This year’s Design Indaba Conference is set to bring international thought leaders to Cape Town, South Africa, from Feb. 27 – March 1, for insightful discussions on the global creative landscape.

Designers, entrepreneurs, thought-leaders and game-changers, Design Indaba speakers are hand-picked and represent those individuals who both understand and practice the belief that a better world is possible through creativity. They represent fields of interior design, graphic design, fashion, industrial design, architecture, urban upliftment, sustainable design, craft, publishing and more.

2012 Design Indaba Conference

Here is a look at some of this year’s speakers:

Asif Khan—Works across the fields of architecture, industrial and furniture design, and is dedicated to pushing these disciplines in new and unexpected directions with his work having been described as “wildly inventive” by Joseph Grima, editor of Domus.

Christoph Niemann—Award winner, Lego-lover and "imagination instigator" Niemann’s creative portfolio is something of a visual smorgasbord.

David Adjaye—Adjaye OBE is principal architect of Adjaye Associates. He's won a number of prestigious commissions, the biggest and most recent being the £160million Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO.

Jeanne van Heeswijk—A visual artist who creates contexts for interaction in public spaces, Van Heeswijk’s projects are characterised by a strong sense of social involvement. Van Heeswijk works closely with artists, designers, architects, software developers, shopkeepers, governments and citizens to stimulate and develop cultural production in public spaces.

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg—An artist, designer and writer, Ginsberg's work investigates futures for design.

Steven Heller—Art director, journalist, critic, editor and author of more than 150 books on graphic design and popular culture themes, Heller has been one of the most requested speakers in recent years by the Design Indaba Conference audience. Heller’s expansive creative career includes 30 years as the art director of the New York Times Book Review.

Masashi Kawamura—Masashi Kawamura is a creative director and the founder of PARTY, a creative lab based in Tokyo and New York, which believes that "new creations are born from new creative process". He was recently named as one of Fast Company’s “100 most creative people in business 2012”.

Oscar Diaz—Plain and playful, product designer Oscar Diaz’s work demonstrates his understanding of the opposite ends of the design spectrum. From limited-edition pieces to mass produced objects, Diaz’s work often draws inspiration from everyday object that, with a simple twist, turns into something unexpected.

Matthew Carter—Type designer Matthew Carter brings some 50 years of experience in typographic technologies, ranging from hand-cut punches to computer fonts, to Design Indaba Conference 2013. His career highlights include designing some of the most widely recognized fonts in the world, such as Verdana, Tahoma and Georgia.

Paula Scher—Scher’s work draws on what Tom Wolfe called the “big closet” of art and design history, classic and pop iconography, literature, music and film, creating images that speak to contemporary audiences with emotional impact and appeal.

Engaged audience at the 2012 Design Indaba Conference

A favorite part of the Design Indaba Conference speaker line-up is the 2013 graduation presentation. Now in its fifth year, the recent graduates who have gone on to create incredible work include: Wael Morcos, Leanie van der Vyver, Pieter-Jan Pieters, Joschua Brunn, Marguerite Humeau, Bland Hoke & Howard Chambers and Michael Grigoriev. Read more about them here.

The Design Indaba Conference takes place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. For a more detailed schedule of speakers and to make a reservation, click here.