A public salon series exploring design's impact on the world

Join us on July 19th for a great evening of provocative design discussion!

Cooper Parlor is a periodic gathering of designers and design-minded people to exchange ideas around a specific topic. We aim to cultivate conversation that instigates, surprises, entertains, and, most importantly, broadens our community's collective knowledge and perspective about the potential for design. For some, our salons are an informal university that stokes their desire to learn and contribute to a larger conversation. For others, these gatherings are a place to push design boundaries, exploring what more is possible. Whatever your motive, you are invited to join in the dialogue. We ask that each participant bring an open-ended question or statement related to the salon topic. We'll throw those juicy conversation starters in a hat, pick one, and the dialogue will begin....

Upcoming Salon: Design + Activism

Guest moderator:  Nir Eyal, entrepreneur, teacher, and writer for TechCrunch, Forbes, Psychology Today
Date: Thursday, July 19th
Time: Doors open 6pm. Salon starts 6:30pm. Ends at 8:30pm
Cost: Free of charge (60 seats. First come, first serve.)
Location: Cooper headquarters
100 First Street, 26th Floor (Enter the building on Mission Street)
SF, CA 94105

In this era of the Occupy Movement and Arab Spring, activism is resurging and being redefined. Social media is changing the rules of engagement in ways radicals of the 1960s could have only imagined. Amidst all of this, what role can and should design play? What is the potential for persuasive design in this space, and is it ethical? How can design impact policy making? What opportunities are there for design at a grassroots level? How do we design system-level solutions for the world's most pressing problems?
Please bring a relevant question(s) or statement(s) for discussion. The more provocative and open-ended, the better. 

Why This Topic?

This salon topic was inspired by our recent partnership with nonprofit Women's Earth Alliance (WEA) for our July UX Boot Camp. In the UX Boot Camp course, students will envision web and mobile experiences for the nonprofit. WEA advocates and provides support for women leaders in Africa, India, and the USA who are addressing acute environmental and climate challenges in their communities. Working with WEA got us thinking about activism, our relationship to it as designers, and the potential for design in this space. We want to hear what others think and share our own thoughts...and thus, this salon topic was born.