AGENDA 2026

Businesses have immense power in society today. Learn how Ben & Jerry’s leverages that power to support social movements to create positive change aligned with their progressive values.  

This work is challenging in a polarized world, but more important than ever. Jay Curley, Ben & Jerry’s CMO, will share their experience and how creativity and courage are critical to have impact.

Talk description - Coming soon 

Talk description - Coming soon

How KFC is making every experience Finger Lickin’ Good

We have always known how to make people want what they do not need. But what about everything else? Design within the systems that shape people’s lives, such as finance, health, and infrastructure, has historically been developed for function, not feeling.

The true story of how two brothers built a two-billion-dollar business with double hauls and handshakes.

Talk description - Coming soon

In an era where AI can produce at scale, what makes human judgment truly valuable? 

In this talk, we’ll explore the idea that taste, often seen as an individual instinct, is actually a social inheritance. Taste is shaped by culture, and culture is produced by the rules, rituals, and boundaries of community. 

Nu will unpack how understanding community is key to understanding taste, and why brands and creatives must engage with the source, community, if they hope to shape and participate in culture authentically in the future.

Talk description - Coming soon

Talk description - Coming soon

Talk description - Coming soon

Most trend reports feel like homework. Not this one.
This is 30-minutes of zero effort, all takeaways.

Chris Danton and Kirsten Ludwig have spent the year decoding what’s actually happening across culture, F&B, Silvers, Alphas, retail, tech, wellness, beauty, and travel for GOOD THINKING — the newsletter 18K+ executives at Target, LVMH, and Klaviyo and more, wait for every week.

Now they’re bringing you the distilled version:

10 trends that matter most for across every category — delivered with pace, perspective, and zero patience for the obvious.

You’ll leave knowing exactly what to do on Monday — and how to think for the year ahead.

Women’s health has long existed in the margins of medicine, under-researched, underfunded and often misunderstood. Yet women represent half the world’s population. So, how can branding and design help bring visibility to what has historically been at best overlooked, but at worst ignored?

This session explores the creation of WOMEN | Bayer, a pioneering brand platform designed to shine a light on the gender health gap and challenge the silence surrounding women’s health. Bringing together perspectives from Design Bridge and Partners and its client Bayer, the conversation will unpack how powerful creativity can transform initiatives into cultural signals – that invite conversation, build understanding and drive change.

From reimagining one of the world’s most recognisable pharmaceutical symbols to crafting brands that communicate empathy and advocacy, the session will explore the role of design not just in building brands, but in shaping the future of healthcare.

In a world where design moves fast and pressure runs high, calmness is a leadership superpower. In this talk, Vish will share how being a yoga teacher on the side of his role as a manager transformed the way he lead design teams.

He'll break down how yoga isn’t just about stretching, and flexibility, it’s a science of calming the fluctuations of the mind through breath led movement, which teaches us how to stay balanced under pressure and lead with steady focus.

He'll go into the yoga philosophy and the fundamental principles called Yamas, like, Satya (truth), Ahimsa (non violence) and Aparigraha (non-possessiveness) and how they inspire an approach to modern design leadership.

Finally, he’ll share some practical examples of techniques and approaches that we can take back into our daily work, not only for our teams but for ourselves, helping us cultivate calm, clarity, and focus in how we lead and collaborate. He'll break down how yoga isn’t just about stretching, and flexibility, it’s a science of calming the fluctuations of the mind through breath led movement, which teaches us how to stay balanced under pressure and lead with steady focus. 

How do you build a brand when the technology evolves weekly? Shannon shares lessons from OpenAI's rebrand and the challenge of creating coherence, trust, and craft inside systems that never stop moving.

NASA's Creative Director on creative legacy, returning to the Moon, and a brand that belongs to humanity.