We are excited to introduce hands-on workshops at Co–Lab this year, designed to spark ideas, surface challenges, build community, and explore new ways of thinking.

‍

Workshop topics are shaping up to include upskilling teams, evolving org structures, harnessing AI, and scaling continuous research practices.

‍

Stay tuned for more details and sign-up info for these four 90-minute workshops, which will take place Monday afternoon. These will be limited attendance, open to up to 12 people each. Registrants will be the first to have a chance to sign up, at no additional cost.

Chicago Winery, 739 N Clark Street, Chicago IL 60654

‍

Join us at Chicago Winery for an evening of shared plates, local pours, and casual conversation.

Setting the tone for Co–Lab 2025—we’ll touch on big ideas, share reflections, and leave space for what’s next. Our 2025 keynote will feature:

‍

• Julie Norvaisas, VP of UX @ Dscout
• Cal Thompson, VP of Product Design and Research @ Headspace
• Eleanor Sandford, Head of Design Strategic Operations @ Disney
• Craig Mackintosh, Sr. Director of UX Research @ LinkedIn
• Gordon Ching, CEO & Founder @ Design Executive Council

‍The UX-focused fields of Research, Design, and Product are not alone in facing inflection points seemingly daily that cause us to question our identities, value, and place in the professional landscape. Today we must examine what makes our contributions uniquely human and embodied, and what (and how) we can augment appropriately.
‍

• Rose Beverly @ Paypal
• Casey Hudetz @ Docusign
• Sabrina Kang @ Salesforce

We have anchored (and swirled) on terms like democratization and continuous discovery. Today, many teams are beyond this. The emerging shape of cooperation and co-creation are powered by new tech, refactored teams, hybrid roles, reimagined processes and programs, and are inclusive of stakeholders across organizations like never before.

‍

• Curator: Kevin Newton @ LinkedIn
• Katherine Cuyler @ Spring Health
• Kim Stockey @ CapitalOne
• Lauren Stern @ WHOOP

Let’s get out and enjoy a little city life together. The Dscout team will host you and a smaller group of Co–Lab attendees at various hot spots around town, definitely come hungry.

The way that we talk about influence and impact and ROI has been limited—not enough through the lens of what actually drives executive decisions—and how to make them yourself. Today’s leaders need to become executives ourselves to secure our place. We move from “acting as if” to “being.” This means anticipating problems, having a suite of well-researched solutions at hand, concision and decisiveness, being political, looking across/beyond the business, always thinking about creative ways to be effective with resources, and more.
‍

• Curator: Marissa Dulaney
• Danielle Shoshani @ Atlassian
• Megan Blocker @ Justworks

We have been—and are accelerating more and more into—developing into a strategic force. The more we are freed up from operational tasks and time-consuming analysis, the more we will collectively and individually be able to design and deliver strategic value. The stories we tell our organizations today are tomorrow’s realities. Leaders need to both employ and help their teams build credible skills in strategy, foresight, and speculative design—which are an art and a science.
‍

• Curator: Katy Mogal
• Danielle Morrison @ UCSF
• Lyric Metroplos @ HEB Digital
• Ashton Snook @ Vodafone

Stick around for more networking, cocktails, and a little (optional) competition in the historic Game Room at the Chicago Athletic Association.