Get Out and Get Inspired: Your Guide to the 2026 SEGD Conference Experience Kansas City Tours

July 22, 2026

Rachel Moran

Kansas City doesn’t just talk design; it builds it, block by block, museum by museum, mural by mural. Thursday afternoon at the Conference is where you get to walk into it.

One of the best parts of SEGD Conference Experience Kansas City happens outside the ballroom: eleven of the city’s most ambitious spaces, thrown wide open, guided by many of the very designers who made them. This is the moment the case studies stop being slides and start being places you can stand inside. Feel the lighting, read the signage, watch the projection land exactly where someone intended it to.

Below, every tour: what it is, and who in the SEGD community is going to love it most. Fair warning: narrowing this list down to one is about to be the hardest decision of your conference. Sign-ups are limited, so don’t sit on this.

When registering for the Conference, be sure to select one (1) tour from the add-ons listed. Already registered before the tours were announced? No worries—you’ll get a confirmation email with a short form to lock in your pick.

Tours are your shortcut to the city: new friends in your group, insider stories from the people who actually designed the space, and a Kansas City you won’t see from a conference hallway.

---

Choose a Tour

National World War I Museum & Memorial

BEST FOR: MUSEUM EXHIBITION · DIGITAL INTERACTIVE

Witness what your SEGD peers built, then stand inside it. Explore the brand-new Encounters exhibit and study how projection, lighting, and narrative design turn a century of raw history into something visceral, something you feel in your chest. Then get the inside story straight from the team who built it.

Perfect for: Exhibition designers and AV/media integrators who want to see immersive storytelling done at museum scale, straight from the people who built it.

Mural Tour with Urban Hikes

BEST FOR: KC UNIQUE

Step out the hotel door and straight into Kansas City’s living canvas. Starting at the Barney Allis Pedestrian Bridge, wander through bold murals, an art-filled bridge, and the historic Westside neighborhood, proof that public art can shape a community’s entire identity, one wall at a time. History, creativity, and street-level culture, all within walking distance of home base.

Perfect for: Environmental graphic designers and placemaking enthusiasts who want to see how public art and community identity play out at street level.

Rabbit hOle — The Director’s Cut

BEST FOR: MUSEUM EXHIBITION · KC UNIQUE

Go behind the wonder. The Rabbit hOle is a brand-new museum built entirely by its own in-house team of artists and designers, bringing more than a century of American children’s literature to life, from Goodnight Moon to Last Stop on Market Street. Explore the exhibits, then sit down with a member of the leadership team to hear how an artist-led studio designs, builds, and dreams up a museum from scratch.

Perfect for: Exhibition designers and fabricators curious about running design and build entirely in-house, plus anyone who loves a great story told through space.

Kansas City International Airport

BEST FOR: WAYFINDING · KC UNIQUE

The largest infrastructure project in the region’s history, built with its community in mind from curb to gate. KCI’s new terminal, shaped by thousands of resident voices, redefines what accessibility and inclusivity can look like at scale. See firsthand how intentional wayfinding can turn one of travel’s most stressful environments into something that actually feels welcoming.

Perfect for: Wayfinding and signage specialists, plus anyone designing for accessibility in high-stress, high-traffic environments.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

BEST FOR: WAYFINDING · MUSEUM EXHIBITION · DIGITAL INTERACTIVE

The Nelson-Atkins doesn’t just display art; it choreographs how you experience it. On this exclusive designer’s tour, go beyond the galleries to see the seen and unseen: how exhibition design, wayfinding, and graphic design work together across a sprawling 22-acre campus to guide, and surprise, every visitor who walks through. Expect world-renowned works, standout mid-career local artists, and 60–90 minutes covering both interior and exterior spaces, with time built in for your questions.

Perfect for: Generalists and specialists both. This one spans wayfinding, exhibition, and graphic design across a sprawling campus, indoors and out.

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum + 18th & Vine Jazz District

BEST FOR: MUSEUM EXHIBITION · KC UNIQUE

Step onto the Field of Legends—ten life-sized bronze statues frozen mid-play on a mock diamond—and feel history pull you in. Museum president Bob Kendrick himself guides this tour, sharing the story of a segregated national pastime and the athletes whose will to play changed the game, and the country, forever.

Perfect for: Storytelling-driven exhibition designers who want a masterclass in pacing visitors through difficult, emotional history.

Atlas9

BEST FOR: DIGITAL INTERACTIVE · KC UNIQUE

A 46,000-square-foot movie theater reimagined from the ground up with RFID tracking, projection mapping, and live theatrical performance, all merged into one choose-your-own-adventure. Atlas9 is a masterclass in seamless tech integration and audience engagement layered five deep. Come for the spectacle. Leave with a blueprint for where immersive design is headed next.

Perfect for: Interactive and digital media designers who geek out on RFID, projection mapping, and tech-driven audience engagement.

Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum

BEST FOR: MUSEUM EXHIBITION · DIGITAL INTERACTIVE

Step into the Oval Office. A nearly $30 million, top-to-bottom renovation turned dense presidential archives into a living, breathing presidency: role-play Cold War decisions, meet a 14-foot interactive globe, and go behind 35+ media experiences with the designers who built every one of them. A masterclass in layering information design until history stops being a lesson and starts being an emotional reckoning.

Perfect for: Media and interactive experience designers who want the real story behind integrating dozens of AV and interactive systems into one cohesive museum.

The Children’s Place KC

BEST FOR: WAYFINDING · KC UNIQUE

What if your most vulnerable users couldn’t read yet? The Children’s Place KC answers with color, form, and environmental graphics designed to help young children recognize they belong, feel at home, and know they are safe moving through a 35,000-square-foot facility with trusted adults by their side.

At the heart of the experience is Rudy Bear—an idea transformed into a recognizable icon of safety, comfort, and belonging. Together, the wayfinding system and brand environment create a trauma-informed, human-centered experience for an audience whose needs demand extraordinary care, clarity, and empathy

Perfect for: Wayfinding designers working in healthcare, education, or trauma-informed spaces, and anyone designing for non-reading or vulnerable users.

Kansas City Current Stadium

BEST FOR: SUSTAINABILITY · KC UNIQUE

The world’s first stadium built purpose-first for a professional women’s team, and one of the most thoughtful stadiums, period. No nosebleed seats. Sensory-inclusive spaces. Downtown skyline views framed from every angle. Zero-waste food and beverage, top to bottom. CPKC Stadium is proof that inclusive, sustainable design and a world-class fan experience were never actually competing priorities.

Perfect for: Sustainability-minded designers and sports/experience designers who want proof that zero-waste and world-class fan experience can coexist.

Two Tone Press + Oddities Print Shop

BEST FOR: KC UNIQUE

Ink is the medium. Craft is the point. Step into Two Tone Press’s working letterpress studio for an up-close look at the equipment, history, and hands-on tradition behind every impression, then walk one block to Oddities Print Shop, where silkscreen and Riso printing reach artists and collaborators worldwide. Two stops, one proof: analog print isn’t nostalgia. It’s practice.

Perfect for: Graphic designers and print-craft lovers who want to get their hands on the process behind letterpress, silkscreen, and Riso printing.

---

However you choose, you’ll leave with a Kansas City you designed for yourself: unique venues you won’t find anywhere else, new friends made on the streetcar, and a city seen through a designer’s eye.

Sign up early—space on every tour is limited, and the good ones go fast (but aren’t they all good?).