“Create a personalized virtual badge for Config 2025! Make it your own by adding stickers and don’t forget to share your badge on social to connect with virtual and IRL attendees!”

A new Config talk just got announced: production designer Jeremy Hindle will talk about the creative vision behind Severance.

Wednesday, May 7th, 5:30–7:30 PM. ​“Calling all Design Engineers, UX Prototypers, and Design Technologists in the San Francisco Bay Area!​Are you interested in a chance to mingle, talk shop, and share ideas with like-minded colleagues? Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out in the field, we’d love to connect.”

My friend Molly Hellmuth Tsacudakis is bringing back her morning hike and coffee on Tuesday, May 6th from 7:30 to 11 AM. I’ll be arriving the night before and might need a caffeine drip along the way, but very excited about this event. ​“Make new connections while stretching your legs, soaking in the gorgeous bay views, and sipping on espresso. UI Prep’s Molly Hellmuth will guide you along a coastal trail with views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Afterward, we’ll enjoy some well-deserved coffee on the beach courtesy of UI Prep.”

Community events are smaller gatherings and meetups happening around Config. In my opinion, they’re the best way to meet new people as the groups are much smaller, the vibes are more relaxed, and the topics are more focused. I plan to attend a few events below.

I had a hard time planning my Config agenda across 7 tracks and 5 stages, so I made this visual agenda planner in FigJam. It lays out all sessions by day, track, and stage so you can easily spot any conflicts. Copy it from the Community to plan your day individually or as a group. Here are the talks I plan to attend.

Another after-party on Thursday, May 8 organized by San Francisco UXD with a fully reserved venue that includes a bar, entertainment, and special guests and product demos.

Detach is the premier after-party organized by Jesse Showalter, Tommy Geoco, Femke van Schoonhoven, and Soren Iverson on Wednesday, May 7 where the design community comes together to unwind, connect, and celebrate.

So many great speakers and topics this year! I’m particularly looking forward to talks on programmable colors by Evil Martians, collaborative brand design by Smith & Diction, building digital products as a company of one by my friend Christine Vallaure, designing for early-stage startups by Gabriel Valdivia, typography by Elliot Jay Stocks, and of course a secret deep dive by Rogie King, Tim Van Damme, and Lauren Budorick.

A first look at who’ll be taking the stage at Config in San Francisco this May: Andrew ​“Boz” Bosworth, CTO at Meta; Ebi Atawodi, Director of Product Management at YouTube Studio; Joel Lewenstein, Head of Product Design at Anthropic; Dr. Madeline Gannon; Karri Saarinen, Linear co-founder and CEO, and more.

If you’ve been waiting for more details to start planning your trip to Config 2025, now is the time. Azra Daniels, Director of Events at Figma, gives a first look at what the team is building for the community on both sides of the Atlantic. The conference will kick off on May 6 at Config Commons near Moscone Center in San Francisco, where you can grab the badge and meet other attendees. To avoid long registration lines, partner hotels will offer multiple check-in locations. 50+ sessions will take place in multiple tracks on May 7 and 8. The Maker Space will feature a dedicated stage where community leaders showcase their latest work. Config will continue in London the following week for a one-day event with 10 sessions.

Time to update your calendars and make travel plans! Next year, Config is coming to San Francisco on May 6–8 and London on May 14th. Early bird tickets are already available with a 50% discount.

Claire Butler, a marketing lead at Figma, shares three principles that help market to designers or other groups of passionate experts. Make sure to watch the video she is referring to.

I furiously nodded while reading her second lesson: ​“If you can come up with and understand all of the content, you haven’t gone deep enough. Whatever you are doing will come across too generic, and thus will not resonate. They’ll sniff you out.”

In-person attendees of Config 2024 received Issue 2 of The Prompt, a print magazine by Figma’s Story Studio and Brand Studio. A digital version is now available on the blog. ​“Featuring leaders working across design, engineering, product development, and the built environment, this collection of essays and interviews takes on questions about how AI might shape the way we create.”

If you’ve already caught up with the Config videos, here is a new YouTube playlist with recordings from the Config APAC, which happened the following week after the main Config in San Francisco.

It’s Nice That talks to Damien Correll, Figma’s creative director, and Jessica Svendsen, its design manager, about designing the identity for this year’s Config and the response from the community. ​“The visual identity that goes alongside Config is a ten-month design project completed mainly internally, this year with help from Danish design team Relay on the motion front. Extending Figma’s core shape-based language with transforming glyphs, the branding is colourful, clean and much-hyped.”

See also Crafting the visual identity for Config 2024 at Figma blog.

If one Config wasn’t enough for you, here is a second one-day event at the Asia Pacific region, ​“full of keynotes, sessions, and programming designed to connect a dynamic community of builders to the future of product design & development.” Most of the talks were unique to this event.

Abdus Salam, Product Designer at Meta, writes at UX Collective: ​“The future belongs to designers who can master AI, not be mastered by it. Our value lies not just in our technical skills, but in our creativity, our empathy, and our ability to wield these tools in service of crafting experiences that resonate on a profoundly human level.” Also: ​“while AI can help us reach ​“good”, achieving ​“great” still requires human ingenuity and an unwavering commitment to quality.”

The beautifully made radio control panel by Yang You, inspired by the Art of Noise exhibit at the SFMOMA. (I also visited it after the second day of Config, and seeing these cult objects by Dieter Rams and teenage engineering in person was a remarkable experience.)

David Hoang on three topics he is thinking a lot about after this year’s Config.