Allow Casey Hyun to inspire your imagination at the upcoming ICON (Innovation Congress), the 3rd Thought Leadership Forum of the Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors (AVID), in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

As head of Hyundai’s design team, Mr. Hyun is credited for leading the team that developed, refined, and implemented the Fluidic Sculpture design philosophy, the concept that has given Hyundai an identity that sets it apart even at a glance.

The ICON forum is slated for April 5, 2013 from 9am to12nn at the ICON Tent on 32nd Avenue cor. 9th Street, Bonifacio Global City. This will be immediately followed by the opening of the ICON Innovations in Mobility Expo which will run from April 5 to 7 at the same venue.

At the forum proper on April 5, Mr. Hyun is scheduled to talk about “smart mobility” in “smart cities.” He returns to the ICON tent on April 6 at 9:30am-11:30am for “Innovation Speak,” where he will interact with industrial design students and share his insights on design and Hyundai design innovation, as well as his personal journey as a designer.

“Manila is the place where I started my love for cars,” says Mr. Hyun, who spent part of his childhood in the Philippines for two years in the 1980s. The Creative Design Manager of Hyundai Motor Company recalls how, at age five, we was looking at and sketching the cars passing by on the road.  “At that time, I had no idea that there was a profession such as ‘automotive designer’, so I went about trying to become a product designer instead.”

Born in Seoul, South Korea, he grew up and studied Industrial Design at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia and moved to Japan to work as a wireless communication product designer. He eventually found his way into the automotive industry by landing a post-graduate course in Automotive Design at the University of Coventry in the United Kingdom. His first automotive design job was in Germany. After graduating in 2003, he worked for several auto manufacturers before joining Hyundai in 2005.

Asked how he would define innovation, he says, “(It is) the realization of your most creative dream and the execution of your mind’s imagination. Human imagination is limitless and innovation is the reality of a dream….  I truly believe history changing-innovations and ideas are with us all the time. It’s just matter of who thinks of them hard enough and takes that vital first step to make it real.”

For more information about ICON, contact the AVID Secretariat at +632 5191015; Mobile +63932 8524731; Email secretariat@avid-inc.com.ph. Or visit www.avid-inc.com.ph.