- Fashion Asia Hong Kong and DFA Awards presentation ceremony also cancelled, says Hong Kong Design Centre, Business of Design Week organiser
- The week-long event at the Convention and Exhibition Centre, first held 18 years ago, would have featured biggest ever delegation of UK designers to Hong Kong
Business of Design Week (BODW) has joined the growing list of events in Hong Kong that have been cancelled because of continuing anti-government protests in the city. The event was to have been held from December 2 to 7.
Hong Kong Design Centre also announced the cancellation of the DFA Awards presentation ceremony, due to have been held on December 4, and of Fashion Asia Hong Kong, which was to have run from December 3 to 10.
"The decision to cancel these programmes was made after consultation with key partners and the Department for International Trade of the United Kingdom, the partner country of BODW 2019," the centre said in a statement.
BODW was to have featured some of the biggest names in design, including Thomas Heatherwick, Patrik Schumacher, Tom Dixon and Deyan Sudjic OBE, among others. The chairman of London Design Festival, Sir John Sorrell, was to have led the largest-ever delegation of British designers to Hong Kong.
The event this year had as its "visionary theme" Design the Future, Create Tomorrow. The week-long event, anchored by the BODW Summit at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, was to have included more than 20 forums, dialogues, and exhibitions around Hong Kong.
Launched in 2002, BODW began as an international programme to connect local and Asian designers and industries with innovators, designers and game-changers worldwide, and to foster exchanges of knowledge and ideas.
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