25 Design Conferences That Will Blow Your Mind in 2017
The key for personal and professional growth is self-development and lifelong learning. Visiting and contributing to any relevant events, such as conferences, trainings, meet-ups, or summits, are a great way to do both.
With the user experience and user-centered design taking center stage in the technology product development recently, not only UX experts, but everyone involved in the industry should keep up with the recent advances in the field.
So here is a list of the must-visit UX & design conferences for 2017.
April
UX in the City: Oxford
- Location: Oxford, UK
- Date: April 20-21
- Cost and Tickets: 1-day ticket – £216 ($265), 2-day ticket – £420 ($516), Workshop ticket – £480 ($590), Workshop & 2-day conference ticket – £810 ($995). All prices are valid until March 10.
UX in the City are practical events for the UX community held across a number of locations in the UK. Taking place in Oxford, the event will bring design professionals and scholars from the leading UK universities to speak about UX, share practical experience, case studies and tutorials. The keynote speaker is the Head of Design Management at Capital One, Kristin Skinner.
More Info: Official website / Twitter
Generate Conference 2017
- Location: New York City, USA
- Date: April 27-28
- Cost and Tickets: $375 – Conference pass; $499 – Workshop pass; $749 – Conference + workshop ticket.
A must-visit event for web designers, Generate Conference takes place across several locations including, New York (April 27-28), San Francisco (June 9), and London (September 20-22). The first event will feature 2 days, full of hands-on workshops and talks from world-class industry experts.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
May
UX Immersion: Interactions
- Location: Portland, USA
- Date: May 1-3
- Cost and Tickets: $1,975 (the offer expires on April 6).
The event is centered around new techniques and methods of interaction design. Featured talks will include such subjects as, enterprise design for small screens, guidelines for creating animations, Design Thinking, Lean UX, and Mapping Experiences.
More Info: Official website
HOW Design Live
- Location: Chicago, USA
- Date: May 2-6
- Cost and Tickets: $895 (1-day pass) – $1,925 (Big pass). The prices are valid till March 21. Special offers available for groups and students.
The HOW Design Live conference is one of the largest annual events aimed at creative professionals. Every year, it gathers about 4,000 design, business and technology professionals from all over the world to share experiences, improve their skills and preview new tools presented at the venue. With over 80 sessions, 13 keynote speakers, and numerous workshops and master classes, the event provides endless opportunities to foster your creativity, improve professional skills, explore new tools and products, and create connections.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
UX London
- Location: London, UK
- Date: May 24-26
- Cost and Tickets: £425 ($522) for a one-day ticket (standard price expires on April 3), £1,125 ($1,383) for a three-day pass.
This three-day conference will focus on digital product design, the basics of service design, explore the emerging trends in design and UX, and investigate new platforms and modes of interaction. The main speakers include design experts from Google, Capital One, Uber and Nike, as well as a number of independent professionals and authors.
More Info: Official website / Twitter
TYPO Berlin 2017
- Location: Berlin, Germany
- Date: May 25-27
- Cost and Tickets: € 649 ($689)
The biggest and most successful design event in Europe. The 3-day conference covers a wide variety of topics including, typography, graphic design, digital media, technology, culture, entertainment and business. This year’s TYPO Berlin will host over 60 presentations, various workshops, interviews, and discussions from more than 60 speakers.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
June
Los Angeles Awwwards Conference
- Location: Los Angeles, USA
- Date: June 1-2
- Cost and Tickets: $475 – $550
Held by Awwwards is a Digital Thinkers Conference and a go-to resource of web design inspiration. The conference will focus on a number of hot topics: UX/UI Design, Virtual Reality, Semiotics & Wearables. The event will feature 20 inspirational talks by the leading industry influencers; including, the Founder of Behance, Matias Corea, UX Lead for WebVR at Google, Josh Carpenter, and a former UX Designer at YouTube, Google and Digg, Marc Hemeon.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
UXPA 2017 International Conference
- Location: Toronto, Canada
- Date: June 6-8
- Cost and Tickets: $900-$1,900 (early bird tickets for members); $1,000-$2,000 (early bird tickets for non-members). Special offers for students and single day tickets available,
UXPA 2017 International Conference is considered to be one of the most influential user experience annual events in the world. The event offers optional pre-conference courses as well as a three-day conference with keynote talks by the industry experts from Microsoft, Facebook, and IBM.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
Enterprise UX 2017
- Location: San Francisco, USA
- Date: June 7-9
- Cost and Tickets: Conference only – $1,595 (early bird pricing – $1,395), Conference + Workshops – $2,290 · (early bird pricing – $1,990). The early bird offer expires March 12.
Rather than covering basic UX topics, the conference deals with the problem of designing high-scale, complex user experiences for large organizations. Providing inspiration and success stories from companies like Hewlett-Packard, Pacific Gas & Electric, and SAP. The event will be useful for mid- and senior-level UX practitioners.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
99U Conference
- Location: New York City, USA
- Date: June 7-9
- Cost and Tickets: $999 – $2,999 (Patron Ticket).
The 99U Conference is an annual event featuring inspirational talks and workshop sessions by the industry leaders and design practitioners. This year, the conference will host a number of international speakers, including, design experts from Instagram, Airbnb, and Adobe.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
UX STRAT Europe
- Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Date: June 15-16
- Cost and Tickets: €795 ($840)
UX STRAT is a series of events focusing on UX, CX, and Product & Service Design. Taking place in Europe (Amsterdam, June 15-16) as well as in the USA (Boulder,CO, September 18-20), the conference gathers industry leaders and design practitioners sharing their experience and real-life cases on how to innovate, conduct design research, analyze complex data, structure teams, and sell ideas and visions to executives.
More Info: Official website / Twitter
July
Inspirefest 2017
- Location: Dublin, Ireland
- Date: July 6-8
- Cost and Tickets: Early Bird tickets – €295 ($311), Regular – €395 ($417). Group and academic offers available.
Inspirefest is an international event dedicated to technology, science, design and the arts. The conference features a number of inspirational talks and discussions from the leading experts in science, tech and innovation, including representatives from, Nokia, Mashable, and Intercom.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
International Conference of eXperience Design 2017
- Location: Beijing, China
- Date: July 12-16
- Cost and Tickets: ¥ 3,500 (about $30) – ¥20,000 (about $175). Special offers are available before March 31.
The conference, hosted by IXDC, is one of the world’s most influential events in the field of UX and design. It is dedicated to the subjects of user experience, design strategies and their role in the business. With over 5,000 participants, 13 keynote speeches, 37 summits and 96 workshops held by some of the most prominent industry influencers, the conference is definitely a must-visit.
More Info: Official website
Design & Content Conference 2017
- Location: Vancouver, Canada
- Date: July 17-19
- Cost and Tickets: Early bird offer – $795 – $1195 (expires on March 31); Standard price – $895 – $1295 (expires on June 24); Late – $995 – $1445 (expires on July 17).
The conference brings together design professionals and content strategists in order to, “shape the future of the web”. Featuring some outstanding speakers from Facebook, Microsoft, Buzzfeed, and the New York Times, the event will offer a day full of workshops, two days of talks and multiple additional activities to facilitate networking between the attendees.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
August
UX Week 2017
- Location: San Francisco, USA
- Date: August 29 – September 1
- Cost and Tickets: Early Bird Price – $2,395 (expires on March 31), Regular price – $2,795.
The event is organized by the service design experts from Adaptive Path: a part of Capital One. This year, the UX Week conference will welcome design professionals from all over the world for the 15th time. The full agenda is still to be announced.
More Info: Official website / Twitter
UX Australia 2017
- Location: Sydney, Australia
- Date: August, 8-11
- Cost and Tickets: $600 (workshops) – $800 (main conference). The prices are valid until June 30 (limited number of tickets).
UX Australia is a 4-day conference: 2 days of hands-on workshops and 2 days of presentations and case studies, focused on user experience design. The agenda and speakers are still to be announced, as the organizers are accepting presentation proposals until 17 March.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
September
Design Matters
- Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
- Date: September 27-28
- Cost and Tickets: DKK 5,995 (about $900).
The conference will welcome design practitioners from all over the world, including industry thought leaders from Uber, Spotify, Instagram, Zendesk and Netflix. This year, the main themes of the conference will be: Conversational UI, Spreading the Product Design DNA, Embrace Failure! and Designing against the trends.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
EuroIA 2017
- Location: Stockholm, Sweden
- Date: September 28-30
- Cost and Tickets: To be disclosed in April.
EuroIA is the leading Information Architecture (IA) and User Experience (UX) conference in Europe. The event showcases: best practices, real-life case studies and proven methods of information architecture and UX design. This year’s main theme is, “Adaptation and designing for change.” The speakers and program will be disclosed in April.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
October
World Usability Congress 2017
- Location: Graz, Austria
- Date: October 10-12
- Cost and Tickets: 420 € – 2,622 € ($444-$2,776). Early bird offer expires on June 30.
The Congress is a one of a kind event due to its application-oriented, economic and holistic approach to Usability, UX & Customer Experience (CX). Among this year’s topics are UX Management, Automotive and Aviation, eCommerce, Virtual and Augmented Reality. Top speakers include leading specialists from Intel, Autodesk, Uber, Walmart Labs and BMW.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
AIGA Design Conference
- Location: Minneapolis, USA
- Date: October 12-14
- Cost and Tickets: $900 (Discounted rate for members) – $1,250 (For non-members). Early bird offer expires on May 10.
Hosted by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), the oldest and largest professional membership organization for design, the conference is a major event for every design professional. Featuring over 100 speakers and thousands of attendees, the conference provides endless opportunities for networking and inspiration.
More Info: Official website
November
Mobile UX London
- Location: London, UK
- Date: November 24
- Cost and Tickets: £ 200 ($244) – early bird tickets; £250 ($305) – general admission. Special group discounts available.
With the main focus on mobile UX and mobile app design best practices, the conference is a one-day event and will touch on such issues as IoT, VR/AR, AI & Chatbots. The program and speakers are still to be announced.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
CanUX
- Location: Ottawa, Canada
- Date: November 3-5
- Cost and Tickets: Pre-Sale Tickets – $269 CDN ($200), Regular Tickets – $359 CDN ($267), Final Tickets – $449 CDN ($335).
CanUX is the longest running and largest annual UX event in Canada, featuring a three-day conference, workshops and presentations. It’s focused on the modern experience design trends and will be interesting for those who want to learn and share their expertise about UX and design. The program is to be announced. Among the confirmed speakers is Dan Ramsden, the Creative Director for User Experience Architecture at BBC.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
December
Digital Summit Dallas
- Location: Dallas, USA
- Date: December 5-6
- Cost and Tickets: $245 – $645
Digital Summit is a digital marketing community and conference series taking place across some major US cities annually. The event touches on multiple subjects including, Content, Mobile UX Design, and Strategy. While this year’s program and speakers are still to be announced, the event typically features a number of industry thought leaders and visionaries including, Steve Wozniak and other leading experts from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Pinterest, Cisco and Yahoo.
More Info: Official website / FB
An Event Apart Denver
- Location: Denver, USA
- Date: December 11-13
- Cost and Tickets: $1,390 (early bird pricing expires on October 9)
An Event Apart (AEA) is a series of events focused on digital design, UX and much more. This year’s event in Denver is a special edition conference, which means there will be more speakers (18 instead of 12), sharing even more takeaways and insights. The program is still to be announced, but there is already a list of confirmed speakers, including Daniel Burka, Design Partner at GV, and Luke Wroblewski, Product Director at Google.
More Info: Official website / FB / Twitter
These are the must-visit UX design conferences and events for 2017. Obviously, the list is far from being complete. We have tried to include the most interesting or significant events so you can choose something to your taste and plan your trip ahead of time.