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Aly Khalifa lectures at Tasmeem Design Conference in Qatar. Feb 24, 2006
Aly and Beth Khalifa, owners of Gamil Design in Raleigh, travelled to the prestigious Tasmeem Design Conference in Doha Qatar, where Aly gave a presentation entitled: "Empowering Community through Creativity." As a co-founder of Designbox, Khalifa related the knowledge and experience that the creative consortium has gathered in working with creative processes for community projects. In particular his discussion stressed that in order for design to be supported by a community that designers need to involve the community regularly in their own design process. Khalifa was able to rely on several examples of this including the work that Designbox did to help the city of Raleigh transform a large "dirt dumping" on the Dix property into what promises to be a community park.

The Tasmeem Design Conference is an annual conference organized by Virginia Commonwealth University at their satellite campus in Doha, Qatar. Located in the country's top-notch, "Education City," the conference regularly brings in top talent from around the world. This year's speakers included:

Bruce Mao
Stefan Sagmeister
Steve Badanes
Khaled Asfour
Li Edelkoort
Mario Gagliardi
Eva Maddox
Ruben & Isabel Toledo
Saki Mafundikwa

Below is a synopsis of Khalifa's presentation:

"Community through Creativity"
Using Creative Workshops as a Way to Integrate Communities in the Design Process.

The design and development of community projects affects many different people across various sectors of its society. However, most of these people are left out of the process and as a result see design coming from the "top-down" and not integrating with real needs. On the other hand, it is very difficult for non-professionals to express their ideas well, and even more difficult to have a large group come to agreement on anything new. Above all, most community projects fall victim to a system of subtractive refinement that often leads to generic results. The Designbox Creative Charrette is a system refined by Aly Khalifa and other Designbox members to both extract creativity from a group while also building consensus and creating lasting relationships. In his discussion he will present key points on its methodology, some examples of its surprising results and and how to lead a Creative Charrette on your own.