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Since its inception, the primary goal of the biennial has been to systematically improve the quality of industrial products and to incorporate artistic values into their design. As the biennial promotes artefacts that are economically successful, the event aims to reinforce the notion that design is a vital factor in the national economy. The products are divided into three categories: - products; informational functional systems and corporate identity programmes; and design projects. Thus the exhibition covers not only industrial design but design in general as expressed by the head of international jury Stephen Hitchins. He stressed that the event is filled with creative solutions and demonstrates how design can promote innovation and create jobs as well as being an answer to modern social problems. As a result, various innovative solutions are being presented: - a writing tool for the blind, a water clock, a socle for garbage containers, a crematory coffin and urn, various types of residential and household expediencies, etc. An international jury selected the best works in the biennial and nine awards were given to Slovene designers. Probably the most notable among them is the Memorial plate for the Kampor-Rab concentration camp created by Majda Kregar and Miha Kerin, which was awarded the gold medal as well as the BEDA award for the best European design achievement. The biennial exhibition promotes contemporary streams from industrial design, visual communications and corporate design solutions. In its forty years of existence it's reputation has grown as has its level of diversity and significance and it is now recognized as a benchmark for top-level industrial design, a fact confirmed by its endorsement by associations such as ICSID, ICOGRADA and BEDA. BIO 19 also sponsors some 15 accompanying events, which take place at various locations in Ljubljana through until the middle of October. They are mainly thematic design exhibitions, such as a presentation of the works of Arne Jacobsen, an exhibition of the US designers - Charles and Ray Eames, a promotion of Italian designs and an exhibition of sports goods produced by the Slovenian manufacturer Alpina, who won the gold medal at the previous biennial.