Gerald Bast   Rector University of Applied Arts Vienna If we want design to become a truly relevant theme for cultural and economic development in Austria then we have to do something about it! With the international design conference Zeitzonen – Dialogues about Time and Design the University of Applied Arts in Vienna is bringing experts to this city in numbers and of a standard that the city has not experienced for decades. The University is taking this initiative because a university is an important part of the cultural climate of a country and a city and therefore is, in part, responsible for the condition of this cultural climate. Two days devoted to interdisciplinary dialogues on design, time and speed, focussing on the areas of training and careers, development, production and technology, collecting and mediating will certainly leave their mark and open up new opportunities – both on the individual level for the participants as persons operating in networks as well as on the overall societal level – to attract more attention and lend more weight to the theme of design. The University of Applied Arts is positioning itself as the organiser of this conference – planned and prepared by an excellent team of curators – as the Austrian centre of competence in design par excellence, where the linking of designer training, design practice, design theory, design mediation and design business can take place at an international level with international participation.