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Your Creative Warm-Up before 2025 SEGD Xlab Offsite Chicago
Kick off your Xlab experience in New York City with an intimate, high-impact day of studio tours, hands-on workshops, and behind-the-scenes access to groundbreaking experiential projects. 2025 SEGD Xlab Studio Sessions New York is the perfect prelude to 2025 SEGD Xlab Offsite Chicago—designed for those who want to go deeper and start the conversation early.
Join a small, focused group of designers for direct access to leading studios, cultural experiences, and creators in NYC’s thriving experience design scene. Wrap up the day with an evening social and new connections that will carry into the main event in September.
Special Offer: Purchase a Combo Package to attend both Xlab Studio Sessions New York on August 5 and Xlab Offsite Chicago on September 17-18 at a discounted rate.
What to expect
Immersive. Curated. Designed for creative flow.
SEGD Xlab Studio Sessions New York is a one-day experience built for depth, discovery, and connection. The day is split into two segments:
One half will be spent on a studio tour of your choice, offering behind-the-scenes access to some of NYC’s most inspiring creative and cultural spaces. Be sure to select one tour from the add-on options when registering.
The other half will feature a sequence of dynamic, hands-on workshops hosted at TAD (Technology Architecture + Design), where you’ll explore new tools, ideas, and ways of working alongside peers.
SEGD will assign you to either the morning or afternoon time slot for your selected tour. You will attend the workshop during the opposite time slot (i.e., if your tour is in the morning, your workshop will be in the afternoon, and vice versa).
Specific details for your assigned tour and workshop will be emailed to you prior to the event.
Tour Add-on Options (select one tour per registrant)
Mercer Labs – Sponsored by McCann Systems
G&A Lab
The Lab at Rockwell Group
The day concludes with an evening mixer, giving everyone an opportunity to reconnect, reflect, and continue the conversation. Space is limited. Separate registration is required. To join, please complete the form included in your confirmation email.
This hybrid format offers the best of both worlds: immersive experiences out in the city and collaborative learning in an energizing, creative setting.
*Note: Rooftop Mixer registration is required, as space is limited. This event is exclusively for Xlab Studio Sessions attendees. To join, please complete the form included in your confirmation email.
Tours 10:00 am – 12:15 pm*
Transportation to and from the tour is on your own.
*Note: Rooftop Mixer registration is required, as space is limited. This event is exclusively for Xlab Studio Sessions attendees. To join, please complete the form included in your confirmation email.
Session assignments will be shared with Xlab Studio Sessions New York registered participants one (1) week prior to the event.
What to expect:
SEGD Xlab Studio Sessions New York is a participatory experience—expect to be on your feet, in conversation, and fully engaged.
You’ll join a multidisciplinary team of fellow designers, strategists, technologists, and makers to co-create a fictional branded experience. From mood boards and mascots to merch, audio, and visual drops, you’ll shape an idea and bring it to life—culminating in a team presentation using TAD’s immersive XR wall and AV systems.
This is not a sit-back session. It’s a creative jam with the tools, templates, and support you need to skip the stress and jump straight into the fun.
Hosted inside the dynamic new TAD Studio, this hands-on workshop is a fast-paced, creative sprint designed to ignite your imagination and celebrate collaboration.
This event is hosted at TAD with facilitators from TAD, Antfood and Smooth Technology.
Half-Day Tours Choose Your Design Adventure
In addition to your TAD session, you’ll select one of three exclusive studio tours that bring the world of immersive design into sharper focus:
Explore Mercer Labs, the museum where cutting-edge technology powers one-of-a-kind art installations. Discover our incredible exhibitions, featuring ultra-sensory, 360°, immersive experiences designed to stun and inspire guests of all ages. Located in the heart of downtown NYC, this one-of-a-kind, multi-level gallery sprawls across 36,000 square feet of fully interactive exhibition rooms. From hypnotic sonic experiences to perspective-shifting video installations, Mercer Labs offers an inspiring and creative playground you must see, hear, touch–and feel–to believe.
G&A’s Design Lab in New York City began as a space that enables us to showcase our process and demonstrate how we develop immersive experiences. This environment not only enables us to find better creative solutions, but it’s a foundation for our partnerships. At G&A, experience is everything.
The Lab at Rockwell Group is an experimental design studio where storytelling, architecture, and technology converge to create immersive, human-centered experiences. With a multidisciplinary team, the LAB explores beyond traditional design—crafting hospitality, cultural, and public environments that connect people to place through innovative, narrative-driven spaces that push the boundaries of physical and digital design.
Each tour offers a unique lens into how designers build unforgettable encounters—and how space becomes experience.
Close the Day: Rooftop Mixer The Perfect Close—Open the Dialogue
After a day of deep dives and hands-on exploration, we’ll come back together for a rooftop gathering in Murray Hill to share ideas, spark new connections, and toast the start of something special—set against the Manhattan skyline.
Rooftop Mixer registration is required, as space is limited. This event is exclusively for Xlab Studio Sessions attendees.
Optional Combo Event Experience
SEGD Xlab Offsite Chicago – September 17-18, 2025
Design is evolving. This is your invitation to experiment.
Timed with the opening of the 2025 Chicago Architecture Biennial, 2025 SEGD Xlab Offsite Chicago is where design meets disruption—and possibility takes center stage.
This isn’t business as usual—it’s a two-day immersive experience designed to challenge your thinking, push boundaries, and recharge your practice.
You’ll spend one day out in the city—touring studios, cultural spaces, and meeting the creators reshaping Chicago’s creative landscape. The next, you’ll dive into hands-on workshops, in-the-round talks, and interactive showcases designed to break silos and spark new ways of working.
Thank you to our partners! SEGD Xlab Offsite Chicago is presented by DCL and Nanolumens.
Chicago Millennium Park; Image by Sawyer Bengtson for Unsplash Check-out SEGD Xlab Offsite Chicago! Join us for both Xlab Studio Sessions New York and Xlab Offsite Chicago.
