SydDT #132: State of the Design Nation with Ben Crothers & Min Kong
About the event
We’re lucky to have Ben Crothers and Min Kong sharing their reflections as a couple of the judges for the 2026 Good Design Awards. This has been a SydDT tradition since 2018 and a time to reflect on the state of the design nation… full of interesting observations, insights, and trends.
[Good Design Australia](https://good-design.org/) has a proud history that dates back to 1958 and they’re passionately committed to recognising, rewarding, and promoting the importance of design to business, industry, government and the general public… and the critical role it plays in creating a better, safer, and a more sustainable and prosperous future.
Come join us for some fun conversations with interesting people in and around the design thinking community. New members are welcome!
SPEAKERS [Ben Crothers](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencrothers/) Principal Facilitator, [Bright Pilots](https://brightpilots.com/). Good Design Ambassador Ben has been a designer since before Netscape ruled the www, and is currently a facilitator and design strategist at Bright Pilots (his online training and facilitation business), where he teaches teams of all sorts about design and facilitation methods, running strategic workshops, and generally helping teams get un-stuck.
Previous to Bright Pilots, Ben was Principal Designer at Atlassian, a Design Director at Second Road (a strategic innovation consultancy), plus some assorted startups, agencies, and government departments.
Above all, Ben wants everyone to be just as good at the whiteboard as they are at the keyboard, to be better at thinking, communicating, and solving problems together visually. He’s the author of a few books, including Presto Sketching: Simple Drawing for Brilliant Product Thinking and Design.
[Min Kong](https://www.linkedin.com/in/minkong/) Associate Design Director, [Caon Design Office](https://caondesignoffice.com/). Good Design Ambassador Min is a strategic designer with nearly two decades of experience shaping physical products, services, and environments across aviation, transport infrastructure, healthcare and consumer sectors.
Her approach brings together strategic thinking, experience design, and industrial design expertise to uncover opportunities for innovation and improvement and translate complex business and customer needs into high-quality, tangible experiences with real-world impact.
At Caon Design Office, Min currently leads customer experience design across major Qantas Airways aircraft programs, including the flagship Project Sunrise A350 fleet.
Min’s work has been recognised through multiple design awards, including the Australian Good Design Awards and Red Dot Design Award.
An active member of the design community, Min taught industrial design at UNSW for over a decade and has served on multiple design award juries.
EVENT SPONSORS This event is brought to you by [Thoughtworks](https://www.thoughtworks.com/), [Shapeshifters](https://www.shapeshifterscreative.com.au/), [Bright Pilots](https://brightpilots.com/), and [Dynamic4](https://dynamic4.com/).
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