What I brought home from DesignThinkers

I'm always excited for fall. The crisp air, the leaves, the Halloween candy.

Over the past few years, RGD's DesignThinkers has quietly become another part of that.

This year I moderated a roundtable on finding your voice with clients and stakeholders. I went in thinking my job was to keep the conversation moving. Instead, I spent most of it listening. People were open about the hard parts: understanding stakeholders, acronyms, getting people to understand design, and of course AI. Lots to think about.

Pixels& also sponsored a development grant, which helped Phoenix Mounce attend for the first time. Seeing our logo on the big screen next to Fusion Design Group was a cool moment too.

The rest of the conference was people. Catching up with Daniel Francavilla about what's next. Team lunches, including one with Kate Whelan. Time with Tiffany Grace Tobias, Meg Lynch and Deseray Alvares that wasn't about deadlines or deliverables.

Most of what I took home wasn't from the stage. It came from the conversations in between.

And Brent Long, let's get it in the calendar to hang out next year.