Reflections from San Francisco

Viewpoint

There is something very special about our global Leading Design community. Wherever we travel (and we’ve travelled quite a bit this past year!), the same conversations and themes seem to crop up. With San Francisco being our third Leading Design conference in twelve months, I decided to take a moment and reflect on the patterns which emerged.

Wide shot of guests in San Francisco chatting during lunch break with LD branded screens in the background

Evergreen leadership challenges

Each of the three conferences revealed the same challenges: cross-discipline collaboration, navigating change and vulnerability. What I found particularly interesting was how different leaders have dealt with similar situations and how different approaches seemed to have worked (or not worked, as the case may sometimes be).

Real talk

As the Curator of Leading Design events, it’s important to me that an environment is created where speakers are able to speak candidly about their experiences. Our Leading Design conferences provide a unique opportunity to come together with a group of peers, to talk about the specific realities of leading design teams. Within this safe space, speakers are able to have open and frank conversations, with topics such as managing redundancies, knowing how and when to break the rules, and taking the unpopular path covered at Leading Design San Francisco.

Six chairs lined up on stage with panelists mid-conversation

We need this

The phrase I probably hear more than any other at our conferences is:

“I knew that I wanted to attend this event, but I didn't realise how much I needed this”

As leaders we give so much of our time and energy to other people, and we are so focused on the day-to-day problems that it’s hard to come up for air. It’s often only when attendees have stepped out of that routine and are enjoying a drink at the end of the first day that they take a breath and realise how much they had needed this investment in themselves.

Times are difficult for many businesses and individuals, but the demand for us to run three conferences in 12 months demonstrates the value that our conferences bring in these precarious times. I feel tremendously proud of being able to deliver these events and am so grateful to our speakers, sponsors and supporters who have made them possible.

If you couldn’t make it along to the conference you can still benefit from the lessons from the event by purchasing a ticket for our on-demand video package.

Plans are well underway for our next Leading Design conference, which is taking place in London on the 8th and 9th November 2023. If you have any content suggestions, or are interested in partnering on our events I’d love to have a chat!