Brisbane (Australia) - The Queensland Government has launched a $1.1 million initiative to encourage businesses to embrace the power of good design to gain a competitive edge. Under the program, successful Queensland designers will be linked with selected businesses to transform ideas into sought after products and services.

Washington, DC (United States) - Designers, fabricators, clients, and students have until 29 January 2010 to submit their work to the SEGD Design Awards program. Thanks to a new online registration and submission system, entering the SEGD Design Awards program just got easier.

Montreal (Canada) - Icograda is pleased to welcome three new members to the network: the Madrid Designers' Association (Spain), Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and Supremum Group (Poland).

Hsichih City (Taiwan - Chinese Taipei) - The Taiwan International Graphic Design Award has announced the winners of the this year's Taiwan International Poster Design Award and Taiwan International CI Design Award.

Toronto (Canada) - The Canadian Government has granted the Design Industry Advisory Committee (DIAC) $80 000 in support of design work for innovative small to medium enterprises (SMEs) that will fund a six-part project to be conducted with selected SMEs in the Greater Toronto Area.

Amsterdam (The Netherlands) - :output, the organiser of the :output award, has announced the launch of www.open-output.org, a new online portfolio platform for students in design and architecture.

Kowloon (Hong Kong) - On 30 November 2009, the Hong Kong Designers Association will host the Exhibition Opening and Awards Presentation Ceremony of the HKDA Asia Design Awards 09.

New York (United States) - The AIGA Design Leaders Confidence Index for the third quarter of 2009 recorded a dramatic rebound from its low point of just a year ago, increasing the confidence of design leaders.

Ljubljana (Slovenia) - During 2009 and 2010, the Architecture Museum of Ljubljana is hosting a series of six lectures entitled 'On Information Design 2009/2010,' with an opening lecture by Yuri Engelhardt on 16 November called 'Information visualisation: From educational posters to animated and interactive graphics.'

New York (United States) - AIGA, the professional association for design, has recently mounted its annual survey of communication design, "365: AIGA Annual Design Exhibition 30" and the result of the recent "AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers of 2008" competition at the AIGA National Design Center.