15 Design meetups
3000+ Global designers
35 topics were explored
This post highlights how I have created a design community in Shenzhen and hosted 15 designer events and 3000+ designers. I moved to Shenzhen in 2014 to work as a UX designer for the OIOO-Custom Android tablet from Wong’s Holdings International Limited. A designer who doesn’t speak Chinese moved to Mainland China; it was an excellent experience and piqued my curiosity. Google, Facebook, and social media platforms, including translation apps, are blocked.
Being alone in a country where you are not familiar with the language, culture, and food takes a challenge. Then we got to know about a super app called WeChat. That’s another topic for another time. Then I started to look around to see where I could meet foreigners in Shenzhen and searched through meetup.com. Then, I discovered language exchange groups and joined and went to the Mandarin language exchange meetups, but I still needed to catch up on the creative group with which to hang out and explore the design industry
Food and Mandarin
Indians who move to China always complain about the food. I didn’t find any problems with the food, and it’s nice, as I primarily eat a rice-based diet. Although you wouldn’t know you were eating beef, pork, goose, or frog,? So, the first thing I mastered in Chinese was food. As an artist, I often took out my sketchbook and drew chicken and egg pictures, as well as how I wanted them, like sunnyside or fully cooked.
Multicultural environment
At Alcatel, I worked with an incredibly diverse team of individuals from different cultural backgrounds, such as French, Russian, Italian, Filipino, Portuguese, and Chinese. Together, we worked on creating product experiences for idol and pop series mobile phones. Working with such a multicultural team presented challenges but gave me many opportunities to learn about different cultures and perspectives on work and life. Overall, it was a great experience that taught me a lot.
Travel
I have traveled around China for almost a year, visiting Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, and Jianxi. I also lived for three months in Zhengzhou, which is very close to the Shaolin temple. However, I haven’t practiced kung fu. Since Hong Kong and Macau are closer to Shenzhen, I have often visited these cities to attend design conferences and volunteer in other communities as well.
Madrasters
I have experience organizing and speaking at designer meetups and decided to create a designer group in Shenzhen. I co-founded a design community called “Madrasters,” My experience helped me figure out all the necessary arrangements. So I started with the cafe owner, where I went to language exchange meetups and asked permission to hold the designer event. Initially, I started with people I met on a language exchange meetup. We have hosted the first meetup with six other friends and created a WeChat group where designers can join. Eventually, we had around 100 designers and hosted three more designer meetups within the same year.
As the design community grew, we started inviting industry evangelists and discussing various topics. Shenzhen is a maker’s city where most electronics are manufactured, and I even got job opportunities at TCL because of these design events. We moved to bigger venues to host events, and I was involved with other startup communities and presented various events. We have sponsorship from NOA Labs, 3-Mania, Solbit, and other companies from the 7th Designer Meetup.
I have hosted 15 designer meetups, 2 workshops with 12 volunteers from China and 3000 participants worldwide. We have discussed 3D printing, the Internet of Things, Industrial design, Branding workshops, Typography, User experience, Virtual reality, and many other topics related to design and technology.
Peter Vesterbacka and Tim Cook
As our community grows, we receive recognition in magazines, sponsorship from companies for events, and invitations to participate in government events throughout Shenzhen. Recently, the Shenzhen government hosted the “Global Entrepreneurship Forum,” and only a few expats were invited to attend. Fortunately, I was one of them, and I even got to take a selfie with Tim Cook. Also I had chance to meet the creator of Angry birds.
Hosting events as an expat has opened up many opportunities for me, including meeting artists from around the PRD area and the world and graffiti on a few walls.
As I started hosting more events eventually, our network has grown more robust, and it has some super berks. I was invited to tech and design events and was given a chance to offer mentorship at Startup Weekend, the European Innovation Academy, and Shenzhen University.
Being part of the design community
Networking is essential in the industry for finding better opportunities, meeting like-minded people, and exchanging knowledge. Shenzhen is a vibrant city where you can meet people who are makers chasing their dreams, redefining a product, or inventing new technology. As a community, we grew stronger, opening up new opportunities for its people and me. I worked on VR, hardware designs, smartphone experiences, smart TV, crypto projects, and robotics.
