About

COME TOGETHER

Be together

Whether you’re meeting in person for the first time, or reconnecting with colleagues you haven’t seen in years, the Design Summit will be a great way to get to know your fellow designers outside of a Portal call or Zoom meeting.

Learn together

In addition to our amazing guest speakers, the summit will feature a number of engaging and interactive workshops led by designers from all over the app. Learn from the best and brightest, and create new friends and connections.

Have fun together

The most important part of being together is having fun together. Our Summit Happy Hour will be just one opportunity to get to know your fellow designers as people. You’ll be surprised how tall some of them are.

Speakers

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

All of the Summit’s Keynote speakers will deliver talks focused on our main goals of driving innovation, succeeding through change, and showing that moving mountains is easy when you work together. Plus more to be announced!

Tagu Kato

VP, Head of Design, Facebook

Caterina Bianchini

Founder and Creative Director of London’s Studio NARI

Caterina Bianchini is an award winning Designer, Founder and Creative Director of London’s Studio NARI. Caterina’s practice was founded during her years working with renowned music events company, Boiler Room. During this time Caterina became well known within the design community for her ethos “design as art” which practices juxtaposing design styles; pairing design sensibility with a more humanistic flair. Working with global clients across the world including, Apple, Google, Nike, Rapha, V&A, Coach, Vogue, Lil Nas X and Charli XCX she has been recognized as one of the UK’s creative global leaders.

Greg Hoffman

Former CMO at Nike

Greg Hoffman is a world-class expert when it comes to creating brand experiences that are extremely memorable, incredibly innovative, and that create real connections with users and customers. Greg shows you how to build those connections by telling your brand’s story with authentic emotions. It takes a lot of creativity, so Greg has an important insight for every company: creativity is a team sport. As Nike’s CMO, he was responsible for 2500 people in Nike Marketing around the world. He knows that everyone on a team can make a creative contribution, and the right management strategy will bring out the best in unexpected places. Daydreamers might think differently than their team, but you don’t want to lose the power of their creative eccentricities—we need to capitalize on their potential and make it fit. Creativity is all around us, and great marketing is about tapping into it so that your organization can design something that touches customers.

Greg’s book Emotion by Design: Creative Leadership Lessons from a Life at Nike is a practical roadmap for any business looking to tell the authentic story of their brand, engage with culture’s most pressing topics, and unite employees in a post-pandemic world. Jonah Berger, the New York Times bestselling author of of Contagious, says the book “will help marketers and creatives connect with their audiences like never before.” Emotion by Design is filled with stories about the deeply creative and innovative process at Nike that led to Greg’s involvement with the company’s best work—unforgettable campaigns such as the “Colin Kaepernick: Crazy Dreams” project, the Stand Up, Speak Up campaign, and the Kobe System ads featuring Kobe Bryant.

As an integral part of the Advisory Board of the Nike Black Employee Network and a member of the Nike Foundation Board of Directors, Greg directed ongoing dialogues for racial equality, environmental sustainability, and empowerment in professional sports. He revolutionized the way Nike uses its marketing influence—embracing social and racial justice in a way that both inspires and empowers people to take action: “we’re in a moment in time that is both a cultural reckoning and a revolution.”

Business Insider called Greg one of today’s ‘Most Innovative CMOs’. Through his brand advisory group Modern Arena, Greg teaches Fortune 1000 brands, startups, and nonprofits how to create brand strength, business growth, and social impact. In one year alone, Greg was tapped for presentations at Netflix, Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon, and Twitter.

Greg earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and is now a member of their Board of Trustees and a chair of their innovation committee. Hoffman was included on AdAge’s Power Players list, and has served as a guest lecturer for the Andreesen Horowitz Talent & Opportunity Fund, the One Club for Creativity’s One School and as an Innovation Juror at the University of Portland.

Margaret Lee

Leadership Coach

Margaret Lee is a Leadership Coach helping Design and Product executives and practitioners to lead with authenticity and confidence. Prior to coaching with Design Dept., Margaret was a veteran User Experience leader at Google, where she held roles building and leading teams in Chrome, Search, and Maps, and most recently was Director of UX Community + Culture at Google, a program she founded to serve and empower the company’s global User Experience organization. Decades in the tech industry has shaped her current commitment: to create conditions for teams to flourish and individuals can uncover their unique potential and leadership style. Margaret has written about her personal journey as a leader, spoken about the importance of a healthy culture in the workplace, and our collective responsibility to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Doug Roble

Director of Research Science at Meta

While avatars may seem like a new concept, we've been surrounded by them for quite some time. Using examples from movies, games, and the latest research from Reality Labs, this presentation will dive into how building digital humans has always been an intense partnership between R&D and artistry and the feedback loop between these two fields has advanced the industry. There are interesting parallels between what you've seen on the screen and what is currently happening in the research for the metaverse. Will those parallels continue? What are the challenges that stand in our way?

Surprise Guest

Travel

JOIN US IN MPK

Get Directions

Being “united together” starts with us all being in the same spot so we’ll be gathering in Captain Marvel, located in MPK 28. There will also be an outdoor option for most programming and events.

Safety

SAFE, BUT FUN

While getting the team together is incredibly important, so is staying safe. That’s why we’ll be following a comprehensive COVID safety plan. We’ll also be monitoring the latest guidance from the CDC, and will pivot as needed to ensure the health of all attendees.

Vaccinations are a must.

Vaccinations are a must. Everyone who attends in person will be required to upload proof of their vaccination status to Color. This is the best way to ensure that everyone is kept safe.

Test before you travel.

A lot can happen between registration and stepping on to campus, so we’re asking that all attendees perform a COVID test the day before the event, as well as every morning during the event. We’ll also have tests available on-site.

The great outdoors.

We’ll be offering outdoor seating options for anyone who doesn’t want to be inside. This will include an LED screen and speakers set up so you can follow along with the presentations. Our Happy Hour event will also be in the brand new MPK 22 Center Pavillion on the lawn.

Masks required.

All attendees will be required to wear masks indoors during any or all of the summit. However, wearing a mask is no substitute for medical care; if you’re not feeling well, please stay home and attend virtually.

WE'VE GOT YOU COVERED

Check out the FAQ to learn how to find Summit schedules, campus maps and much more.

FAQ