To be visionary is to look into the future and see something different to what already exists. Across history, visionary design and thinking have driven change, drawing on creativity, imagination and technology.

From small acts to entire systems, what does it mean to be visionary, and does it matter? Is our collective imagination under threat from technology, or is it fuelling the next wave of visionary thinkers?

In this roaming conversation moderated by FDW creative director Pippa Hurst, we ask a diverse panel of creatives – design editor Alice Blackwood, architect Kieran Wong, artist and curator Georgia Hayward, and community advocate Kate Hulett – to consider these questions, share their perspectives and invite us to imagine what comes next. Expect a lively and thought-provoking dialogue.

Join us as we bring Fremantle Design Week to a close and stay for a drink to wrap up a week of design goodness and community!

Concession tickets available
Students and concession card holders can use the code FDWCONCESSION for 20% off tickets. For mob, use the code MOBTIX for a 50% discount.

Alice Blackwood
Alice Blackwood is a strategic storyteller and recognised design industry host, MC and moderator with more than 20 years’ experience championing architecture and design. Across a career spanning journalism, editorial direction, communications strategy and program development, she has worked at the intersection of the leaders, ideas and forces shaping the Australian design landscape.

Alice brings this perspective to the stage, where she hosts, moderates and facilitates conversations for influential design brands and organisations. Her long-standing advocacy for the design industry is reflected in her work across major design programs including The (Emerging) Designer Awards, Open House Melbourne, and prior to this INDE.Awards and the Melbourne International Design Festival.

She was Editorial Director and Brand Lead of INDESIGN magazine and Indesignlive.com until 2023, and is currently Editorial Director at Artedomus and founding Editorial Director of SURFACE Edition. Alice currently sits on the Open House Melbourne Building Council and is a returning juror for The (Emerging) Designer Awards presented by Artedomus and The Local Project.

Kieran Wong
Kieran is a co-founder and Director at The Fulcrum Agency, where he uses his skills in architecture, research and advocacy to achieve positive outcomes for communities. His practice is grounded in the challenge of bringing equity and social justice to the built environment across Australia.

Kieran has extensive experience working with First Nations communities across Australia, including Warnindilyakwa, Tiwi, Martu, Nyoongar, Yawaru, Miriwoong Gajerrong, Kardu Yek Diminin, Warlpiri, and Kuku Yalanji, giving him deep insight into the complexities of remote project delivery. 

He is a former Chair at Shelter WA, the peak body for housing and homelessness in WA; a Director at Communicare and White Ribbon Australia; an Adjunct Professor at Monash University; and Industry Partner for the University of Sydney’s Health Habitat Incubator.

Georgia Hayward
Georgia Hayward [she/her] is a curator, writer and artist of Mardigan and Anglo-Celtic descent based in Boorloo/Perth. She is Curator at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), where she works across exhibitions, commissioning, publishing and artist development.

She is the former Director of Outer Space in Meanjin/Brisbane and served as Co-Chair, Editor and Board Member of Runway Journal from2023-24.

Her international professional experience includes participation in Creative Australia’s 2024 (re)situate Biennale Delegates Program, a national exchange connecting artists, curators and producers from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand with leading international biennales, and selection for Detours ∞ Reroutes, a cultural leadership delegation to India delivered through Sydney Festival and partner organisations across Australia and India, fostering intercultural exchange and long-term creative partnerships across the Indian Ocean region.

Her practice centres collaboration, cultural exchange and artist-led approaches to exhibition-making, with a particular focus on First Nations contemporary art and the commissioning of new work. She has developed projects with emerging and established artists across Australia and internationally and currently serves on the Board of unProjects, an independent arts writing publication.

Kate Hulett

Kate Hulett is a business owner, artist and creative producer based in Fremantle. In 2025 she ran as a community-backed Independent for the electorate of Fremantle in both the state and federal elections, turning the historically safe Labor seat into one of the most marginal in the country. She is currently working to support communities seeking political change in WA.