Hatfield Dean Announces Dawn of DNA

The venue was Hatfield University at the Weston Auditorium and the inauguration of DNA – the Design Network Association. I had been invited both to the event and to join the organisation. It has come about to promote communication between Creatives within the Design community, both experienced and newcomers, hence the host venue, and its charter expressly includes the associated disciplines to pure design: photographers, printers, video and sound technicians and the like.

The first part of the evening was social with drink, nibbles and chat amongst both designers I had already met, some who were new to me and small groups of students. Several faces amongst the student groups were familiar to me from a previous meeting of CSD (Chartered Society of Designers) at the same campus.

The interaction was not in any way stilted between students and experienced practitioners, nor did it seem clicquey, and conversation was easy and wide ranging, and when the time came to move to the lecture theatre, there seemed to be a reluctance to break up the chatting groups!

The first speaker was the Dean of the Faculty, Chris McIntyre, who expressed his delight to be hosting the start of this group and how it meshed with the University's own ideas of how to bring his students closer to those involved in the Industry in genuine dialogue.

Then came Mike Benjamin who explained the structure, membership levels and aims of the DNA, and introduced the keynote speaker of the evening, who was to give a talk entitled the 'Perfect Pitch' to enlighten the audience as to how a Captain of Industry saw from his angle, the way a Designer might successfully pitch for business with his group of companies at Simplyhealth, this was their CEO, Des Benjamin.

The message was hard hitting, delivered in a casual style whilst the speaker roamed across the stage and without any distracting images of barcharts and bullet points on the screen behind him. The material point of his talk was the prospective pitcher must convince him that they understood his company's ethos and product and how they might provide the group with both a short and long term benefit and do it in an imaginative way with confidence. He expressed his wish to see DNA become a respected association and see the logo and letters become the sought after stamp of approval that its members represented a high standard of achievement within the Design and Creative community.

Andy Coomar thanked all the speakers and those behind the scenes and we returned once more to the ante room and further animated chatting.