DDX 202
It has been a busy period to say the least.
I was recently selected as a speaker at DDX Dubai 2026, a two-day conference focused on digital innovation, UX, and the future of design. It was a genuinely strong experience, and since a few people have asked about it, I wanted to share a bit of background on what DDX is and where it comes from, and then a quick snapshot of what I spoke about.
DDX grew out of Designdrives, a podcast launched in 2019 by German designer and entrepreneur Sebastian Gier. The podcast features long-form conversations with global design leaders about how design can drive meaningful change. Over time it built a community that wanted to move beyond listening and connect in person, which led to the first DDX conference in Munich in May 2023, held in parallel with Munich Creative Business Week. Since then, DDX has expanded internationally, with editions in Dubai, Tokyo, New York, San Diego, and an upcoming event in London. The Dubai conference draws a mix of designers, product managers, founders, educators, and innovation leaders. Past speakers have represented companies such as Google, Meta, IKEA, Cisco, IBM, and BMW, alongside academics and startup founders. The format blends keynotes, panels, workshops, and networking, and typically brings in a few hundred attendees.
What sets DDX apart from many larger industry conferences is its emphasis on accessibility and community. Ticket prices are kept intentionally reasonable, the scale encourages real conversation rather than passive consumption, and the topics go beyond traditional UX into areas like AI, design leadership, futures thinking, and digital transformation. It is a conference built for practitioners. People actively navigating change, not just observing it.
My talk, Rethinking the Creative Stack: Creativity in an Era of Constant Change, sat right inside that theme. Creative education is changing faster than many of our teaching structures, and the tools students use are no longer stable or singular. They shift, overlap, and increasingly include AI-native systems that challenge how creative work is made, taught, and assessed. While industry has adapted quickly, education often moves more cautiously, slowed by uncertainty, habit, or a reluctance to let go of established workflows. I argued that creative education is no longer built on linear pipelines or mastery of a single software suite. Instead, the “stack” has become a fluid ecosystem of tools, models, and interfaces, and the skills that matter most now are adaptability, judgment, and creative agency.
If you are curious to explore further, more information is available at ddxconference.com.
