ServDes, the Conference on Service Design and Service Innovation, is the premier international research conference exploring service design and service innovation. The 2018 edition will be held 18–20 June 2018 at Politecnico di Milano.

Theme
Service Design can no longer be considered an ‘emerging discipline’. Though recent and in continuous evolution, it is now consolidated enough to be assessed and reviewed in terms of effectiveness and impact on economy and society: how far has the logic of services (and of Service Design culture) influenced the different domains of innovation and value creation? How much has this been truly integrated into the innovation process of private and public sectors? How effectively has this been understood, evaluated and discussed? How far have digital technologies and media been influencing service design and delivery? Initially, Service Design mainly concentrated on the paradigm shift from designing the materiality of objects to focusing on immaterial experiences, interfaces, interactions, and strategies. Thus, for some decades attention has been paid to the changing role and competencies of the designer, and to the establishment of Service Design as a discipline in its own right, despite its multidisciplinary approach which includes management, ethnography, sociology, and organizational studies, to mention but a few.

The scope
Now it is time to validate and review the models, processes and practices developed and used in the service design ecosystem, from its academic community to practitioners, companies and organizations at large.

The overarching scope of the conference is to reflect on the evolution and impact that this discipline and practice has made in different fields and sectors. To do this, ServDes2018 will create an opportunity firstly for sharing thoughts and experiences among scholars, practitioners and organisations, and secondly, to discuss service design in terms of proof of concept, and the extent to which public and private organizations are ready to embed service design into their processes.The main areas of discussion for the conference will be the following, organised into tracks:

1. Learning and practicing
2. Sharing and collaborating
3. Measuring and evaluating
4. Governing and evidencing
5. Producing, distributing and organising
6. Experiencing and shaping
7. Community and relationship building
8. Envisioning and evolving