If you are looking for a place with the best innovations in Thailand, it will be the Thailand Creative and Design Center (TCDC), which was established by the Thailand Government in 2005 and managed by the Management and Knowledge Development Department of Prime Minister Office. Their vision is to obtain an impressive resource for designers and producers to create added values that could enhance the competitiveness in the domestic market as well as in the international markets. TCDC is a place that introduces many creative designs, organizes exhibitions or conferences, shows movies, and promotes commercial events. Besides, the center has also developed a massive range of resources for designing and creative activities in Thailand, including libraries, material banks… The head office of Thailand Creative & Design Centre is located in Bangkok with many branches in other big cities. The lectures and material resources are linked with its 13 branches at top 13 Universities in Thailand.
The TCDC has one of the biggest designing libraries in Asia. This library has more than 70,000 publications related to historical art, interior design, architecture, fashion, graphic design, etc., 210 termly magazines about worldwide designs, and more than 5,800 media sources related to documentary or presentations. Besides, the material bank (Material ConneXion) has about 7,500 new materials in the world that are divided into different categories such as polymer, glass, ceramics, metal, natural resources… and they are updated frequently with over 300 materials of Thailand from 191 registered companies, allowing international designers to approach Thailand’s products easily. The material bank of TCDC is linked with its 9 international branches in New York, Milan, Cologne, Daegu (Korea), Istanbul, Skövde (Sweden), Tokyo, Bangkok and Chiang Mai (the north of Thailand). All registered members of TCDC are allowed to access its online database and information of new design trends, fashion, media, and new materials for businesses.
All exhibition and conference activates of TCDC are based on actual demands, details, and estimations on trends and future developments of technology. TCDC has held events such as “What’s in my noodle?” – a 4000-year-old story about the skillfulness of the food industry, “Hello World!” – an exhibition about changes due to globalization and new technology, which created an environment that values differences and improvement. These are active drumbeats that help the creative community of Thailand to be always bustling. TCDC also often organizes conversation forums and open discussions for creators, potential investors and customers where participants can discuss about their ideas of creating new products and in real. Take Chili Business as a recent example, it famous for its successful story and commercial opportunities of a local businessman that had the “hottest” types of product in Thailand. TCDC also introduces many global topics on the forum to both local and international businessmen. The 2014 conference of TCDC was organized with the topic of “If…Defining the future” which gathered international experts to share their opinions on actual consumer demands that help predict potential and future opportunities.
TCDC has its own souvenir shops with products of unique concepts and production methodologies, a meeting space with free coffee or publications and monthly e–books, aiming to spread the knowledge of design throughout the community.
Such ambitions and expectations of Thailand government can be obviously seen through their strategies of adding values to their local goods, enhancing the competitiveness and promoting the image of their own nation via the activities of TCDC. This could be a valuable experience that many developing countries should learn from according to their specific conditions and needs.
