Quicksand was invited to the Papanek Symposium in 2013 to present and talk about the challenges of attempting to provide 'design solutions' for social challenges in the real world. The symposium brought together international experts from China, Europe, India, Singapore, and the US, to examine the social and political imperative of design in emerging economies. Quicksand partner Babitha George touched upon learnings from extensive work in urban sanitation and talked about challenges in working with the government, in large scale solutions that impact lives of the poor as well as the importance of listening to and understanding from users.