You Can’t Schedule Serendipity: The Moments That Make Xlab Unforgettable

July 15, 2026

Kristin Bennani

The most meaningful moments at 2026 SEGD Xlab aren’t always on the agenda. Discover the tours, conversations, and connections that make these two days unlike any other. Join us in New York City, July 22-23, 2026.

We spend so much of our time trying to optimize outcomes. We schedule meetings, fill our calendars, and move from one deadline to the next.

But some of the most important moments in our careers don’t happen because we planned them. They happen because we happened to be in the same room.

A conversation while walking through an extraordinary space. An introduction over a drink that becomes a future collaboration. An idea sparked during a workshop that changes the direction of a project months later.

You can’t manufacture those moments. But you can create the conditions for them.

That’s exactly what 2026 SEGD Xlab New York, July 22-26, is designed to do.

Over two days, you’ll move through Manhattan and Brooklyn with more than 200 designers, strategists, architects, artists, technologists, and storytellers shaping the future of experiential design.

It begins with a choice of behind-the-scenes experiences that turn New York City into the first venue. Explore Snøhetta’s living laboratory for experience design at 113 Spring Street, go behind the scenes at Cipriani 25 Broadway to see how Moment Factory transformed a historic landmark into a programmable multimedia environment, or visit NYU Tandon @ The Yard, where engineering, emerging media, and industry come together to shape the future of interactive experiences.

That evening, the conversations continue at Microsoft Garage, where attendees, speakers, and industry leaders gather to reconnect, meet new collaborators, and kick off the symposium together.

Thursday brings everyone to BRIC for a full day of honest conversations, experimentation, and reflection, culminating in a closing keynote unlike any we’ve hosted before. For the first time, Olympic design legends Lance Wyman and Ric Edwards will share a stage to explore six decades of designing for the world’s biggest stage and what it means to create work that endures.

The experience concludes at Black Forest Brooklyn, where speakers and attendees gather one last time to celebrate, reflect, and continue the conversations that began just 48 hours earlier.

Already joining us are leaders from LA28, SYPartners, Murmur Ring, AIGA, Bluecadet, Jason Bruges Studio, HUSH, IA Interior Architects, Lord Cultural Resources, Smooth Technology, and Antfood, along with colleagues from AVI-SPL XTG, BHDP Architecture, DCG One, Elevate Creative, Felt Design, Fivestone Studios, Forty Nine Degrees, G&A, Gentilhomme, Gropen, Monadnock, NeoPangea, Nice Shoes, Populous, RLMG, Thinc Design, Thought Process, Trivium Interactive, UpLIGHT, Wildlife Conservation Society, and many more.

The impact of Xlab is often best described by the people who’ve experienced it.

So here’s your invitation to close your laptop for 48 hours.

Step away from the screen. Walk through extraordinary spaces. Share a meal. Start a conversation with someone you’ve admired for years. Leave room for the unexpected.

You can’t schedule serendipity. But you can create the conditions for it.

This is your last opportunity to join us in New York for 2026 SEGD Xlab. We’d love to see you there.