credTen: Top Ten Conferences in Design 2018

There are conferences tailored for specific audiences like marketers, women entrepreneurs, and even blockchain enthusiasts, but there’s another big industry that deserves the spotlight for its innovative events—design. Gone are the days of boring design presentations in stuffy conference rooms, these days design-focused events are bringing together creatives/designers from across the globe in fun, creative, and interactive environments.  

In this edition of our credTen series, we’re featuring the top 10 events worth checking out for designers and creatives.  

IxDA Interaction Conference
February 3 - 8 | Seattle
Similar to SXSW but for designers/creatives, Interaction is a week-long event that hosts an Education Summit, leadership retreat, workshops, and culminates with a three-day conference. Focusing on “Design in the Wild” the 2019 event gathers designers from across the world to explore the edges of interactive design.
Tickets: $1,500

Harvard’s xDesign
February TBD | Cambridge
Started in 2012 in collaboration with the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvard Business School, and Harvard College, xDesign brings together over 500 creative thinkers, students, and notable designers to discuss the impact of design across industries.
Tickets: TBD

AIGA Design Conference
April 4 - 6 | Pasadena
AIGA is back this year! This annual conference, which skipped 2018, brings together practitioners, researchers, and academics to discuss how design is changing and the impact it has on their fields.
Tickets: $1,400

Creative South
April 11 - 13 | Columbus, SC
An hour away from Atlanta, on the border between Georgia and Alabama, sits Columbus, South Carolina, home to Creative South. With a focus on the process and experience of design, this three-day conference gives designers actionable insights and takeaways they can use in their own practices.
Tickets: $447

HOW Design Live
May 7 - 10 | Chicago
Starting out as the HOW magazine in 1985 (which still exists today) HOW has transformed itself into one of the premier design events in the world. In May, over 4,000 attendees will converge in Chicago for four days of discussion around all things design and branding.  
Tickets: $1,295

99U Conference
May 8 - 10 | New York
99U is a two-day conference that brings together over 1,000 designers, creatives, entrepreneurs, and researchers to help them supercharge their work and make their big ideas happen. Featuring past speakers like Seth Godin, Simon Sinek, Brené Brown, and others, this conference is one that creatives/designers simply can’t miss.
Tickets: $999

Design Thinkers
May 28 - 29 | Vancouver
October 24 - 25 | Toronto
Held in both Vancouver in the spring and Toronto in the fall, RGD's DesignThinkers is Canada's only annual conference for visual communicators. Over two days, attendees will gain in-depth insight into trends and best practices in branding, design thinking, and design management.
Tickets: $675

AWWWards San Francisco
May 8 - 9 | San Francisco
AWWWards, the most-visited digital design awards platform in the world, is coming back to San Francisco for their summer conference. Featuring speakers from the likes of Dribbble, Google, and Airbnb, this two-day conference aims at helping designers and developers discover trends, new technologies, and the secrets of the Internet.
Tickets: $425

IDSA Interaction Conference
September TBD | Chicago
Hailed as “A New Kind of Design Conference” IDSA’s Interaction Conference discusses the power of design. With speakers like the VP of Design at Fitbit, Director of Global Design Innovation at PepsiCo, Inc., and many others, this conference brings together diverse perspectives to discuss the future of design.
Tickets: TBD

Seattle Interactive Conference
October 17 - 18 | Seattle
Part design, part marketing, and part general tech, Seattle Interactive Conference brings together the best of each world. With speakers like Jeff Miller, Head of Creative Strategy at Snapchat; Alex Chung, CEO of Giphy; and our cred speaker Jeremy Bailey, Creative Director of Product at FreshBooks, this two-day conference needs to be on your list.
Tickets: $499

Want to speak at these events? Get in touch to learn more about our speaker management services: speak@credpr.com.

credTen: Top Ten Conferences in Female Entrepreneurship 2018

Here at cred, we pride ourselves on working with passionate and accomplished speakers. In particular, we work with a number of inspiring female founders who are blazing trails and creating lasting impact within their industries. From advertising to artificial intelligence and machine learning, women are disrupting, innovating and paving the way for female leadership.

In this edition of our credTen series, we’re featuring the top 10 events worth checking out for female entrepreneurs.

BlogHer Creators Summit
August 8 - 9 | New York
#BlogHer18 Creators Summit will gather 2,000 attendees to celebrate women telling their stories to inspire and educate communities across the globe. Focused on the blogging and social media industries, the conference will feature talks from Jessica Alba, Gabrielle Union, Uzo Aduba, and more.
Tickets: $350*

Grace Hopper Celebration
September 26 - 28 | Houston
Named in honor of Grace Hopper, an American computer scientist and pioneer in computer programming (she invented one of the first compiler related tools), the Grace Hopper Celebration is an annual gathering of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront.
Tickets: $1,150*

Yellow Conference
August 23 - 24, 2018 | Los Angeles
Hosted in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles, Yellow Conference is a gathering of 500 women who desire to fight for a better tomorrow; the ones who are willing to roll up their sleeves, step out in courage, and use their creativity for good. This year’s theme is “Our Ownership” and will explore what it means to own our stories, dreams, visions, passions, and abilities we have.
Tickets: $377*

Create & Cultivate
August 25, 2018 | Chicago
A one-day conference with a focus to entertain, enlighten, and inform women around key topics surrounding #sidehustle life, the ever-changing digital landscape, entrepreneurship, and the real talk that comes with being a modern working woman.
Tickets: $350*

Brit + Co #CreateGood
August 24 - September 24, 2018 | Los Angeles
October 17 - 21, 2018 | New York City
Brit + Co’s #CreateGood experience is a digital, social, and experiential conversation leaning into these needs and empowering women to be their best selves. Hosted in both LA and NYC, the event will feature talks by world-class speakers, creativity workshops, live performances, and more.
Tickets: $35*

Startup Grind Global Conference
February 12 - 13, 2019 | San Jose
With 5,000 founders and investors, more than 40 keynote and fireside sessions, and over 50 exhibiting startups, this is Startup Grind's largest event. Over two days of programing, the entrepreneurs in the audience will hear stories, tactics, and lessons learned from founders from companies like LinkedIn, Slack, and Tesla.
Tickets: $255*

Watermark Conference for Women
February 22, 2019 | San Jose
The mission of the Watermark Conference for Women is to promote, communicate, and amplify the influence of women in the workplace and beyond. The organization was founded 25 years ago and this will be their 5th year hosting the conference, with past events featuring motivational talks and educational programming from the likes of Amal Clooney, Hillary Clinton, and Diane von Furstenburg.
Tickets: $225*

Stand Up Lift Up - PBWC Annual Conference
April TBD | San Francisco
At last year’s event, PBWC convened 6,000 attendees for a sold-out and content-rich day of powerful conversations about equality, diversity and change. Keynotes included Rosie Rios, former Treasurer of the United States, Maria Shriver, author & activist, and Jane Fonda, award-winning actress.
Tickets: $TDB
 

Forbes Women’s Summit
June TBD | New York
Featuring keynote conversations, panel discussions, one-on-one interviews and speaker spotlights, the Forbes Women’s Summit brings together the voices and insights of a diverse range of female luminaries from the worlds of business, entertainment and politics.
Tickets: Invite  Only- Request to Attend!

Inc. Women’s Summit
TBD | New York
Surround yourself with savvy female business leaders with diverse backgrounds, passions, and pursuits for a day of dynamic exchanges and innovative business ideas. Speakers will share their stories—and lessons learned along the way—about defying the odds and reinventing business their own way.
Tickets: $TBD

*Standard/general registration rates at time of publication.

Want to speak at these events? Get in touch to learn more about our speaker management services: speak@credpr.com.