SEGD (the Society for Experiential Graphic Design), a multidisciplinary global community of professionals, has announced the theme and full agenda for the 2025 SEGD Conference Experience San Francisco.
The conference is taking place from 13 to 15 November at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, on the theme Designing Possible Futures.
Under this theme, the conference will bring together professionals who shape how people experience place to investigate how experience design can promote resilience, empathy, and possibility. Participants include designers, strategists, and storytellers, as well as business leaders, developers, and directors who hire or partner with creative teams.
San Francisco is a city known for its layered history, bold experimentation, and cultural complexity. Against this backdrop, the conference encourages delegates to create futures that are not only beautiful and practical but also equitable, interconnected, and profoundly human.
Cybelle Jones, CEO of SEGD, says: "Design today is about more than making spaces legible or beautiful. It is about resilience, empathy, and possibility—qualities that allow us toshape experiences that matter now and endure for the future. This year’s program asks: What futures can we design, together?"
Registration is now open.
Care, complexity and responsibility
Featuring more than 20 speakers and sessions, the 2025 SEGD Conference Experience San Francisco is set to explore topics at the intersection of culture, equity, technology, and play. It will ask questions such as what it means to design for the public good, and how design can drive transformation without erasing identity, history, or place. How do we create work that people feel, remember, and carry with them?
"We are living through a moment that demands more from design—more listening, more care, and more courage," says Jones. "Designing possible futures means holding complexity, designing with presence, and approaching our work as an evolving, relational practice—not a fixed outcome."
Speakers will bring international viewpoints and local insights to conversations that will shape the design of possible futures. Embodying a dedication to truth-telling, relationship-building, and deeper cultural inquiry, their work challenges the sector to design with care, complexity, and responsibility.
Throughout the event, delegates can find networking opportunities, NEXPO booths and talks, and professional development bootcamps. Emerging experiential professionals (EXP) can access dedicated programming, including portfolio reviews and one-on-one connections with experienced practitioners.
Programme highlights
Delegates are invited to join an Opening Welcome Event on Wednesday, 12 November. Day one, Thursday 13 November, titled In Times Like These, will explore design as a practice of trust, resilience, and civic responsibility. Speakers include Quinlin Messenger (JUSTDesign), Gamynne Guillotte (SFMOMA), Jeremy Mende (Mende Design), and Rodrigo Isasi (Empathy, Peru).
In the afternoon, a choice of curated tours will offer behind-the-scenes access to museums, cultural landmarks, and design firms that showcase San Francisco's creativity. This will be followed by the President’s Reception and Annual Auction for Excellence in the evening.
On day two, Friday 14 November, sessions will explore the theme Designing Futures. Speakers such as Karishma Sheth (Airbnb), Michaela Pihl Olsen (Urgent.Agency), Forest Stearns (Draw Everywhere Studios / Google Quantum AI), Jamie Shaw (LMNL Studio), and Bradley "GMUNK" Munkowitz (Digital Artist and Director) will discuss topics like place-based storytelling, wayfinding, creative policy, and omnispatial design.
On Friday night, the SEGD Global Design Awards Ceremony and Reception will celebrate the most innovative work of the year.
Day three, Saturday 15 November, is titled Making Our Mark. The morning agenda includes a roundtable with Joell Angel-Chumbley (City of Cincinnati, SEGD Academic Task Force Chair), Tim McNeil (UC Davis), Gerald Sastra (RISD), and Maurice Woods (Inneract Project) on aligning education and practice. Abigail Honor (Voices of Experience) will share the importance of documenting SEGD Fellows.
The morning will also feature The Achievement Awards and a mimosa toast hosted by Nu Goteh, and Alan Jacobson, FSEGD will introduce the 2025 SEGD Fellows.
In the afternoon, delegates will hear from Adam Brodsley and Eric Heiman of Volume Inc. on embedding resonance into design beyond efficiency. A panel from the First Americans Museum with Shoshana Wasserman, Kimberly Rodriguez, and William Smith, will discuss engaging Indigenous culture through narrative and play.
The conference concludes with a keynote by Lisa Demetrios (Eames Institute), examining how the legacy of Ray and Charles Eames can be reframed as a living laboratory of curiosity. Delegates are then invited to celebrate the event at the Closing Party.
This summer, SEGD announced details of a new format for the annual storytelling and experience design event SEGD Xlab. The signature event has been reshaped into two unique experiences: 2025 SEGD Xlab Offsite Chicago, centred on creative experimentation, and 2025 SEGD Xlab Studio Sessions New York, a more personal experience.
