Brenda Laurel has worked in interactive media since 1976 as a designer, researcher, writer and teacher. She worked in the computer game industry from Atari to Activision. She also worked in research labs at Atari, Interval Research, and Sun Labs where she was a Distinguished Engineer.

Jim Kalbach is a noted author, speaker, and instructor in user experience design, information architecture, and strategy. He is currently Head of Customer Success at MURAL, the leading online whiteboard. Jim plays jazz bass in jam sessions and combos in Jersey City, where his currently lives.

Leah has been asking questions for 18 years as a design researcher on product, service and digital design projects. After leveraging every method there is, from ethnography to survey to usability, she prefers to make stuff (like maps, lists, sketches, and diagrams) with research participants in order to discover together what they think, feel and do.

Dan Klyn is an information architect from Grand Rapids, Michigan and is co-founder of The Understanding Group (TUG). He’s interested in planning, strategy and architecture for places made of information, likes coffee an awful lot, and teaches information architecture at the University of Michigan School of Information.

Richard is a the CEO and co-founder of product design firm Fresh Tilled Soil. After completing a degree in Biology, Richard was attracted to the world of web tech.
His colorful life experience includes being an officer in the army and being a dive master on the remote Islamic Republic of the Comoros.

Molly Lafferty is a product and motion designer based in New York City. As Design Director at This Also, she partners with clients to help shape the next generation of digital products. Molly has lead product vision and strategy for companies including Google and Xbox, and has extensive experience designing cross-platform television experiences including HBO GO.

Jeff Patton helps companies adopt a way of working that’s focused on building great products, not just building stuff faster. Jeff blends a mixture of Agile thinking, Lean and Lean Startup Thinking, and UX Design and Design Thinking to end up with a holistic product-centric way of working.

Erik has a background in anthropology, semiotics and human-computer interaction help him make sense of complex situations and create meaningful interactions for his clients and their customers. In it’s free time he enjoys running ultramarathons, and getting lost on the wooded trails of the American Midwest.

Cheryl specializes in designing for natural user interfaces, applied storytelling in design, and taming complexity in any manifestation. Her considerable NUI experience includes time designing cutting-edge voice and multimodal experiences for Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, Windows Automotive, and games for the Nintendo DS – in addition to contributions to major unannounced products still on the horizon.

Alberta is an incorrigible nomad — born and raised in Italy, she has lived in California and now works in London, as Director of End-to-End Service Design at Lloyds Banking Group. Alberta sketchnotes the meetings she attends (and there are many), is a resolute ice hockey player and cares deeply about the very small things that, she says, "matter a lot”.

Tom Greever is the author of Articulating Design Decisions from O'Reilly Media and UX Director at Bitovi, a front-end design and development consulting company. He lives in Illinois, USA with his wife and five kids. He is probably cleaning up the house right now.

Sarah Doody is a User Experience Designer, Product Strategist, speaker, and writer in New York City. In addition to consulting, Sarah created a popular weekly newsletter, The UX Notebook and writes regularly for the design community. When not thinking about design, Sarah is training for her next marathon or planning a trip to explore a new part of the world.

Scott Sullivan is a service designer at Adaptive Path and the author of Designing for Wearables. He has a background in theater, modern dance, creative technology, interactive performance art, and visual design. He is happiest getting his hands dirty building things that may or may not have a purpose.

David has spent over 14 years as a researcher, educator, and consultant, helping people to create great digital products and services that can be used by as many people as possible, regardless of disability. He joined The Paciello Group (TPG) in 2013, having previously worked at the University of Dundee’s School of Computing, one of the world’s largest academic research groups investigating better digital accessibility for older people and people with disabilities.

Sarah is interested in exploring ways to improve quality of life through good design. As User Experience Strategy Lead at the The Paciello Group (TPG), she works with companies and product teams to create “born accessible” digital products and services that work well for everyone. She is co-author of A Web for Everyone with Whitney Quesenbery and Web Style Guide with Patrick Lynch.

Anna is a UX designer and the founder of UX Fika and Glimt.it. She’s worked client side, for startups and agencies on a large variety of brands and projects, from websites and apps to TV UIs. She’s a regular speaker and an instructor for General Assembly where she’s taught more than 40 classes related to designing for multiple devices. She's currently helping startups and companies with UX related matters and writing a book for O'Reilly about Storytelling in Design.

Jina Anne created her first style guide in 2004. She has been a designer, developer, writer, and speaker on design systems ever since. At Salesforce, she is lead designer on the Lightning Design System. She also created the Design Systems Slack, which led her to start the San Francisco Design Systems Coalition. She organizes Clarity, the first ever design systems conference.

Lauren is a content designer, writer, and editor based in Chicago. She’s currently on the Conversation Design team at Capital One, where her most recent work involves creating trusted, likeable Conversational UIs.

In 2012, Michael launched dscout, a mobile research platform that the world’s largest companies now use for meaningful insight into moments that matter in people's lives. As dscout’s tools have become a centerpiece for qual+quant exploration by progressive companies, their research and product leaders continuously tap into Michael’s personal passion for making sense of it all. He speaks regularly on innovation and research in the U.S. and abroad.