I was very pleased to be asked to chair this one-day forum because my first reaction when news of the credit crisis broke was dismay at the thought of the adverse impact it would have on the emerging designers that Hidden Art, Design Nation, Metropolitan Works and many other support agencies had done so much to encourage and support. But then I thought back to the previous recessions and realized that, because of these established support systems, contemporary creative practitioners where much better placed to weather the storm than they were in the 70s and 80s. 
But they will still need all the help they can get, and this forum was designed to do just that by bringing together specialist speakers to present and discuss opportunities within the design industry and ways of accessing them.
The day-long event focused on seven main panel discussions, examining new Avenues for Selling, funding and other opportunities, prototypes, trends in the Recession and Sustainable Future. The Forum presented a selection of respected speakers willing to share their experiences including Ryan Malone (Decode), Giles Hutchinson-Smith (Meta), Corinne Julius, Sharma Guness (Supply London), Will Knight (London Design Festival), Anna Hart (Mark), Matthew Lewis (Metropolitan Works), Fionnuala Johnston (B&Q), Global Colour Research, and Wemake.
www.hiddenart.com