Plan Your Trip: SEGD SF Agenda Now Live

September 16, 2025

30+ speakers. 3 days. Bold ideas and big voices on Designing Possible Futures. Don’t miss the Saturday keynote with the Eames Institute + our closing party—stay through the finale!

Designing Possible Futures: Join Us in San Francisco for SEGD’s 2025 Experience

SEGD brings our global community together this November for the 2025 SEGD Conference Experience San Francisco (Nov 13–15). With the theme Designing Possible Futures, the conference will explore how design can help us navigate complexity, build resilience, and imagine new ways of connecting people to place.

The full agenda is now live—a rich lineup of voices, panels, and celebrations designed to inspire and challenge us to think beyond the now.

Day 1—In Times Like These

The conference opens on Thursday with a call to courage, clarity, and care. Quinlin Messenger of JUST Design sets the tone by reminding us that even the smallest design interventions can spark lasting change when rooted in presence and possibility.

From there, Gamynne Guillotte of SFMOMA leads a panel exploring how museums and cultural spaces shape public understanding—highlighting the role of design in fostering empathy and media literacy. Jeremy Mende of Mende Design then takes us deeper into storytelling, not as theory but as an embodied practice, showing how narrative can live through experience. Rounding out the day, Rodrigo Isasi of Empathy, based in Peru, shares lessons drawn from the Sacred Valley on how resilience grows through trust and co-creation. Together, these voices ground us in the idea that design can respond to uncertainty with care and courage.

Day 2—Designing Futures

Friday begins with expansive world-building. Karishma Sheth of Airbnb demonstrates how story-first design can reveal the soul of a city, while Michaela Pihl Olsen of Urgent.Agency shows how empathetic wayfinding can foster belonging and improve quality of life.

The morning continues with Forest Stearns, who challenges us to expand creative “zones” where art can thrive, followed by Jamie Shaw of LMNL Studio, who introduces the concept of omnispatial design—blending physical, digital, and virtual layers of experience. The morning closes with GMUNK, who shares his philosophy of reinvention and transformation as a lifelong design practice.

In the afternoon, the focus shifts to NEXPO, our showcase of industry partners and new ideas. Talks will be presented by SEGD’s Accessibility Committee, Color-ad Signs + Exhibits, Daktronics, Image Options, and NovaPolymers, offering practical insights and innovations from across the field. We’ll end the day with the NEXPO Reception, followed by the SEGD Global Design Awards Celebration—a chance to honor outstanding projects from around the world and recognize excellence across disciplines.

Day 3—Making Our Mark

Saturday brings reflection on legacy and responsibility. Joell Angel-Chumbley (City of Cincinnati, DOTE, Architecture + Urban Design, Supervising EGD; SEGD Academic Task Force Chair) moderates a roundtable with Tim McNeil (UC Davis), Gerald Sastra (RISD), and Maurice Woods (Inneract Project) on how academia and practice can better align to prepare the next generation of designers.

Abigail Honor of Lorem Ipsum Corp. then speaks to the importance of documenting SEGD Fellows through the Voices of Experience series, emphasizing how capturing their stories is vital to our shared history.

The morning continues with the SEGD Achievement Awards, hosted by Nu Goteh, with Alan Jacobson, FSEGD, introducing the 2025 SEGD Fellows. The afternoon offers an opportunity to hear directly from those Fellows in conversation, along with talks from Volume Inc. and the First Americans Museum, expanding our understanding of impact and cultural responsibility.

The conference concludes with a keynote by Llisa Demetrios, Chief Curator of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity. Her address reframes the Eames legacy as a living, future-facing laboratory of curiosity, reminding us how design can continually spark imagination. From there, we’ll move into our closing party to send us off in true SEGD style.

Special Events You Won’t Want to Miss

As you make your travel plans, be sure to join us for community celebrations woven throughout the week: the Opening Welcome Event (Nov 12, sponsored by Archetype), the President’s Reception and Auction for Excellence (Nov 13), the NEXPO Reception and Global Design Awards Celebration (Nov 14), and our Closing Keynote and Party (Nov 15). We encourage all attendees to stay through Saturday night to celebrate with the entire community.

The Value of Attending

The 2025 SEGD Experience offers more than inspiring talks—it’s an opportunity to grow as a designer, a leader, and a member of a global community. Across three days, you’ll gain:

• Tools for resilience and adaptability—from designing with clarity in uncertain times to leading with trust and care.
  Strategies for world-building—from storytelling and wayfinding to creative zoning and omnispatial design.
• Insights on legacy and impact—from bridging education and practice to celebrating the achievements of peers and Fellows.

Above all, you’ll experience the power of connection: being part of a community that believes design can foster empathy, spark joy, and create possible futures.

Top 5 Reasons to Attend

1. Be inspired by 30+ global speakers across design, culture, and technology.
2. Gain practical tools for resilience, storytelling, and innovation.
3. Connect with peers and partners at NEXPO and the Global Design Awards.
4. Celebrate the 2025 Achievement Awards and learn directly from SEGD Fellows.
5. Experience the Closing Keynote + Party with the Eames Institute and community.

We can’t wait to see you in San Francisco and explore what futures we can design together.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Presenting Sponsors: Color-ad Signs & Exhibits and Nanolumens

Event Sponsors: Archetype, Daktronics, DCL, CREO Industrial Arts, MGAC, MOSS, Peregrine OKB, SignAgent, S+D Corp., DE Powder Coated Graphics, Gable, Image Options, NovaPolymers, RSM Design, SNA Displays, Tangram, Thought Process, TFN Architectural, THG (The Hettema Group)

Creative Partners: Immersion Neuroscience, Lorem Ipsum, Room for Magic