Situated within the exhibition hall will be the Open Design Forum which will have seating for approximately 150 people and will not be enclosed in any way.This open conference will run every day during the show from 9.30am - 4.30pm and speakers will include oem and independent vehicle design experts, technology/service suppliers and automotive design consultants and academics.

Each presentation will last for approximately 30 minutes ending with an opportunity for visitors to ask the speaker questions. All presentation schedules and topics will obviously be displayed well in advance allowing visitors to decide which sessions to attend. Over the three days there will be some 40 or so speakers and each session will have a different theme to the presentations. Like the exhibition, the Open Design Forum will be free to attend.

Areas covered will include but not be limited to;

· Future concepts

· Creating a modern design studio

· The role of the independent designer/design studio services

· Tier1 components, systems, materials and technologies for interior and exterior design.

With visitors expected from across Europe and beyond the conference presentations will all be in English.

Organisers of The Automotive Designers Show have already received several ideas for papers from potential oem and design studio speakers and we will publish online a preliminary programme early in 2009. A Call for Papers will appear here in late 2008 so those interested in presenting a paper can at that stage send us a brief outline of their presentation topic.

Potential speakers should be aware that papers most likely to be accepted are those covering a case study, new technology or service. Whilst we appreciate some companies may not be able to discuss current products it is unlikely that a company or corporate profile type presentation will be included.

Those interested in any aspect of the conference should bookmark this page as updates will appear regularly.