Shanghai formally welcomed delegates and guests for the 2025 World Design Cities Conference (WDCC2025) on Thursday, 25th September.
The event’s opening ceremony included the official release of the report Shanghai 2010-2025: 15th Anniversary as a UNESCO City of Design – Results and Achievements.
The ceremony also included the distribution of certificates for the 2025 Shanghai Youth Design Talent U35, as well as the awards gala for the 2025 Shanghai Design 100+ Global Competition Annual Awards and the 2025 Frontier Design Prize.
During the conference, domestic and international renowned academicians and masters, industry-leading enterprises and designer representatives have been invited to hold various forums, working together to build a new framework for global design cooperation and development.
As a flagship event in the design industry, WDCC2025 undertakes its mission and vision to build a global design innovation cooperation platform and to explore means of design in driving development of new quality productive forces.
Furthermore, it strives to build an ecological design weathervane, a new fashion-lifestyle paradigm and an industrial innovation cradle.
The continuing growth of Shanghai Design
In 2010, Shanghai officially joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN).
Over the past fifteen years, "Shanghai Design" has contributed wisdom and strength through innovation, creativity and creation to urban development.
These days, as Shanghai accelerates its efforts in becoming a modernized international metropolis with global influence, it will better leverage the importance of design in empowering all sorts of industries.
As this year marks the 15th anniversary of Shanghai joining the UCCN as well as being awarded the title of Design City, WDCC2025 showcases Shanghai's innovation practices, presents to the world Shanghai's design propositions including ecological design and the debut of the Shanghai Youth Design Talent U35 Programme.
