Ken Yeang is an award-winning architect, ecologist, planner and author from Malaysia, best known for pioneering ecological architecture and ecomasterplanning and for his signature designs. He trained at the Architectural Association School (London) and received his doctorate from Cambridge University. His key built work include the Roof-Roof House (Ampang), Menara Mesiniaga (Subang), National Library Singapore, Solaris (Singapore), Spire Edge Tower (india), Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Extension (UK), Genome Research Building (HK), Suasana Putrajaya (Malaysia).

Yeang's most important and instructive contribution to architecture is in advancing the macro ecology-based landuse planning approach of the landscape architect Ian McHarg, extending and articulating this from its macro urban regional scale to the micro level of architectural design at the scale of the built form based on his biointegation patterns and other considerations. His recent work explores the concept of 'ecomimicry' as designing the built environment as constructed ecosystems that emulate and replicate the processes, structure and attributes of ecosystems. Yeang's ecomimicry refers to the physical, structural and systemic mimicry of ecosystems properties, and not to be mistaken with a simplistic 'visual' biomimicry. Yeang is an Hon. Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge and holds the chair of Distinguished.Plym Professor at University of Illinois.

Rahul Kadri is a Partner & Principal Architect at IMK Architects, an architecture and urban design practice founded in 1957 with offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru. Kadri took over the reins of the practice from his father I. M. Kadri in the 1990s after completing a graduate diploma in architecture from the Academy of Architecture, Mumbai, and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Michigan, USA. With Kadri at its helm, IMK Architects transformed to focus its practise on social consciousness and urban ecological sensitivity. Kadri's work is widely acclaimed with multiple felicitations from the IIA and most recently, an 'Architect of the Year' award from the Times Network.

Founder Partner of Design Forum International, Goonmeet is an Urbanist, Architect, and futurist with a vision to bring forth Newness that is both 'Delightful' and 'Useful'. In his recently published book – Invertonomics (Harper Collins India), he has proposed a 'Dream for India', a dream steeped in Idealism, borne of Inclusivity, and tempered with Pragmatism. The book offers eight transformative ideas to solve some of India's most fundamental and chronic problems like Social Inequity, Air Pollution, Sanitation, Women Safety, Education, and Decadent rural economy and Governance deficit.

Chakkaravarthi Rajamani fondly called Chakks has varied experience of 16 years in hospitality, facility management in manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, corporate and mall management. Chakks has always shown passion in whatever he has done so far, be it biking or cooking or setting up green field manufacturing plant for GE. He has always had a hands-on, involved knee-deep approach. He is known to be one of the most reliable team players someone you can fall back on, be it for strategy or execution. A true hotelier at heart, no work is unimportant for him. Having worked with MNCs at strategic positions, his grounded approach has made him a favourite leader, colleague and team member time and again. At ICS, he has taken the role of Director – Strategic Growth & Excellence taking the organisation to its vision of being an “IoT-enabled Digital FM Supply Chain Company“.

Ar. Siddhanth Shah, founder-director of Access For ALL, is a TEDx Speaker, Universal Design expert, and an educationist, specializing in bridging the gap between Disability using Cultural Heritage. He works with corporate, jails, schools-special edu., museums, art festivals, galleries, and heritage sites to make them inclusive through educational and multi-sensory experiential activities, focusing on kids/ senior citizens with special needs. He innovative 'Inclusive Arts-based Therapy' binding fine arts and disabilities. He has curated cultural and corporate wellness projects in India, Malaysia, China, Pakistan, Spain, Speed mentor for The British Museum's ITP+ event, and was selected for Tate Intensive at Tate Modern (U.K.).

Shah teaches and lectures on the 'Inclusive Design Pedagogy' and all things that intersect with experiential learning. He has worked with Sarva Sikhsha Abhiyan to conduct Capacity Building and Training Workshops for teachers and art educators. He was invited by IIT Guwahati for a keynote address on DESIGN FOR ALL.

The founder and vision behind Johannes Torpe Studios, Danish designer Johannes Torpe is an unconventional creative in every way imaginable. A self-trained interior architect, industrial designer, lighting designer, graphic artist and music producer, he does not conform to established boundaries and simply calls himself a design activist.

Guided by the belief that we do our best work when we pursue things that move us, he is an advocate for an unrestrained and intuitive approach to design and life in general. As a practitioner who has worked across a multitude of continents and industries, Johannes has completed projects with worldwide brands like Nike, Moroso and high-end Canadian bike maker Argon 18. Also, he has conceptualized the future of hospitality with the award-winning Red Mountain Resort project, and he inspires the industry to go forward in uncertain times like these with the Buda Resort project in Hungary.

Over the years, Johannes Torpe has attended as a keynote speaker several events such as Hong Kong Business of Design Week, Design Indaba, International New York Times Luxury Conference, TedX, MIPIM, The Hotel Show Dubai and the 46th Space Congress; as well as given inspirational speeches at schools like Savannah College of Art and Design, Esade, Virginia Tech and Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne.

The founder and vision behind Johannes Torpe Studios, Danish designer Johannes Torpe is an unconventional creative in every way imaginable. A self-trained interior architect, industrial designer, lighting designer, graphic artist and music producer, he does not conform to established boundaries and simply calls himself a design activist.

Guided by the belief that we do our best work when we pursue things that move us, he is an advocate for an unrestrained and intuitive approach to design and life in general. As a practitioner who has worked across a multitude of continents and industries, Johannes has completed projects with worldwide brands like Nike, Moroso and high-end Canadian bike maker Argon 18. Also, he has conceptualized the future of hospitality with the award-winning Red Mountain Resort project, and he inspires the industry to go forward in uncertain times like these with the Buda Resort project in Hungary.

Over the years, Johannes Torpe has attended as a keynote speaker several events such as Hong Kong Business of Design Week, Design Indaba, International New York Times Luxury Conference, TedX, MIPIM, The Hotel Show Dubai and the 46th Space Congress; as well as given inspirational speeches at schools like Savannah College of Art and Design, Esade, Virginia Tech and Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne.

David Schwarz is an award-winning creative leader and founding partner of HUSH. He's spent over a decade spent working with brands to concept and design compelling experiences around content, interactivity, architecture and technology. After graduating from Art Center College of Design, he became a sought-after freelance design director working for notable creative studios on both coasts. Since, he has developed numerous projects for brands across sport, luxury, beauty, technology and entertainment categories, most notably: Uber, United Therapeutics, Google, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Nike, Capital One, Sonos, Under Armour, among others.

Schwarz has been featured in numerous publications and trades like Creativity, AdWeek, Work Design Magazine, Fast Company, Inc Magazine, FWA, Monument Magazine and IdN. He's spoken at conferences for AdWeek, AIGA, FITC, SXSW, Styleframes, Seattle Interactive Conference, Event Design Summit, Thinking Creatively, Columbia School of Architecture, The One Show, Digital Dumbo, as well as judging numerous competitions.

Rajat Mathur is Business Head, Script Godrej & Boyce. Rajat joined Script in February 2015 and has been heading the team since then. He plays a key role in the strategic and conceptual framework of the brand.

Rajat has rich experience in leading large global conglomerates, in the lifestyle and fashion industry with expertise in Retail Business Development and Operations. Prior to Joining Script, Rajat had successful stints in Bata, Primus Retail, Reliance Brands and Calvin Klein.

Rajat did MBA in Marketing Management from IPM Meerut in 1999. He enjoys travelling around the world.

FADD Studio was founded in 2012 in Bengaluru by Farah Ahmed and Dhaval Shellugar. The duo met while working at Khosla Associates. Studio's philosophy is a persistently shifting system that's meant to acclimatize to the fluctuating state of the design world. The studio's name is—an acronym for Farah and Dhaval Design—a play on the word 'fad'. Farah holds a Masters Degree in Interior Design from Istitutio Marangoni, Milan. In her free time, which is usually before going to bed, she watches TV shows like Billions, Suits, Grey's Anatomy and Games of Thrones or pours over design blogs. Farah's is a busy mum of an 11-month old Leah and a 3.5-year-old Luca!

Farah loves to travel to places that are off the beaten path and will do anything that gives her a rush like skydiving, bungee jumping, scuba diving; locally she enjoys watching movies in theatres and trying out new restaurants.

Meena is the design head at Envisage projects, a multidisciplinary firm that offers design and build solutions pertaining to various platforms of architecture. Meena pursued bachelors of architecture from SPA, Delhi after which started her design quest while bagging accolades in the field as a designer and teacher. Sharing her incredible knowledge with the young aspirants, she has been teaching design at SPA, Delhi since 2008. In her 10 years of teaching career, she guided seminars on AI and Architecture and held corporate training workshops for final year students as part of the placement session. She designed the India Post Payments Bank for the government of India which was inaugurated by the PM.

Sakina Rangwala is an experienced communication expert with an extensive knowledge of media and public relations in the Architecture and Design industry. A renowned professional throughout the design domain, Sakina’s career spanning close to two decades has allowed her to work with renowned names like Sumessh Menon, Rajiv Parekh, Alfaz Miller, The First Ferry, NIFT, ST Marys School, Flamebloc amongst others.

During her earlier days in the communication domain, Sakina worked alongside Madison PR where she was commended for executing strategic campaigns, orchestrating complex impactful multichannel communications strategies and building brand appreciation. Today, Sakina forms an integral part of the Eztablish team where she manages media relations flawlessly with her superior communication skills. On a personal level she brings a sophisticated and agile approach to everything that she does.

Ankur Choksi is a Principal at Studio Lotus, a New Delhi-based multi-disciplinary design practice he co-founded with Ambrish Arora and Sidhartha Talwar in 2002. Spanning the domains of Master Planning, Architecture & Interior Design, the work of the award-winning practice is grounded on the principles of Conscious Design — an approach that celebrates local resources, cultural influences, an inclusive process, and keen attention to detail. Presently, Ankur leads the integrated Architecture & Interior Design initiatives for the practice, with a focus on Hospitality & Residential Design. He is also an active proponent of quality design education, and advocates the principles of Conscious Design pan-India through academic engagement and design conclaves alike.

Gerdo Aquino is co- CEO of SWA, an award-winning, global practice of landscape architecture, urban design, and planning. SWA is a 100-percent employee-owned firm comprised of over 250 people who explore the creative intersection of ecology, design, and urbanism through public realm projects located in cities around the world. Notable examples of SWA's work include the celebrated Culver Steps in Los Angeles; culturally significant San Jacinto Plaza in El Paso, Texas; Belgrade, Serbia's Sava Promenada; Hunter's Point South Waterfront Park in Long Island City, New York; and Buffalo Bayou Promenade and Greenways in Houston, Texas. Based in Los Angeles, Gerdo has served on numerous national boards, lectured at universities and other institutions around the world; and co-authored the award-winning book Landscape Infrastructure: Case Studies by SWA.

Anubhav Gupta is a global award-winning design thinker, strategist and innovator whose work straddles both the business and design worlds across industries and asset classes. He strongly believes in putting the customer at the heart of every enterprise and using design thinking as a strong business horizontal to connect verticals for sustainable innovation and to fuel responsible business growth. For him, primary insight, applied analytics, authentic storytelling, crafted making, technology used smartly and a focus on omni-channel experience make for a memorable customer relationship for any well-designed product or service.

Anubhav founded the GPL Design Studio at Godrej – a unique multi-disciplinary innovation engine with a mandate for design, product development, brand building and creation of unique customer experiences. He currently serves as Executive Vice President at Godrej Properties where he leads as Business Head for the redevelopment of Godrej’s land holdings in Vikhroli. Additionally, he also serves as the company’s Chief CSR and Sustainability Officer. Using the Triple Bottom Line principle for sustainability, Anubhav is actively championing social responsibility by putting people and the environment first.

Sushant Jai-Amita Verma is a Design Entrepreneur, Architect, Computational Designer & Educator, currently leading rat[LAB] Studio (Research in Architecture and Technology) (www.rat-lab.org) that investigates intersections of design, art & technology through architecture, interior design and art installations. He holds a Masters Degree in Emergent Technologies & Design from Architectural Association, London and is a former architect at Zaha Hadid Architects, London & a Sr. Editor at Arch2O. He is the founder of rat[LAB] EDUCATION, which is an initiative to spread the idea of computation in design through independently-organized design workshops for profession and academia. Recipient of MAK Schindler Award from Vienna / Los Angeles and a finalist for AIA Emerging Leaders Fellowship from Chicago, his work is widely published and exhibited in London, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, San Francisco, Taipei, New Delhi, Mumbai among other places. He has been shortlisted in New Delhi among 5 architects for '20 under 35' Exhibition at Alliance Francaise de Delhi, featured as iGen 2017 Top 50 Gen-Next Designers in India, tagged as 'Rising Star' by Surfaces Reporter India, among other features. Sushant joined the elite list of TEDx Speakers by speaking at TEDxGurugram on 'Smart Cities need Smarter Design Education'. His second TEDxTalk was recently given at the prestigious IIT KGP where he inspired the young professionals to pursue their passions in Design & Technology.

He was recently selected to be a MentorOfChange for Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) by NITI Aayog (National Institute for Transforming India), a policy think tank by Government of India where he shares his knowledge of design technologies to school students pursuing high school education to inculcate a culture of innovation and R&D in India. He also started and currently heads Smart Labs – India's first 6 month hybrid programme on Computational Design that blends studio learning and e-learning using a technology-oriented approach. His third TEDxTalk was delivered at IIT Bhubaneswar on Diffusion of Technology in Architecture recently.

Mauricio Noronha and Rodrigo Brenner, both part of Forbes UNDER30 list and TEDx speakers, are founders of the internationally multi-awarded Furf Design Studio. Graduated in PUCPR (Curitiba, Brazil) and Politecnico di Torino (Italy) the duo has been building a global reputation for high-quality products coupled with generous doses of intelligence, humor, sustainability and social responsibility, with projects in more than fifteen countries. They are the youngest to receive the Best of the Best Red Dot Product Design Award and to be part of the jury of the IF Design Award. They were named instructors of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and received the title of Commanders of the Order of Luz dos Pinhais, given by the Mayor of Curitiba in recognition for their services rendered to society and the city.

Massimiliano Brugia is a founding partner of BICUADRO ARCHITECTS. After his graduation at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", Faculty of Architecture Vallegiulia, moved to New York City and joined Rietveld Architects LLP, where he worked in the design staff for large scale projects and high-rise. In 2008 Massimiliano moved back to Italy and founded Bicuadro Architects together with his partners, leading the firm to challenging projects and later to the internationalization of the company. He is focused in sustainability and inside the firm's structures is responsible for the project's concept philosophy. He is also project manager and follows his client from the early stage of the design until full completion.

Co-founder and chief architect of Sipal-Wafai.Architecture, an award-winning architecture and design firm based in Torino-Italy. Architecture is not like any other measures, it's a product of culture, and civilization. We create spaces driven by emotions and desires that provoke a dialogue through light values, experience of the space and the atmosphere.

Shibani Jain is the Founder and CEO of Baaya Design, a design studio and store, which focuses on innovation for interior spaces by leveraging artisan skills. With an iconic store in Raghuvanshi Mills, and a design studio for customised projects, Baaya has emerged as the "go-to" place for handmade, well-crafted art and decor solutions and gifts.

Shibani is a designer by education and an alumnus of NID Ahmedabad. In the last 25 years, she has worked with the corporate sector and created various companies as an entrepreneur. For 19 years, she has worked extensively with Indian arts and crafts at the grass-root level and with various craft groups across the country. Shibani founded Baaya with her passion for the crafts sector and for talented artisans who deserve opportunities to showcase their skills. At the same time, she believes that interiors should be styled with bespoke art and creative expressions of stories that speak to the users of the spaces.

Shibani also co-founded Catalysts for Social Action, an NGO dedicated to providing holistic care and rehabilitation to children in institutions and orphanages.

Mehernosh Pithawalla heads marketing, sales and innovation at Godrej Security Solutions, India's leading brand in the security industry. As the head of International Business, he has been instrumental in expanding the footprint of Godrej Security Solutions' around the world, especially in the developed markets such as Europe, US and the Middle East. He has been a strong advocate of user insight based innovations at Godrej Security Solutions and has spearheaded several innovations that are a first of its kind in the Indian Security Industry.

Under the able leadership of Mehernosh, the Godrej Security Solutions brand has won several consumer awards including 12 ABBYs Awards, the prestigious Cannes Lions 2014 (Bronze), Mirchi Kaan Awards 2014 (Silver & Bronze), Effies 2011 (Bronze) & 2014 (Silver), Spikes Asia 2014 (Bronze), CMO Asia 2014 and many more accolades. He was also honored with 'Most Dynamic Marketing & Communication Professional of the Year Award' at the Powerbrands Hall of Fame marketing leadership awards.

After graduating in Bachelor of Architecture in 2010, Mitali interned with Shilpa Sindoor Architects, Bengaluru, under the guidance of Architects Shankar Kanade and Navnath Kanade. She later worked with Aparna Karve Design Consultants in Hyderabad until 2014 working on several residential and institutional projects and even got the opportunity to work on the prestigious Sound and Light Show at Ross island Andamans.

Tanya Khanna is the director at one of well-known marketing communication firm for the architecture and design industry - Epistle Communication. Through her role at Epistle, she has laid the foundation of what is a one-of-its-kind agency in India, facilitating good design and bringing it forth on a global platform. She began her lifelong obsession with architectural discourse in 2004 at Architecture+Design (a+d), India's oldest and most renowned architecture and design journal. Subsequently, post her Master's degree from University College London, she worked briefly for Allies and Morrison (London), and then for Sidell Gibson (London), where Ron Sidell encouraged her to pursue design content. Most recently, she has been advocating "Reading Architecture", part of a lifelong investigation that she continues to explore in her current role as the Director, Epistle Communications.

Founded by Payal Karumbiah in 2016, The Baby Atelier, makes children's bedding from organic fibre that is eco-friendly, chemical-free, and hypoallergenic. Turning to entrepreneurship was almost the next step for Payal, for she comes from a business family, which has been in the furniture and design business for over 35 years.The company retails its products through various online portals including Myntra, Firstcry, and Amazon, as well as through its own website. The company also retails in the Middle East, US, UK, Australia and Europe. Most recently, the three-year-old start-up launched its interior services business to offer home design services catering to children up to 15 years of age.