Join us for an unforgettable day at New Lab, a breathtaking space in Brooklyn's Navy Yard for emerging science and design startups developing exciting future technologies. The day will kick off with a breakfast and meet-and-greet followed by an inspiring day of presentations. Finally, we'll all convene for an evening cocktail party and toast to the future of design.

• • • 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
      Sign In / Breakfast / Meet-up
  • • 9:30 AM - 9:45 AM
      What is next for design?

      Opening remarks by Core77 Partner Allan Chochinov will encourage attendees to consider the changes in contemporary design's purview, paradigm, and purpose.

       

      Allan Chochinov – Chair of the MFA in Products of Design, School of Visual Arts & Partner, Core77
  • • 9:45 AM - 10:05 AM
      Code Switch

      Objects have always been part of systems that are larger than what our senses can immediately perceive and our minds comprehend. Networks of sensors, ecologies of waste, advancements in biotechnology, laws and policies, rising awareness of global warming, are a few topics that affect our daily lifestyles and in turn the way we design for our objects and systems. Still, the training, tools and opportunities for designers are lacking to exercise working in such spaces in depth and at a multitude of scales. What new skills and tools might we need to evolve in order to design in the complex and networked systems of today?

       

      Yasaman Sheri – Designer & Director
  • • 10:05 AM - 10:25 AM
      How to Speak Machine

      Every company knows that they have to compete on experience, but the recent US CX Index™ results for US companies have proven that this is easier said than done. The problem is that winning this battle requires understanding the nature of algorithms and computational thinking — something that Silicon Valley leaders naturally excel at. In this talk, John Maeda will present a new framework that lets anyone quickly become a computational thinker so that they can make the most of this new paradigm that has created both vast opportunities and great risks for companies and their customers.

       

      John Maeda – Global Head of Computational Design + Inclusion at Automattic
  • • 10:25 AM - 10:45 AM
      Design & Data & Design

      Data is more accessible today than ever before. Yet, as an industry, Design doesn't have a standard method or process for utilizing it. We know that data can be used to satisfy the ongoing needs and goals of users today, but how can the designers of tomorrow use data as a medium? In this panel, Marijke Jorritsma (Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and Dean Malmgren (IDEO) will have a conversation moderated by Joe Meersman (Resideo), discussing how designers can best use data to create the next generation of user experiences.

       

      Joe Meersman – Director of Design Strategy at IBM

      Marijke Jorritsma – Senior User Experience Designer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

      Dean Malmgren – Executive Portfolio Director at IDEO Chicago
  • • Break
  • • 11:15 AM - 11:35 AM
      Future is Code for Eugenics

      Utopian ideals of a pain free future have become dystopian nightmares for disabled people. Today, we are being asked 'What future do you want?'' without considering 'Who will be included in your future?' Liz Jackson will discuss how current design briefs that seek to fix disabled people are creating a dangerous precedent for disabled futures. And she will advocate to involve disabled people in conversations around the future, so that we can design space for disabled people in our future.

       

      Liz Jackson – Founder, The Disabled List
  • • 11:35 AM - 11:55 AM
      Against, But in the Spirit of, Modernism

      Champions of the Modernism movement, dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, aimed to reject notions of arbitrary, dated aesthetic traditions in favor of a philosophy that responded to the technologies of the times and usher in what might become the new. Our world is now saturated with the old “new”, which is devoid of the movement’s original radical philosophy. This leaves us in a dangerously subtle hegemonic crisis of one-dimensional design thinking, making Modernism now the exact cage from which it once wished to be freed—it has been stripped of its criticality, ability to unite countries at war, as well as its problematic history. Modernism is now an empty shell of a style that promotes capital gain. Taking in the entire context of our contemporary lifestyles, a new radical and inclusive design philosophy needs to be implemented on a mass scale in an effort to bring about the new “new”, in the spirit of Modernism’s original objectives. Jerome Harris will present how to take back the original meaning of Modernism to reinvigorate it with modern day design ideals.

       

      Jerome Harris – Design Director, Housing Works
  • • 11:55 AM - 12:30 PM
      Utilizing Emerging Technologies to Enact Change

      This session will showcase the work of three companies based at New Lab who are using AI and machine learning to enable their products and applications. Rebecca Hui (Roots Studio), Meghan Maupin (Atolla) and Suma Reddy (Farmshelf), are all designers and founders whose companies are creating solutions in the realms of urban farming, digital licensing of indigious artists and customized skincare.

       

      Lynn Fischer – Chief Marketing Officer, New Lab

      Rebecca Hui – Founder, Roots Studio

      Meghan Maupin – Co-Founder & CEO, Atolla

      Suma Reddy – Co-Founder & COO, Farmshelf
  • • Lunch
  • • 2:00 PM - 2:45 PM
      The Cost of Comfort

      So much of our design careers revolve around designing more convenient, friction-free experiences, but could this effort actually be making our lives worse? Human-centered design often forgets that humans need challenges, pressure and stress to grow and thrive in this world. Gravity constantly puts a strain our body and keeps muscles and bones strong. Puzzles and mental challenges keep our minds sharp. Our digestive systems require a regular diet of resistive fiber to maintain good health. In this talk Francois Nguyen discusses the value of stress and the diminishing returns of focusing only on eliminating “pain points’ from an experience.

       

      François Nguyen – Creative Director, frog
  • • 2:45 PM - 3:15 PM
      From Industry to Government: Designing Climate Solutions

      Designers are trained in creative problem solving, and empathizing with multiple stakeholders when evaluating a situation. This makes them uniquely positioned to tackle large-scale policy issues and work on challenges at scales far beyond those currently experienced in most creative practices. Learn how one industrial designer evolved from exhibition design to leading New York City's infrastructure and energy policy.

       

      Susanne DesRoches – Deputy Director, Infrastructure + Energy, NYC Mayor's Office of Recovery & Resiliency
  • • 3:15 PM - 3:45 PM
      Applying UN Sustainable Development Goals to Design Practices

      As the UN states, “The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are a call for action by all countries – poor, rich and middle-income – to promote prosperity while protecting the planet.” Whether you have heard of these development goals or not, they exist as a long-term approach for countries, industries, and individuals to address global challenges. The Sustainable Development Goals are ways of thinking about how to create a more inclusive, equitable, prosperous and sustainable future—but where do you begin with such a long-term agenda? In this panel, UN representatives and designers actively engaged in implementing these goals into their practices will illuminate what the SDGs are, how their work incorporates humane, sustainable ideals, and what all designers can gain from understanding the UN’s plan for action.

       

      Leigh Christie – Founder, MistyWest

      Sandra Moerch – Chief Content Director, SAP Next-Gen

      Meagan Durlak – Design Director, IDEO.org

      Brian Ho – Design Lead for Generative Urban Design, Sidewalk Labs
  • • Break
  • • 4:15 PM - 4:40 PM
      VR for Good: The Transformative Potential of Immersive Reality

      Immersive Reality has been called an empathy machine. Studies show that it takes our brains only 20 seconds to accept and believe a virtual experience. If our brains can’t tell the difference between what is real and what is synthetic reality, we’ve left the screen and entered an untethered world. Artists and designers are just beginning to explore the transformative power of immersive reality. There’s a rising spirit among students, artists, designers and technologists to harness this power to enable social connections, collaboration, co - creation, and more conscious living. They’re women, they’re diverse and inclusive; they’re creating wild art and working in hospice.They’re changing peoples’ lives and seeking a better world. They believe in VR for good, VR for impact, and ARVR for peace.

       

      Max Almy – Dean of the School of Digital Media, SCAD

      Teri Yarbrow – President and Creative Director, Magika & Professor of Immersive Reality and Digital Arts, SCAD
  • • 4:40 PM - 5:00 PM
      Not the Only One

      A talk that explores the “Third Wave” by examining the positive effects of group mentality and teamwork seen in culture throughout history, specifically by looking through Archie’s lens of PLAYLAB, INC., an extremely multidisciplinary creative studio in New York. “Not the Only One” is in reference to the John Lennon and Yoko Ono pivotal work: “Imagine.”

       

      Archie Lee Coates IV – Co-Founder and Partner, Playlab, Inc.
  • • Break
  • • 5:15 PM - 5:45 PM
      Broken Nature

      The XXII Triennale di Milano, Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival, highlighted the concept of restorative design, plotting its role in surveying our species’ bonds with the complex systems in the world,and in designing reparations when necessary, through objects, concepts, and new systems. Antonelli will take stock of the experience, casting the exhibition against the turbulent geopolitical background of the past year, describing which among its ambitions were met, and which were not.

       

      Paola Antonelli – Senior Curator, The Museum of Modern Art in the Department of Architecture & Design
  • • 5:45 PM - 6:00 PM
      Closing Remarks
  • • 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
      Cocktail Reception, Presented by Autodesk