The role of the designer is changing, and so is the way products are made and distributed. New tools and infrastructures – from digital fabrication to crowdfunding – allow individual designers, makers, non-profits, and start-ups with bold ideas to fund and deliver products that may not have found support through conventional methods. With more than 28,000 design and technology projects funded, Kickstarter has been central to this shift. This session will introduce the audience to Kickstarter and crowdfunding as a storytelling tool, and as a way to bring creative projects to life alongside a community of backers.

Heather Swift Hunt is Kickstarter's Senior Director of Design and Technology communities. She works closely with designers, inventors and makers of all kinds using Kickstarter to bring new projects to life. Before that, she worked in the field of creative technology for over a decade, as a curator and cultural producer – most recently as Executive Director of Rhizome at the New Museum, New York, and at places including the Barbican Centre, FACT Liverpool, Space Studios and more.

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