DLS 2026 in a Snapshot
Workshops to skill-up, talks to zoom-out, and roundtables to go deep—designed for design leaders who want frank dialogue and tactical playbooks
Theatre Talks & Panels
Candid main-stage playbooks and panels with live Q&A. Practical frameworks for org design, metrics, AI, research at speed, and systems at scale. Recorded—with speaker control.
Curated Roundtables
8–12 peers, facilitated, under Chatham House Rule. Bring real problems; leave with 2–3 next-week experiments and a few speed-dial allies. Off-record.
Socials & Off-Record
Late-night bar hangs, design debates, and micro-meetups. No agendas, just trust and good conversation. People > pixels.
What past attendees say
Yesterday marked the end of the 2025 Design Leadership Summit.
If there’s one takeaway, it’s this: even though we work inside different structures, design leaders and designers are facing many of the same challenges. We’re all trying to understand how AI fits into our industry, we’re all navigating a fair amount of uncertainty, and we’re all figuring it out in real time.
But what stood out most wasn’t just the sessions, it was the sense of community. Sharp minds, honest conversations, and people who genuinely support one another. That’s what I appreciated most about this summit. The people.
Thank you Preet Singh, Aïko Thurlow and the entire team at DesignX Community for “crafting”* this experience.
Ryan Mouhajer
Head of Design
Unsurprisingly, AI was the dominant theme at this year’s Design Leadership Summit.
A huge thank you to DesignX Community for creating a space that reminds us that amidst the chaos and AI hype, it’s important to continue to choose humans over machines!
Akash Jatania
Senior Manager
Still feeling energized after attending the Design Leadership Summit in Toronto this past week — it was a privilege to be surrounded by so many design leaders, thinkers, and builders who care deeply about creating meaningful products.
Erika Williams
Product Designer
Design Leadership Summit 2025.
In one word: Wow!!
2 days full of amazing talks, workshops, djs in a boxing ring (yes, that happened), panels, insightful conversations and most importantly the phenomenal people.
Couldn't have imagined anything better. Huge shout-out and thank you to Preet Singh , Aïko Thurlow and the whole DesignX Community.
Arshdeep Singh
Senior Product Designer
This week’s Design Leadership Summit 2025 was the kind of space we all need once a year. Meaningful connections, shared challenges, and running into old colleagues and friends… so great! Big shout out to Preet Singh and the DesignX Community team!
Daniel Hildebrandt
Senior Manager, Product Design
Had a lovely time the past 2 days at DesignX’s Design Leadership Summit. I learned so much not only from the talks but from the folks around me.
We had a lot of important chats about how the role of a designer is shifting to require us to understand and collaborate with other disciplines better. I also found a lot of value in all the presentations about AI and am feeling encouraged to dive deeper into how to use it to add value to my work.
Thanks to DesignX Community for organizing such an amazing event.
Anastasia Mikhailitchenko
UX Designer
Summit Highlights
Design as Organizational Capability: Raise the floor, lift the ceiling
Jess Greco, Mastercard
Excellent Operations: Putting principles into practice at The New York Times
Matt Raw, The New York Times
AI is redefining design education and industry pipelines
Silke Bochat & Clark DeLashmet
AI, Anxiety, and Actual Impact: Leading Design Teams Through the AI Era
Chris Avore, Diligent
From Vision to Value: Driving Quality and Follow-Through at Scale
Joann Wu, Uber
Masterminds & Roundtables
Various Moderators
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Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about joining the next Design Leadership Summit.
Have more questions, drop us an email at support@designx.community
