"A creative knowledge conference of inspirational proportions." —@KNOCKinc
The Adobe 99U Conference is a one-of-a-kind live experience that inspires creative professionals to bring their ideas to life and shape the future of the industry. Join us for three days of insightful talks, stimulating workshops, and unexpected connections that will supercharge your work.
Main Stage Speakers
Hear from a group of individuals and organizations finding unique solutions to their creative challenges, and inspiring us to do the same.
Global Head of Computational Design + Inclusion
Automattic
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Global Head of Computational Design + Inclusion
Automattic
John Maeda is an American executive spearheading a new convergence across the design and technology industries. He joined Automattic in 2016 as Global Head of Computational Design + Inclusion and previously served as Design Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), a world-leading venture capital firm.
An internationally recognized speaker and author, his books include The Laws of Simplicity, Creative Code, and Redesigning Leadership. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering + Computer Science from MIT, an MBA from Arizona State U, and a PhD from University of Tsukuba in Japan. He has appeared as a speaker all over the world, from Davos to Beijing to São Paulo to New York, and his talks for TED.com have received cumulative views of over 2 million to date.
Maeda serves on the Board of Directors for wireless hi-fi innovator Sonos and the global advertising firm Wieden+Kennedy. Prior to his work in industry, Maeda was a tenured research professor at the MIT Media Laboratory and 16th President of the Rhode Island School of Design.
Maeda can be found on Twitter discussing technology, business and design at @johnmaeda, one of TIME Magazine’s 140 Best Twitter Feeds.
CEO & Founder
Tattly & CreativeMornings
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CEO & Founder
Tattly & CreativeMornings
One of our favorite creative doers and community galvanizers, Tina returns to the 99U Conference main stage following her 2014 talk that inspired thousands to 'Create, Don't Complain'. Among her many projects, businesses, and achievements, Tina is the founder of the global lecture series CreativeMornings, ubiquitous designer temporary tattoo brand Tattly, and beloved design blog Swissmiss.
Vice President, Product
Netflix
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Vice President, Product
Netflix
Few 99U speakers have a better window into your psyche than Todd. A former filmmaker, Todd joined Netflix almost 12 years ago, and in his current role as Vice President of Product, he leads the team that leverages vast amounts of data, sophisticated algorithms, and best-in-class user interfaces across numerous viewing devices to create easy, compelling ways for Netflix members to find something great to watch.
Design Exponent & Head of Creative Studio
Automattic
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Design Exponent & Head of Creative Studio
Automattic
After breaking ground in national government as the creative director and digital strategist for the Obama White House, Ashleigh now leads the creative studio at Automattic, a company with the mission to democratize publishing and commerce. She is a fervent advocate for design's ability to break barriers and create positive social change.
Vice President, Design
Lyft
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Vice President, Design
Lyft
Katie is a creative leader at the intersection of interaction and industrial design, business strategy, and user research. As VP of Design, she oversees products for Lyft’s driver and passenger community. She was previously the Director of Experience Design at Airbnb and the Creative Director at frog design.
Author
Drop the Ball
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Author
Drop the Ball
Tiffany is a catalyst-at-large in the world of women’s leadership and the author of Drop the Ball, a memoir and manifesto on how to cultivate the single skill you really need in order to thrive: the ability to let go. Tiffany helped launch Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In initiative, and recently served as Chief Leadership Officer to millennial professional network Levo. Tiffany serves on the board of Girls Who Code and Simmons College and has raised nearly $20 million toward for women and girls worldwide.
Artist & Author
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Artist & Author
The often humorous, sometimes dark work of the artist known as 'adamjk' can be seen everywhere from tote bags at New York's iconic Strand Bookstore to enamel pins on the shelves of Urban Outfitters. Adam frequently speaks and writes about the realities of creative work, notably in his latest book, Things Are What You Make of Them: Life Advice for Creatives.
CEO
Meow Wolf
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CEO
Meow Wolf
Experimental Person in Charge
Google Creative Lab Sydney
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Experimental Person in Charge
Google Creative Lab Sydney
Tea works on a range of projects with cultural organizations and practitioners to enable artists, writers, and performers to use digital tools to amplify or augment their artistic, theatrical, or musical practice. Her output includes seven books, 17 websites, six apps, a feature film, three plays, two concerts, four museum exhibits, and some teddy bears that talk. She is an AGI member, on the board of the Biennale of Sydney, D&AD’s 2018 Digital Jury President, and a mentor to young female creatives worldwide.
CEO & Co-Founder
Super Heroic
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CEO & Co-Founder
Super Heroic
Jason is the creative CEO behind Super Heroic, a mission-driven business focused on providing quality play-performance footwear, apparel, and technology for children. An accomplished design leader, Jason previously oversaw products and innovations for the Jordan Brand as the Senior Global Design Director at Nike, and serves as an advisor to Stephen Curry’s Slyce platform, portfolio companies at venture firm Accel, and the College for Creative Studies.
Data Editor
Guardian US
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Data Editor
Guardian US
Mona has attracted praise for her unique, illustrated presentations of data on everything from pay inequality to pet safety on airlines for the Guardian US. She previously worked with FiveThirtyEight and the Economist Intelligence Unit, hosted a regular data segment on NPR called The Number Of The Week, and co-created the Emmy-nominated video series Vagina Dispatches.
Artist
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Artist
CEO & Co-Founder
Uncorked Studios
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CEO & Co-Founder
Uncorked Studios
Marcelino J. Alvarez is the founder and CEO of Uncorked Studios, a product design studio located in Portland, Oregon. Uncorked is a design studio that connects people, technology, and context to create meaningful change. Uncorked partners with the world’s top brands, including Google, Intel, Adidas, Diageo, Care.com, Samsung, Skype, the Bezos Family Foundation, Magnum Foundation, and more to build products with purpose.
Previously, Alvarez served as Executive Interactive Producer at Wieden + Kennedy. He produced the Nike Chalkbot, a robot that printed messages of hope and inspiration on the Tour de France in 2009 and 2010. He’s a cofounder of Safecast, an open data initiative to help residents of Japan report and understand the levels of radiation following the Fukushima earthquake and nuclear disaster, and Incúbate, the first design-thinking workshop and incubator in Havana, Cuba.
Alvarez has spoken at the Concordia Summit, SXSW Interactive, Interaction 18, Mobile as a Platform for Change, Cre8Con, Techfest Northwest, Design Week Portland, Bonfire, TIE Oregon, and the InnoTech Conference, and has appeared as a guest on Think Out Loud, Up Next, and Conversion Aid programs. He sits on the board of the Freshwater Trust and Portland State University’s Center for Retail Leadership, and is an investor in the Oregon Venture Fund.
Vice President, Design
Adobe
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Vice President, Design
Adobe
Chief Product Officer & EVP, Creative Cloud
Adobe
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Chief Product Officer & EVP, Creative Cloud
Adobe
Scott Belsky is an executive, entrepreneur, author, and investor (and all-around product obsessive). He currently serves as Adobe's Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President, Creative Cloud. Scott's passion is to make the creative world more productive, connected, and adaptive to new technologies.
Scott co-founded Behance in 2006, and served as CEO until Adobe acquired Behance in 2012. Millions of people use Behance to display their portfolios, as well as track and find top talent across the creative industries. After Behance's acquisition, Scott helped reboot Adobe's mobile product strategy and led Behance until 2016, when he spent a few years as an investor and advisor to multiple businesses. Alongside his role at Adobe, Scott is a Venture Partner at Benchmark, a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, an early-stage investor, and is co-founder and Chairman of Prefer, a referrals platform that empowers the careers of independent professionals (aka "Soloists”).
Over the years, Scott has pursued other projects to help organize and empower the careers of creative people. These include 99U, Behance's think tank and annual conference devoted to execution in the creative world; and a popular line of organizational paper products that help organize creative people and teams.
Scott is also the author of the international bestselling book Making Ideas Happen (Portfolio Imprint, Penguin Books, April, 2010).
Iteration
99U and Behance cofounder Scott Belsky believes the earliest days of a product are its most critical. In this talk, Belsky outlines the key qualities that lead to a product’s early adoption and longterm success.
Senior Director, Community Products
Adobe
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Senior Director, Community Products
Adobe
Will Allen is a Senior Director at Adobe where he leads Community Products, including Behance, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Talent, and 99U. Millions of people across the globe use Behance and Adobe Portfolio every month to showcase and discover creative work. Prior to Adobe’s acquisition of Behance, Will acted as Behance’s COO. Previously, he created strategic partnerships with global brands at TED and was co-founder of the consultancy Industry Digital Media.
Spend time with some of our favorite thinkers and makers in a series of interactive sessions, open only to 99U Conference attendees. Session selection opens on March 27 at 12:00pm ET.
How to Create and Identify Honest Photography
Hosted by:
Aundre Larrow, Adobe Creative Resident
Have you ever considered how powerful the camera in your pocket is? Think about it: almost every great photo in history was taken on a camera worse than yours.
In this session, photographer and Adobe Creative Resident Aundre Larrow will teach you how to take advantage of your smartphone camera. Geared towards anyone thinking about the visual language of products and organizations, this workshop will boost your skills as a photographer, your ability to identify great photography, and how to clearly communicate your visual needs.
Pick this session if you’re interested in: Photography, Branding
About Aundre Larrow: Aundre is a Brooklyn-based portrait photographer specializing in editorial and lifestyle work. He has shot the NCAA Tournament, New York Fashion Week, and a portrait project about immigration. Throughout the years, his work has always pursued the truth that can be found in portraiture, and his current work as an Adobe Creative Resident is the next chapter of that.
Creative Ideation to Spark Fresh Thinking
Hosted by:
Jason Cha, Director, Training & Culture Strategy, The Design Gym
How often do you find yourself in a brainstorm, coming up with the same old ideas? Whether you're trying to design a better product or improve your customer service experience, when generating innovative ideas it's helpful to have some creative tools that spark fresh thinking.
In this session, led by The Design Gym’s Jason Cha in partnership with non-profit organization Girls Who Code, you'll use what you learn to create new ideas on how to engage GWC’s constituency through creativity, bravery, and teamwork—and you'll leave with a set of tools you can bring back to your own work, to use whenever you feel stuck.
Pick this session if you’re interested in: Creative Thinking, Design for Good, Productivity
About The Design Gym: The Design Gym empowers organizations to build cultures of greater creativity and collaboration using the language of design thinking. Unlike traditional innovation agencies, they don’t ever do the work for clients, but rather bring the tools, facilitation, training, and learning environments to build that muscle memory in-house.
About Girls Who Code: Girls Who Code is a national non-profit organization working to close the gender gap in technology and change the image of what a programmer looks like and does. With their seven-week Summer Immersion Program, two-week specialized Campus Program, after school Clubs, and a 13-book New York Times best-selling series, they are leading the movement to inspire, educate, and equip young women with the computing skills to pursue 21st century opportunities. By the end of the 2018 academic year, Girls Who Code will have reached over 50 thousand girls in all 50 states and several US territories.
Hand Lettering Toolkit
Hosted by:
Annica Lydenberg, founder, Dirty Bandits
This highly interactive workshop hosted by hand lettering superstar Annica Lydenberg will inspire participants familiar with design and typography to broaden their stylistic capabilities.
This session is a great skill-sharpener for both experienced designers and novices interested in the rise of hand lettering, and how typography informs the visual communication of brands.
Class will begin with an overview of what makes hand lettering special and examples of a wide range of styles and inspiration, before you’ll roll up your sleeves to practice hand lettering yourself. Participants will be trying a wide variety of styles that might not be their usual go-tos and experiment with different types of embellishments to dress up their lettering, resulting in a final piece you can take home as a souvenir.
About Annica Lydenberg:Annica is a Brooklyn-based lettering artist, mural painter, and creative director with a deep passion for typography. She studied typeface design at Type@Cooper program and sign painting at New Bohemia Signs. She works with pencil, pen, chalk, brush, and the computer, pulling stylistic influence from an ever-growing library of found type and vintage and contemporary signage. Her work is inspired by an obsession with puns, a belief in social good, and a love of 90s hip hop.
Creative Collaboration: Working With a Partner to Stretch Your Creative Limits
Hosted by:
Nathan Goldman, Founder/Principal Designer, DKNG Studios
Dan Kuhlken, Founder/Principal Illustrator, DKNG Studios
This workshop by creative studio DKNG will cover the essential steps founders Dan Kuhlken and Nathan Goldman take with every new project—from concept development, team brainstorming, providing constructive criticism and feedback, art direction, composition, adding layers of meaning, to final execution—all of which they approach as a collaborative process.
Workshop participants will team up in pairs to follow a design brief using the concept of play and construction as a gateway to explore DKNG’s collaborative creative process. Taking each other’s strengths and weaknesses into consideration, each pair will learn to work as a team, leaning on each other’s unique skillsets to build a collaborative project.
Pick this session if you’re interested in: Creative Teams, Productivity, Client Work, Graphic Design
About DKNG: DKNG is a full-service graphic design and illustration studio catering primarily to the entertainment industry.
Think Different: Using Innovative Creativity to Unlock Tangible Results
Hosted by:
Duncan Wardle, Chief Innovation Officer, id8&innov8
Do you ever wonder why most of your best ideas come to you in the shower? Have you ever pitched a new idea only to watch it get diluted or killed as it moves through the process? Ever wanted to know how Walt Disney came up with the idea for a Disneyland or how Netflix completely revolutionized the movie rental industry? Or perhaps you’ve found yourself amazed at how some companies develop killer insights that enable them to break into major new categories?
Building on 25 years of experience with The Walt Disney Company, most recently as Vice President of Innovation & Creativity, Duncan Wardle’s engaging workshop will not only answer these questions, but leave you with the tools to take on your challenges in new and different ways—and deliver tangible results.
Pick this session if you’re interested in: Creative Thinking, Marketing, Future-proofing
About Duncan Wardle: After 25 years working for The Walt Disney Company, Duncan Wardle now serves as an independent innovation and design thinking consultant.
As Vice President of Innovation & Creativity at Disney, Wardle headed a team that served as both creative ideation consultants and cultural change agents to Disney Imagineering, Pixar, Lucasfilm, ESPN, and the Parks, designing a creative problem-solving process that captures unlikely connections, leading to both fresh thinking and revolutionary ideas.
Previously, Wardle held the posts of VP, Global PR for Disney and VP, International Marketing & Sales for Disney Parks around the world. Over the last three decades, Duncan has served in an executive role for The Walt Disney Company in London, Paris, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Mumbai, and Shanghai. In 2008, he was honored with the Outstanding American Citizen Award at the White House, and in 2014 he was awarded an Hons. Doctorate from Edinburgh University. He also holds the Duke Edinburgh Award, presented by Her Majesty the Queen.
Make a Visual Vision: Your 2018 Cheat Sheet
Hosted by:
Nicole Lulinski, Creative Strategist, Facebook
We brainstorm, strategize and plan for our clients - but do we ever do it for ourselves? Using a mix of brainstorming, visual thinking and copywriting, this interactive workshop guides you through a creative exercise that helps you craft clear intentions for your life. Inspired by Fast Forward and Facebook culture, this session helps you write your accomplishments like they've already happened and adds creative constraints to help you prioritize. In this session, you'll learn the tools to understand what's most important to you and create the clarity you need to spring into action. And! You'll leave with a visual cheat sheet of your year. (Drawing skills not necessary!)
About Facebook Creative Shop: Facebook’s Creative Shop is a team of creative strategists, visual designers, filmmakers, and writers focused on serving, inspiring, and provoking partners to create ideas that build valuable connections between people and businesses. Building across Facebook’s entire family of apps and services, Creative Shop directly collaborates with global creative agencies, brands, creators, and businesses of all shapes and sizes. At Creative Shop, they unreservedly believe that creativity is what drives innovation in every aspect of the modern world, disrupts industries, improves the status quo, and helps brands tell the stories of tomorrow to the right people at the right time.
Onboard, Engage, Energize: Tactics for Inspiring a Crack Design Team
Hosted by:
Adi Hanash, Head, Advanced Skills Academies, General Assembly
Tyler Hartrich, UXDI Lead Instructor, General Assembly
Industry-leading work emerges from design teams that persistently enrich their knowledge base by fostering new skillsets and perspectives. Hear from General Assembly's design team to learn how they teach innovative design education, understand what emerging technologies designers need to know, and determine what directors and managers can do to foster continual growth in their teams.
About General Assembly: General Assembly is advancing the future of work by creating sustainable talent pipelines for businesses and building transparent career pathways to the most transformational work. Offering employer-driven, practitioner-taught training in high-demand fields like data, technology, design, and business, General Assembly’s global reach, massive community, and leading outcomes have created an international community of professionals nearly one million strong.
The most innovative companies rely on General Assembly’s talent pipeline as a service model to benchmark talent, train employees, hire candidates, and increase diversity. With unmatched scale, flexible training delivery, expert instructors, and employer-tested assessments, General Assembly has have enabled hundreds of companies to fill their talent gaps and hundreds of thousands of individuals to pursue the work they love.
The Art of Risk-taking
Hosted by:
Brian Buirge, Co-founder, Designer, Head Janitor, GFDA
Jason Richburg, Director of Strategy and Curriculum, GFDA
Jason Bacher, Co-founder, Designer, Chief Handyman, GFDA
An uncomfortably fun workshop with questionable but successful results.
Risk is the lifeblood of the creative process. You can talk about it, you can tweet about it, you can read about it—but all the book learnin’ in the world can’t replace live, hands-on experience. In GFDA's intensive workshop, participants get down and dirty with provocative exercises that embrace ambiguity, encourage experimentation, and look at ideas like the Fresh Prince said: flipped-turned upside down (or something like that anyways). Learning to accept risk means charging forward when the outcome is uncertain, and it’s a necessary component of creative problem solving. Easy, safe, and expected can rarely be innovative, long-lived, and thought-provoking. Creativity is valuable precisely because its products are unexpected.
GFDA's exercises demonstrate the value of taking chances while teaching that success is not left to chance alone. Participants learn that creativity isn’t magic, it’s a process. That it isn’t a moment, it’s a work ethic. That it doesn’t come from a lone genius, but a well-liquored team.
Pick this session if you’re interested in: Creative Thinking, Leadership, Entrepreneurship
About GFDA: Good F***ing Design Advice is known for its colorful, design-based approach to products and experiences that challenge the thinking, discipline, and passion of creatives and entrepreneurs. GFDA believes that the true value of creative work is born from uncertainty; that innovative ideas come from the scrapes and cuts earned in exploring uncharted territory; and that risk is the shortest path to growth. This perspective reflects their story, sense of humor (or lack thereof), business savvy, and passion for design—all of which they share in talks across the globe, and in products with tough-love motivational messages.
Catalyzing Cultural Evolution: How UX Shaped Google's Culture
Hosted by: Jens Rigelsberger, UX Director, Google
A few years ago, a small band of UX designers and researchers at Google highlighted how seemingly minor design and usability snags can build up to break entire user journeys. With that, the ‘Product Excellence’ team was born—a cross-functional group with the mission to keep the company culture focused on product and design quality.
In this session, Google’s UX director Jens Riegelsberger will share how the Product Excellence team influences Google’s company culture. You’ll learn how organizational challenges can create pitfalls for product quality, the steps you can take to influence cultural change in your organization, and how to apply Google’s principles for excellence to assess quality in your own products.
Pick this session if you’re interested in: Leadership, Creative Teams, UX Design
About Google Product Excellence: Google has seven products that reach more than one billion users in countries all over the world. With this reach comes a pretty unique degree of complexity across user needs, technical infrastructure, markets, and platforms. How does Google, a company with more than 40,000 product developers, strive to consistently deliver excellent product experiences to users? In 2014, a grassroots effort started by volunteers in the UX team gained momentum and evolved into a company-wide cross-functional initiative to raise the quality bar for product development by focusing on the user.
The Product Excellence team is a small, cross-functional group with with many members coming from a UX background. They partner with all parts of the business (including product management, engineering, marketing, human resources, staffing, communications) to help evolve Google’s culture, systems, and processes to build and ship high-quality products that users trust and love.
Infographics for Social Change
Join designer and Adobe Creative Resident Jessica Bellamy to learn how to tell visual data stories that inspire policy change and mobilize information at the grassroots level. In this hands on-workshop, you'll explore and apply principles of conscious and responsible design to a real-world infographic project.
Participants will leave with an actionable list of design strategies, and with experience creating an infographic for the nonprofit organization Urban Arts Partnership.
About Jessica Bellamy: Adobe Creative Resident and designer Jessica Bellamy tells visual and personalized stories using data. In her work driving social change through design, she partners with nonprofits and community groups to create compelling materials that break down complex customer, service, and policy information.
About Urban Arts Partnership: For over 25 years, UAP has improved academic outcomes, graduation rates, artistic growth, social-emotional learning, and community engagement through their arts-integrated approach to education in and beyond the classroom.
Jon Burgerman's Doodle School
Hosted by:
Jon Burgerman, artist & illustrator
Forget the idea of ‘failure’ or ‘not being good enough’ and revitalise your creativity at Doodle School! In this session, artist Jon Burgerman will present creative prompts and fun activities based on his multifaceted practice for everyone to enjoy—you’ll learn how to make something out of nothing, and to enjoy not having full control over what you’re doing.
Jon Burgerman’s Doodle School is perfect for anyone in need of a creative jumpstart. Or anyone wanting 90 minutes of fun and a graduation certificate.
Enroll now in Doodle School (extra credit given to anyone bringing teacher a snack).
Pick this session if you’re interested in: Illustration, Creative Thinking
About Jon Burgerman: Jon is an artist known for his colorful and comical works. His artworks are held in the collections of several institutions including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery. Jon has collaborated with brands including Snapchat, Nike, Samsung, Apple, Sesame Street, and Disney, and received commissions from organizations like the Sheffield Children's Hospital and DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS).
For Here or To-Go: Creating Bold Illustrative Work Wherever You Are
Hosted by:
Jennet Liaw, artist
Kervin Brisseaux, design director, Vault49
For most of us, inspiration doesn't always strike when we're at our desks. With mobile devices as a constant in our every life experience, the ability to use them to ideate and even complete a final product, without relying on our desktop computers, is the greatest opportunity of the present.
In this session, designers and illustrators Jennet Liaw and Kervin Brisseaux will share their mobile creation journeys and show you how to use Adobe apps and the devices in your pocket to create serious work. You’ll also have the chance to play with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil to expand your creative toolkit and add hand-drawn appeal to any digital project.
Pick this session if you’re interested in: Illustration, Typography, Creative Thinking
About Jennet Liaw: Former Nike designer Jennet Liaw now works independently out of Brooklyn, focusing on illustrative type, mural painting, and product graphic design. Her large-scale letters and brand campaign work have generated a clientele that includes Adidas, 20th Century FOX, REI, Incase, Sony Pictures, Adobe Systems, Uber, Clifbar, and Apple.
About Kervin Brisseaux: Kervin is an associate design director at Vault49 and a freelance artist, who has worked with brands like Adobe, PepsiCo, Gatorade, and Nike. His illustration style experiments with a fusion of photographic takeovers, street fashion, and Japanese manga. As a New York native, Kervin is a huge pop culture enthusiast, gathering inspiration from various creative avenues including, but not limited to, music, fashion, and a good sci-fi or anime flick.
Designing Experiences for the Customer of the Future
Hosted by:
Dan Clay, Partner, Innovation, Lippincott
Daniel Johnston, Partner, Design, Lippincott
Max Pfennighaus, Partner, Design
She doesn’t know how to drive, but she drives all the time. Her T-shirt connects to the internet. Her manager is a robot. Meet Dawn, an average 25-year-old in the not-so-distant future. Dawn is Lippincott’s fictional user of the future, dreamt up by the creative consultancy to illustrate life in 2030 and help organizations plan ahead.
Join its innovation and design teams for an immersive workshop to get up close and personal with Dawn. In this session, you’ll reimagine a new customer experience for a well-known brand in a group workshop, anticipating user needs in the year 2030.
Pick this session if you’re interested in: Future-proofing, Prototyping, Marketing
About Lippincott: Lippincott is a creative consultancy specializing in innovation, brand, and experience design. They believe that success in a changing world requires a more creative approach to solving problems. It demands both rigorous business acumen and courageous creativity. And a different kind of partner that can both think and do, that can inspire growth and create new meaning in customers’ lives. Lippincott has taken Starbucks beyond coffee, helped Delta achieve new heights, and partnered with Samsung to disrupt new categories. Equal parts strategy and design, Lippincott brings this unique combination to everything they do, guided by one purpose: make it meaningful.
Why Sound Is the Secret to Great Design
Hosted by:
Kristen Lueck, Director of Strategy, Man Made Music
Dan Venne, SVP Group Creative Director + Lead Producer, Man Made Music
What if your toaster whined like a child when your toast was burning? Or if your chair grumbled like an old man when you've been sitting too long? Of all the existing sensory modalities, sound is the most-overlooked opportunity to uncovering the next design breakthrough. As humans, we’re wired for it – reacting to sound faster than any other sense. But because we process sound subconsciously, it can be challenging to understand when to use sound and why.
In this session, led by music and sound strategists Man Made Music, you’ll explore how the simplest of objects can become personified and communicative through the use of strategic sound design. Flex your underutilized sonic design muscles by exploring the role of sound as a tool for clear and differentiated communication. Attendees will then practice by building their own products with a Sonic-focused lens. The result: your own set of fantastical products and an approach for creating more emotional, intuitive and compelling experiences.
Pick this session if you’re interested in: Sound Design, Future-Proofing, Prototyping
About Man Made Music: Man Made Music is the music and sound studio for global brands, technology companies, and entertainment groups including Nissan, Citi, AT&T, and Deloitte. Their work has been heard on television in the themes and music for networks and programs including Entertainment Tonight, HBO, CBS This Morning, the NFL Super Bowl, ESPN’s 30 for 30, and FX Has the Movies. Man Made Music has also pioneered a musical approach to sound design for products and brands in a connected world.
Man Made Music founder Joel Beckerman is a known thought leader in the world of sound and business, as author of The Sonic Boom: How Sound Transforms the Way We Think, Feel and Buy and was named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People. The Man Made Music team has been featured on stage at conferences including SXSW, London Design Week, C2 Montreal, Fast Company Innovation Festival, and Future of Storytelling, as well as in major media including the Wall Street Journal, Wired, AdWeek, Forbes, and Harvard Business Review.
Their current innovation work and thinking lives at the intersection of sound and smart devices, for products including autonomous cars, health environments, and smart homes.
Telling Brand Stories Through Animation
Hosted by:
Jess Peterson, CEO & Creative Producer, Mighty Oak
Emily Collins, Creative Director, Mighty Oak
Michaela Olsen, Creative Director, Mighty Oak
Anthony Galante, Animation Director, Mighty Oak
Marisha Falkovich, Post Production Supervisor, Mighty Oak
Animation finds thoughtful ways to discuss tough issues, explain complex information, remove barriers, and give emotion to any object, creating a totally unique way to share a story. That's why more brands than ever are turning to animation to cut through the clutter and connect with their audience.
Join creative studio Mighty Oak in an interactive workshop full of animated GIFs, case studies, and a live animation shoot. You can even animate yourself in the pixilation booth, leaving with an understanding of how the process works and how your brand can successfully use it.
Pick this session if you’re interested in: Animation, Graphic Design, Marketing, Storytelling
About Mighty Oak: Mighty Oak is a Brooklyn-based creative studio that specializes in hand-made animation and design. Its mission is to bring the human touch back into the picture, and with over 100 million views across platforms, it seems to be working for clients like Netflix, HBO, Nick Jr., Airbnb, NBC, Condé Nast, G.E, and the New York Times.
The award-winning studio has been featured in the New York Times, Adobe Create, Oxygen, Huffington Post, Forbes, Fusion, Brooklyn Magazine, and Mashable, who say it's "making some of the coolest videos around.”
Everyone Is a Designer: Workshopping Made Collaborative and Iterative
Hosted by:
Natalie Lew, Adobe Creative Resident
Join Adobe Creative Resident Natalie Lew for a workshop on UX process, where you’ll learn applicable methods for conducting research, iterative brainstorming, and low-fidelity prototyping. Natalie will be accompanied by Donors Choose, a nonprofit that connects teachers in high-need communities with donors who want to help.
About Natalie Lew: Interaction designer Natalie Lew is passionate about the intersections of design and philosophy. Her interdisciplinary background in design inspires her work in the Adobe Creative Residency, in which she has worked to make user experience design more accessible and available to the creative community.
About Donors Choose: DonorsChoose.org makes it easy for anyone to help a classroom in need. Public school teachers from every corner of America create classroom project requests, and you can give any amount to the project that inspires you.
Underwear, Clocks, and Companies: How to Change When You Must
Hosted by:
Bree Groff, CEO, NOBL
Change is industry-agnostic. Change doesn’t care how large or small your organization is. It’s coming for all of us.
Brands and agencies are awash in a sea of changes, with most feeling that they need to run just to keep up. This increasing pace of change demands a new breed of change management.
In this session, NOBL will share how leaders (or change agents at any level of an organization) can shepherd their teams through transformation. Attendees will learn how to identify resistance in its many forms, diagnose the six types of loss employees anticipate during change, and design a plan for driving authentic, effective change in their own organizations.
Pick this session if you’re interested in: Leadership, Creative Thinking, Future-Proofing, Creative Teams
About NOBL: NOBL (pronounced no-bell) was founded in 2014 to help leaders make change. Today, they are a global change agency, training organizations to embrace new attitudes and adopt new behaviors. NOBL’s work is most meaningful when their partners grow to their full potential, when they are freed to truly serve their customers and clients, and when their impact on the world becomes powerful and profound.
Connected Brands: How Great Design Transforms Businesses
Hosted by:
Mike Rigby, VP, ECD of Business Transformation, R/GA
Jennifer Vano, Head of Verbal Design, R/GA
Award-winning, full-service agency R/GA is known for their creation of 'Connected Brands' for Fortune 500 companies including Nike, Samsung, and Google.
In this session, Mike Rigby, VP, ECD of business transformation, and Jennifer Vano, head of verbal design, will share R/GA’s unique approach to connected brands. Attendees will team up to develop a new product’s purpose, brand name, signifier, and key feature — gaining perspective on how experience, visual, and verbal design connect to each other, and to a brand’s purpose.
Pick this session if you’re interested in: Branding, Marketing, Future-Proofing
About R/GA: R/GA is connected by design. An innovation leader for more than 40 years, R/GA has expanded to offer consulting, ventures, technology, marketing communications, architecture, and IP development services in addition to its award-winning design practice. R/GA’s work spans web, mobile and social communications, retail and e-commerce, product innovation, brand development, and business transformation.
The company has more than 2,000 employees globally with 19 offices across the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia-Pacific. R/GA is part of The Interpublic Group of Companies, one of the world’s largest advertising and marketing services organizations.
Brand Early, Not Often
Hosted by:
Jonah Fay-Hurvitz, Strategy Director, Red Antler
Emily Heyward, Partner, Red Antler
Join Red Antler, the brand company behind successes like Casper, Allbirds, Brandless, and Birchbox, for a deep dive into their philosophy on how branding applies to the world of startups. Connect with other participants to create the building blocks of a new brand, including a name, a consumer insight, and the inputs for brand strategy. Who knows, you might be inspired to launch the business you create together.
Pick this session if you’re interested in: Branding, Entrepreneurship, Startups, Marketing
About Red Antler: Red Antler is a brand company based in Brooklyn that partners with startups and businesses that challenge what is and define what’s next, like Casper, Allbirds, Brandless, and Birchbox. Red Antler unites every step of the experience, from strategy and visual design to digital and activation, creating brands that excite the world.
Designing Mindfulness
Hosted by:
Sara Kalick, VP & General Manager, SYPartners
In 50% of our life, we are mindless. We succumb to fear, letting it control our reactions. We apply old assumptions to new situations and people. We form bad habits. All of this is intensified in moments of uncertainty—and today's leaders are facing more uncertainty than ever.
The good news is that we have the power to improve our own mental wellbeing through the practice of mindfulness. And it isn’t just about meditation. By training the mind to maintain awareness of our present thoughts, feelings, sensations, and the world around us—instead of rehashing the past or worrying about the future—we can unlock new ideas and show up more fully in work and in life.
No matter where you currently are on your mindfulness journey or career, this session will equip you to be a better leader or team member, helping to build a productive and happy workplace.
Pick this session if you’re interested in: Productivity, Creative Thinking, Leadership, Creative Teams
About SYPartners: SYPartners helps human beings, organizations, and societies build the capability to become fuller and more vibrant versions of themselves, so they can constantly transform and have a positive impact in the world.
For more than 20 years, SYPartners has worked with executive teams at some of the world’s most influential companies, including Starbucks, IBM, Facebook, Apple, Nike, Target Corporation, Planned Parenthood, and AARP; and alongside leaders tackling the toughest issues of our time: education, diversity, healthcare, and gender equality. In addition to its consulting practice, SYPartners develops products and tools—including Unstuck and Leadfully—that help individuals and teams unlock their full potential. SYPartners is based in San Francisco and New York, and is a founding member of kyu, a collective of best-in-class creative firms.
Effective Feedback: Giving and Receiving Input to Do Your Best Work
Hosted by:
Rachael Feinman, Product Designer, ustwo
Shaun Tollerton, Product Designer, ustwo
Annie Malarkey, Programs and Partnerships Manager, ustwo
Digital product studio ustwo believes that every great team starts with building trust. After more than 10 years making digital products, they’ve discovered that building the foundation for trust with an internal team or client starts with active listening and creating the right moments for effective feedback.
It's a skill that we all know is important, but how often have you examined the when, why, and how of giving and receiving feedback? How often have you had to rebuild trust by not listening intently to your teammate or client?
Join ustwo for an interactive workshop exploring simple tools to help you practice active listening and giving and receiving thoughtful feedback. You'll walk away with exercises you can use to help you gain trust from your team and clarity on the larger goals for a project.
About ustwo: ustwo creates digital products and services that solve the problems of today and define the opportunities of the future. World-class design is matched with exceptional software development and execution to set organizations apart. Through their company builder and accelerator arm, ustwo also develops its own products and invests in ventures—all with the same goal of creating a meaningful impact on the world. Whether it's innovative experiences for clients or launching businesses that redefine and push the boundaries of conventional industries, ustwo is constantly challenging the definition of what it means to be a digital product studio.
Learn from the world’s top thinkers and doers in a series of main stage talks over two days. 99U speakers offer pragmatic, real-world insights that transcend creative sectors.
See the Agenda
Expert-hosted breakout sessions explore new ideas and methodologies around leadership, teamwork, productivity, and more.
Hands-on workshops give you a chance to dive into new disciplines, trends, and technologies.
From our pre-conference kickoff to our killer closing party, 99U provides you with endless opportunities to network with fellow attendees and get exposed to new ideas.
Flex your party muscles early with a kickoff event packed to the gills with hands-on demos, games, and networking opportunities. Come to pick up your badge, stay to meet the rest of the 99U community.
No conference parties like 99U: we’ll wind down on Friday with a closing party at the Museum of Modern Art.
Leave with our much-coveted swag bag, packed with cool (and useful!) stuff. More incredible surprises await you throughout the conference - we put a ton of work into creating a beautiful experience for you.
The 99U Conference unfolds at the gorgeously designed Alice Tully Hall, one of the most beautiful (and intimate) concert halls in the world.
The official 99U Closing Party returns to MoMA, one of the world's premier art institutions.
As official hospitality partner for 99U, the Ace offers a preferred room block to registered attendees.
First thing on the agenda: head to our kickoff party to pick up your conference badge early, meet fellow attendees, and get hands-on with tech demos and games.
99U brings together 1,000 people across a variety of practices and professions. Who should attend? Anyone in a creative field working to: put an idea into action, get inspiration from creative leaders, connect with potential collaborators, manage an effective team, or understand the trends affecting the future of creativity.
Get a taste of the 99U experience with a few selected talks from our main stage.
