Our 2nd Annual Furniture Sector Forum that took place on 21st October 2020 where we focussed on the establishment of partnerships, collaborations and opportunities within the South African Furniture Value Chain, unpacked the Furniture Industry Master Plan, as well as hosted panel discussions with local speakers on subjects including furniture design and industry trends. The event was hosted by us, SAFI - the South African Furniture Initiative in partnership with, DTIC – Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, Proudly South African, IID – the African Institute of the Interior Design Professions and Trend Forward.

We had a jam-packed event and below you will find links to the three presentations of the day done by Proudly South African CEO, Eustace Mashimbye, SAFI’s very own Managing Director, Bernadette Isaacs, our Chairman, Penwell Lunga, and Ncumisa Mcata-Mhlauli, Chief Director: Agro-Processing and Resource Based Industries at the DTIC.

Our first panel discussion on Furniture design education and the new furniture design qualification, was honoured by, Gugu Motlanthe, former First Lady of South Africa and currently actively involved in creating inclusive education opportunities for learners, who did an introduction before Prof Desmond Laubscher, current president of the Pan Africa Institute of Design, facilitated the panel discussion with his impressive international and local panelists ensuring invigorating dialogue, including Angus Campbell (Head of the Department of Industrial Design at UJ), Prof Mugendi K M’Rithaa (Machakos University in Kenya), Juliet Kavishe (a professional interior architect and educator), Daryn Molenaar (Lecturer on product and industrial design at the CPUT) and Clifford Moleko (Lecturer and Work Integrated Learning Co-ordinator Tshwane University of Technology).

You can access the video on this discussion below.

Our second panel discussion on Architecture and the future of local furniture design and manufacturing, was facilitated by Dave Nemeth, founder of Trend-Forward with a superb line-up of panelists who hit the bulls-eye with their discussions, including,  Chryss Joannou, principal architect at Anagram Architects, Theo Bothma, MD of Theo Bothma Architects & Design, Mpho Vackier, Founder and Creative Director of TheUrbanative, Mia Els, Project Interior Designer at Boogertman and Partners and Adrian Morris, Partner and MD at Design Partnership.
 

Please watch the video of this enlightening and REAL discussion below.