2017
Talk Service Design in Business — Converting a company of experts to a customer-centric organisation through design: experiences from the frontline Service design  ·  November 2017
E html> The Sketchbook — Samar Héchaimé
The Sketchbook

Musings

Ideas in various states of becoming. Some finished, some still forming. A sketchbook is not a library — it is a record of thinking in motion.

2026 Article The Antifragile City: A Manifesto Urban resilience
Host Bloomberg CityLab Madrid — Public Square Roundtable on the Antifragile City Antifragility  ·  Cities
Talk Speaker — EU Regional Cooperation Group on Sustainable & Green Transition of Cities Cities  ·  EU policy
Interview European Network for Women in Leadership (WIL Europe) Leadership  ·  Ecosystems
2025 Talk EU Salt 2025 — 'Sustainability, the driver for business model reinvention; designing a resilient and impactful future' Sustainability  ·  Strategy Report Lead — 'The Mismatch Between the Supply and Demand of Impact Capital' · Impact Finance Belgium Impact  ·  Finance
2024
Festival Founder & Host — PwC Sustainability Festival 2024, Brussels · 5 days, 90+ speakers Sustainability  ·  Ecosystems
Lecture KU Leuven — Real Estate Private Equity & Sustainability Executive Programme Real estate  ·  Sustainability
Talk Speaker — pharma.be Report to Society 2024 launch · 'ESG and the biopharmaceutical sector' ESG  ·  Health
Report Contributor — pharma.be Report to Society 2024 · 'ESG and the biopharmaceutical sector' Impact  ·  Sustainability
Webinar Speaker — 'Turning your Double Materiality Analysis into a Sustainable Strategy' CSRD  ·  Strategy Talk Belgian Association of Hospital Directors Study Day — 'ESG Innovations in Hospitals' Health  ·  ESG Jury Trends Impact & Sustainability Awards — jury member, 2024 & 2025 Sustainability
Committee Member — SNIC Committee, AmCham Belgium Sustainability  ·  Innovation
2022 Article The gender shackles of the revolution in waiting Gender  ·  Innovation Article Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature Hidden figures  ·  Conservation Article ESG with S at its heart ESG  ·  Strategy  ·  Human centricity
Talk Women Automotive Network Summit — conference moderator and panelist on the future of mobility Mobility  ·  Gender
2021 Article What do we value? Value  ·  Circular economy Article The spirits of Christmas past and present; to shape the future Circularity  ·  Ecosystems Article The hiring biased framework in the quest for diversity Diversity  ·  Leadership Article Hidden figures are not just forgotten women Gender  ·  Technology Podcast The D Group with Seumas Kerr CBE — 'How to Fix Digital Transformation' Strategy  ·  Digital
Speaker Ada's List Annual Conference, 8–9 October 2021 — 'How to fix the digital transformation' Technology  ·  Inclusion
2020 Article Ask Why and Who Leadership  ·  Transformation Article Digital transformation in the age of coronavirus — Management Today Strategy  ·  Digital Article Design Thinking: What Boris Johnson could learn from art school — CapX Design thinking  ·  Cities Roundtable All-Party Parliamentary Design & Innovation Group, 4 November 2020 — 'Strategic Design Leadership' post-COVID recovery Policy  ·  Design Interview Femme Futurists Society with Nancy Giordano — 'What Constellations Can Teach Us' Human centricity  ·  Futures
Interview Shaping Space with Amy Abdou — Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences & IES Abroad Strategy  ·  Human centricity
Podcast MEX Live with Marek Pawlowski — 'Imagining post-pandemic strategy through user-centred design' Cities  ·  Strategy
Talk The D Group — 'Designing Strategy for Human-Centric Disruption' Strategy  ·  Design
2019 Article Bespoke is Back Strategy  ·  Disruption Article Human-Centric Disruption: Can you see a Faster Horse? Strategy  ·  Innovation Article Business at an inflection point: seizing the opportunity Strategy  ·  Business model Article World Federation of Master Tailors Annual Conference, Verona Craft  ·  Circular economy Speaker Employee Engagement & Future of Office Summit, Berlin — 'Envisioning the Future of Work and how to bring it back to human in the age of transformation and AI' Future of work
2018 Speaker 2nd Design Thinking Summit, Berlin, 25–26 October 2018 — innovation, culture & transformation Design  ·  Innovation
2015
Talk KTN — 'The Future of Digital Health: Human Centred Design for Well-being', London Healthcare  ·  Design
Roundtable KTN & IET — Roundtable on Smart Infrastructure, Birmingham · Organiser & Speaker Infrastructure  ·  Smart cities
Article To a More Ambitious Place Thinking  ·  Placemaking
2014 Report Urban Factorisation Findings Report Research  ·  Urban strategy
2013
Speaker Urban Design Group — 'The Middle East: the human factor in design', 26 February 2013, London Urban design  ·  Middle East
Talk Volkunde Museum Leiden — 'Exhibit design and the experience of the end users' Museum  ·  Experience design
Talk AECOM — 'Designing through user experience strategies' Architecture  ·  Strategy
Talk V&A Museum — 'Exhibit design and the experience of the end users', London Museum  ·  Experience design
Lecture Central Saint Martins — 'Designing the narrative environment through the end user perspective' Architecture  ·  Narrative
Report Contributor — '13 Things Breaking Through in 2013', breakthrough no.13 · Huffington Post Innovation  ·  Trends
Talk British Museum — 'Exhibit design and the experience of the end users', London Museum  ·  Experience design
Article Book launch: The City at Eye Level: Lessons for Street Plinths Urban design  ·  Publication Article Capturing our irrational beings Human behaviour  ·  Strategy
2012 Article The wheels on the bus go round and round Cities  ·  Mobility
Talk RATP Paris — 'Le design de service et l'expérience des utilisateurs dans le transport en commun' Transport  ·  Service design
Talk PLP Architecture — 'Designing through user experience strategies' Architecture  ·  Strategy
Talk Space Syntax — 'Designing through user experience strategies' Architecture  ·  Urban
Talk SOM — 'Designing through user experience strategies' Architecture  ·  Strategy
2011 Article The power to make us dream Urban experience  ·  Culture
Research Future & Healthcare Conference — 'We insist on privacy but we heal better together' · Research with Designit · UBM Healthcare  ·  Design
2008
Talk Open Doors Organisation — 'Rethinking the Airport Experience: planning through the end user perspective' Transport  ·  Universal access
2006 — 2007
Publication Archeworks, Chicago — 'Actually I Like Crap, Theories of Dual Design, Tools for Schools' · project publication Design  ·  Education
Project Archeworks, Chicago — Social Olympiad Concept for the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid Urban  ·  Social impact
Talk SEGD — 'Symbol Strategy: Wayfinding Techniques with Numbers, Letters, Landmarks, Unique and Universal Pictograms' · teleconference Wayfinding  ·  Design
Organiser SEGD Chicago — Massive Change Global Design, whole-day seminar with Bruce Mau, Gensler and IDEO Design  ·  Innovation
Organiser SEGD — 'Branded Environments in Retail and Campuses', whole-day seminar · Organiser & Speaker Branding  ·  Environments
2003
Documentary ARTE TV — 'Capté Absolut' and 'La signalétique, pratique et esthétique' · two documentaries on signage and wayfinding design alongside Prof. Paul Mijksenaar Wayfinding  ·  Television

"A sketchbook is never finished. That is the point."

The archive contains writing from over a decade of thinking about cities, systems and the people who build them. Some of these ideas have evolved. Some have been overtaken by events. All of them were honest at the time they were written — and that honesty is worth preserving.