30/04/2026
On 26 June we're putting on something I've been working toward for a while: SYNC Design & Innovation in SITE 2026, in Bangkok.
FOURDIGIT is co-organizing it with Nikkei BP and Thailand's National Innovation Agency (NIA). We're calling it the first design and innovation festival of its kind in Asia, which is a strong claim, but the speaker list backs it up:
- Manabu Mizuno (good design company), brand strategist behind Kumamon and Panasonic
- Eriko Yamaguchi (MOTHERHOUSE), CEO of a global bag brand that started in a workshop in Bangladesh
- Yoshihiro Yagi (dentsu Japan), Cannes Lions Grand Prix winner and 2026 D&AD Jury President
- Prof. Eisuke Tachikawa (NOSIGNER), board member of the World Design Organization
- Sumpatha Jadee (Farmgroup), the designer behind Bangkok's new visual identity, with prior work for Apple and Netflix
- Dr. Krithpaka Boonfueng, Executive Director of Thailand's NIA
- H.E. Mr. OTAKA Masato, Ambassador of Japan to Thailand
- Speakers from ZOZO, Dentsu Digital, and SHIFTBRAIN, plus our CEO Ryo Taguchi and COO Takehiro Suenari
Why we put this together:
In Japan, the conversation about design moved past "make it look nice" roughly 15 years ago. Today it's treated as a real business function with seats at executive tables and direct lines to outcomes like retention, conversion, brand value, and operating efficiency. Southeast Asia is partway through that same shift, and Thailand has policy momentum behind it (NIA's involvement here is not coincidental).
Our bet is that the firms in this region that learn to use design as a strategy tool, not a polish layer, will have a real advantage in the next decade. Especially as AI commoditizes ex*****on and pushes the value upstream into framing, judgment, and taste.
If any of that is interesting to you, I'd genuinely like you in the room.
Free admission. Trilingual program (Thai, English, Japanese). And there's a music stage in the evening with Wednesday Campanella and others, because the day shouldn't only be panels and slides.
Pre-register: https://syncforum.asia/en/
Curious to hear from people who've been on either side of this: what's a design decision your company made that turned out to matter for the business?
アジア初のデザイン&イノベーションの祭典。デザインとビジネスがSYNCし、イノベーションが生まれる。デザイナーや経営者が実践と思想を語るセッションと音楽ライブ。2026年6月26日、バンコクにて開催。