Big thanks to everyone who made it to tonight’s PauseTalk Vol. 55. As has been the norm over the past few months, we had some really nice discussions, and this time it felt like a continuous one — starting from thoughts on Tokyo Design Week, which lead to a general discussion on the state of design and then events in Tokyo.

Below, the participants who signed the attendance list. For quite a while now I’ve been wanting to develop a better — and more useful — way of sharing details on those who attend, and I hope to have something to share in the coming weeks, maybe by the time the next PauseTalk comes around.

That next edition (Vol. 56) will be held on December 5, and please note that not only will it be the final PT of the year, but it will also be the last one until February, since January is always a skip month (because of the New Year’s holiday).

• Asako Koide (PR)
• Christopher Butcher (Writer/Festival Organizer)
• David Steinberg (Game Developer/Musician)
• Don Kratzer (Designer)
• Ed Thompson (Marketing Consulting)
• Jean Snow (PauseTalk Emeritus)
• Kyoko Bowskill (Webshop Owner)
• Mark McFarlane (iPhone Developer)
• Michael [tm] Smith (Political Operative)
• Niko Lanzuisi (Director/Illustrator)
• Said Karlsson (Journalist/Photographer/Game Producer)
• Samuel Cockedey (Photographer)
• Tom Coombs (User Experience Consultant)

If you’ve been to the front page of this site sometime this week (I have to assume that many of you reading this in your feed reader), then more than likely you’ve noticed the giant banner I have there now. It’s for the big Global PechaKucha Day – Inspire Japan event I’ve been working on over the past few weeks, set to happen this Saturday (April 16). I alluded to it in a recent post, but if you don’t know about it, it’s a big charity event we’ve put together, bringing together the PechaKucha community — we’re 404 cities strong, as of this writing — for a day/night of events all over the world, with the goal of raising funds for reconstruction efforts in Japan. As with last year for Haiti, we’re teaming up with Architecture for Humanity.

The core of the event is on Saturday, with a whole bunch of cities holding PKNs, and a lot of them will be streaming live as well — just go to the Inspire Japan site on the day of the event, and whatever is currently streaming live should be up at the top of the site. But our Inspire Japan efforts will also span all of April and May, and we’re inviting organizers of all PKNs during this period to collect donations — because this all came together so suddenly, many cities were not able to re-schedule already planned events, and some just found it difficult to organize something on the 16th.

Here in Tokyo, instead of our regular home of SuperDeluxe, the event will be held at the Roppongi Hills Tokyo City View (52nd floor), with doors opening at 17:00, and presentations starting at 18:00 (it should run until around 21:30 or so). Entry will be a minimum donation of 1000 yen — you’re of course welcome to leave more. To access the event, you’ll need to go to the 3rd floor to get a free ticket to get to the top, and we’ll have signs there to point you to the event space (where you’ll pay the entry fee).

This will also be the first time I present in quite a while — I only presented once at a PechaKucha Night, 3-4 years ago at a special Tokyo Design Week edition with my friend Jesper (it was about the Swedish Style event we had organized at Cafe Pause). This time, I’ll be teaming with Ian, who is responsible for all of the Inspire Japan graphics you’ve been seeing. The presentation will pretty much be about design efforts to raise money for Japan aid, based on that post I started a few days after the quake, as well as the follow-up I did in last month’s edition of my “On Design” column for The Japan Times. For his part of the presentation, Ian will cover the projects he worked on to help raise awareness and collect donations.

The event should be amazing — I mean, you can’t really beat that view — and you’ll also be contributing to reconstruction efforts, so I urge you all to come and support us. Also, if you’d like to help spread the word, feel free to get and use Inspire Japan banners and ads that Ian created, as well as a very cool (and workable) QR code that SET Japan designed for us.

Didn’t get to attend last week’s DesignTide? Dezeen posts a few photos of this year’s space design, which was again by Hiroshima-based architect Makoto Tanijiri (Suppose Design Office). I don’t think the photos quite capture how well it worked though — most of the time, when in a booth, you couldn’t really see what was in the nearby booths, which encouraged exploration (versus quick scanning).

During last week’s DesignTide, Mile introduced their new Trio stool, which can also double as a small table. Via Designboom.

• Yes, it’s that time of the year again, Tokyo Design Week is just around the corner, this year kicking off on a Friday instead of the traditional Wednesday, running October 30 to November 3. Best way to find out about everything that’s going on is to pick up the guides to the events — they should be popping up around town soon — and of course to check out the official event websites: DesignTide, 100% Design Tokyo, Tokyo Designers Week, Swedish Style, and Design Touch.
• So instead of “Happening in Tokyo” event posts, time to start some “Happening in TDW” ones. I still don’t know how much I’ll be able to take in because of my back (it’s much better, if still painful at times), but I’m still going to try and sample as much as I can.
• Currently I’m most looking forward to the DesignTide opening party on Friday night (although I believe it’s not a public event). It’s always a good opportunity to get a first glimpse at everything, and chat up the attendees.
• More of a pre-TDW event, this month’s PechaKucha Night in Tokyo (Vol. 66) happens this Wednesday (October 28), and it will of course have a TDW flavor to it. This will also be the first PKN I attend in quite a few months, so happy to be able to join up with team PKN again.
• Berlin’s DMY will be participating at DesignTide, with products and prototypes from 14 Berlin-based designers.
• Designboom presents Hermès Paris: “A design adventure from high-quality bags to helicopters and yachts, an online graphic competition for the upcoming tie collection and the world preview in Tokyo of new high-tech suitcases. A presentation of the most recent development inside the Hermès design department, and a Q&A with design director of Hermès Gabriele Pezzini conducted by Birgit Lohmann (Designboom).” It happens at the design conference/forum space at the 100% Design Tokyo venue in Jingu Gaien on October 31 (12:00-13:00).
• And of course, don’t miss the Designboom Mart, again a part of 100% Design Tokyo.

Isolution Unit teams with furniture manufacturer Karimoku for a new collection, to be previewed at next week’s 100% Design Tokyo (October 30 to November 3). More details and images over at Designboom.

Tokyo Design Week is less than a month away (October 30-November 3), but you can get an earlier hit of design event-ness if you head out to Nagoya next week for Nagoya Design Week 2009 (October 14-18).