of rapid transformation.

What to Expect:

‍Engage with talks and discussions around:

• Human experience at the centre of design practice
• Bodies, behaviours, and collective life
• Play, participation, and social innovation
• Emerging forms of knowledge and what "human" might mean

Whether you're a design practitioner, policymaker, student, educator, industry partner, or simply curious about what it means to stay human in times of rapid change, you are warmly invited to join us in person or online.

Speakers & Presentations

• Ilze Supe - SDSI Director
  Ilze Kundziņa - Head of SDSI ‍
  ‍"Quick notes on SDSI's future"‍
• Carolina Vaz-Pires - Former SDSI Program Representative & Country Representative of Portugal - Erasmus Mundus Association
  ‍"Associativism at your hand"‍
• Ginevra (Gina) Papi – Student Recruitment & Outreach Officer at DNS - The Necessary Teacher Training College
  "Designing schools for human futures"‍
• Cristóbal Pagán Cánovas – Professor of Multimodal Communication, Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of Murcia, Spain
  “Multimodal Data Science and Service Design”‍
• Inês Silva – Researcher at Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS
  "Designing Human-Centered Healthcare Innovation"‍
• Magdalena Twardowska-Faszczewska - Senior Researcher at Warsaw Social Innovation Lab "Synergia"
  Agata Kowalska – Innovation Consultant at Warsaw Social Innovation Lab "Synergia"
  "From Reactive to Anticipatory Public Services: Listening to the System, Listening to the Future"
• Jennifer-Skriver - Assistant Professor at University College Absalon, Denmark
  "Play Design"‍
• SDSI Student Cohort 2025–2027
  "Reflections on Kuldīga"

Let's design not just for the future, but as humans within it — with curiosity, care and everything that makes us human.

Missed the earlier editions?
Catch up on previous SDSI Open events on our YouTube channel.