MIRAI DESIGN LAB. Holds Final Presentation and Awards Ceremony

On September 26, the industry-academia collaboration project "MIRAI DESIGN LAB." by Dentsu Inc. and Hakuhodo held the final presentation and award ceremony for the 2nd "MIRAI DESIGN AWARD" at Dentsu Inc. in Shiodome, Tokyo. Targeted at students from vocational schools, technical colleges, universities, and graduate schools, the project solicited ideas on the theme "Learning in 2030" starting in March this year. The four winning teams, selected in August, presented their ideas, refined through workshops with lab members, on the same day.

The presentation themes of the four teams were as follows:

A: "BE A RENOVATOR" (Turning the Elderly into Innovators)

B: "Colla-box" (How to Create 2030's Swimmy-Type Innovators)

C: "InnoFes" (Making Innovators Accessible and Famous)

D: "DNA LIBRARY" (A Platform Utilizing Learning Logs)

Following judging, Team B's "Colla-box" won the Grand Prix. Inspired by Leo Lionni's children's book "Swimmy," it proposed future-oriented collaboration by depicting small fish working together to coexist with a large fish.

Special judge Hiroya Masuda (Advisor, Nomura Research Institute / Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo) commented, "I hope you hold a strong will to make 2030 better." Fellow special judge Daisuke Tsuda (Journalist / Media Activist) expressed his expectation: "I hope you pursue thrilling, powerful visions of the future, even if they aren't immediately feasible."

Co-founder Tadahiro Ikenaga (Dentsu Inc. Promotion Division) remarked, "The ideas were dream-filled. I hope they become innovators who change the world on a global level." Kazufumi Nagai (HAKUHODO DESIGN) commented, "Each team showed significant evolution since the mid-term presentations. The presentations were full of discoveries."