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
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