On 20 January 2023, the general meeting of the members of the Design Forum Association took place at the Quadrum Business Centre. The meeting was organised and chaired by Vytautas Gurevičius, Chairman of the Association. The financial and activity reports for 2022 were presented, and the election of a new Board for the new term of office 2023-2024 was initiated. The CEO presented the plans for 2023 and the new members of the association.

The 2022 Design Forum was very active. With the support and partial funding of the Lithuanian Innovation Agency, members of the Association had the opportunity to participate in 7 international exhibitions. “RESTA / Furniture and Design Solutions 2022, held in Vilnius from 20 to 23 April. “14 developers and companies presented their exhibitions at the joint stand of the Design Forum. The stand was curated by the NGO “Aplink tave” On 6 – 8 May, 5 companies from Lithuania took part in the “Blickfang” exhibition in Basel (Switzerland). It was one of the exhibitions that left the biggest impression. “Eglė Trimonė, director of March design studio and curator of the trip, emphasised the youthfulness of the visitors – their desire to buy bright and modern things. The next edition of the event, held in Paris, France, from 8 to 12 September, featured a wide range of exhibitions. “At the Maison & Objet fair in Paris on 7 September and 7 September in Paris, 8 companies displayed their latest products at the joint Design Forum stand. The exhibition was curated by Pupt UAB. According to the feedback from the representatives of the 12 participating companies, the Archzona exhibition in Vilnius on 8 – 12 September was a complete success. All participants had the opportunity to discover new clients and business contacts. At the Warsaw Home Furniture exhibition in Warsaw, Poland, from 19 to 22 October, all 12 exhibitors responded to the inspiring Lithuanian design products. The exhibition was curated by Emko UAB. Later on 25 – 29 October. Unfortunately, according to the representatives of UAB Pupt, who curated the exposition, there were fewer visitors than expected, so the exhibition only partially met the expectations. The Design Isle exhibition in Riga (Latvia), which took place on 4-6 November, was attended by 8 companies from Lithuania. After a break of a few years, the exposition attracted a lot of attention from our neighbours. The exhibition was curated by VŠĮ “Aplink tave”.

During the year, the Design Forum team organised and curated two large, traditional events.On 23 – 29 May, the Design Week festival was organised for the 17th time in 6 cities, with over 60 exhibitions, expositions, events and performances. Design Week was partly funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture. In the autumn, from 13 to 25 October, the Design Festival will take place in. The 10th edition of the “Good Design” competition took place in Kaunas, Lithuania, on 25 and 25 October. In 2022, 36 of the best entries were selected from more than 150 applications, and a foreign jury selected the 12 best works in each category. The competition is organised by Kaunas European Capital of Culture, the State Patent Bureau and the Lithuanian Council for Culture.

The meeting presented 5 planned activities for 2023: joint stands of Design Forum at Ambiente in Frankfurt (Germany), Furniture and Design Solutions in Vilnius and IMM in Cologne (Germany). This year, Design Week will take place from 5-11 June in 6 Lithuanian cities. The theme of the festival is “challenges” and the colour is viva magenta.

Vytautas Gurevičius (VŠĮ “Aplink tave”), Dalius Razauskas (UAB “Kitaip”) and Erika Markovska – Mikulskienė (UAB “EMKO”) were elected to the Board of Directors of the Association Design Forum for a new term of office by majority consensus. Also, 9 new members of the association were introduced at the meeting. After the meeting, the members had the opportunity to get to know each other informally, to chat and to enjoy some refreshments.