Config is back in Moscone Center, San Francisco on June 26–27, 2024 — save the date! Earliest bird tickets cost $175 (75% off!) and save you a guaranteed seat. Config 2023 was an incredible event, so I’ve already got my ticket and hope to make it back next year. The call for speakers is open until the end of this year and the next event will be focused on the five themes — building products, design craft, design systems, development and code, and innovation.

Five industry leaders discuss leading products through design and “getting rid of the classic product management function”, as told by Brian Chesky during his fireside chat with Dylan Field at Config. A very impressive lineup of contributors to this piece — Lenny Rachitsky, Julie Zhuo (Facebook), Steve Johnson (Netflix), Sho Kuwamoto and Yuhki Yamashita from Figma.

In episode #461, Brian and Marshall “supply some cold (but thoughtful!) takes on everything released during last month’s WWDC and Config 2023.”

It was really cool to relive the conference through Charli’s vlog. I’ve been covering her work for years, and we briefly met in person at Zeplin’s after-party. Now I have a huge FOMO from missing the Design Life podcast meetup, as I headed out to the airport. (Fun fact: I discovered Femke’s work through her vlog from the first Config in 2020, and she is Charli’s co-host of the podcast.)

In-person attendees of Config 2023 found a copy of a playful zine in their swag bags. Figma collaborated with It’s Nice That on The Playbook to showcase the benefits of spontaneous thinking and curiosity through design. Inside, there is a piece on “how to embrace (and enjoy) endless iteration” by Chief Product Officer Yuhki Yamashita, as well as an investigation into what it truly means to be a collaborative engineer by Chief Technology Officer Kris Rasmussen. If you prefer getting hands-on rather than sitting down with an essay, there are also a host of activities to tackle.

Shivani used an AI service to make Config 2023 recordings searchable and generate summaries and takeaways. While AI summarization can be hit or miss, searching by a keyword through all talks is surprisingly useful!

Great summary of Brian Chesky’s conversation with Dylan Field on approaching everything at Airbnb through a design lens.

It almost feels like FigJam with its endless board was made for large spatial recaps like this! Great idea and a fun format made by Juarez Filho.

Dan Mall is an expert in design systems and a fellow designer from Philadelphia. Dan organized a post-Config basketball game, hosted a special dinner, and even captained the winning team at the Figmatch design competition. His recap focuses on what makes in-person conferences really special.

Lilibeth Bustos Linares is a teacher at Memorisely and co-organizer of a wonderful morning hike with Zander Whitehurst a day before the Config. Thanks to jet lag I was able to get up at 5:30 am and join the group at 6:30 am. It was wonderful to walk the Historic Trail of San Francisco and chat with so many designers from around the world!

Damien Correll, Creative Director at Figma, shares some thoughts on the Config brand. Creating an identity for a brief event is an interesting challenge, and Figma’s brand studio does an incredible job every time. The pictograms were my favorite part — they are in lively motion on the screen but feel monumental IRL as wooden cutouts or a statue at Moscone, almost at odds with the temporal nature of the brand.

Joey Banks’ recap of everything announced at Config. (I was lucky to meet Joey and share the scene with him at Config, and his deep knowledge of Figma and expertise in design systems are second to none. Highly recommend subscribing to his Baseline newsletter.)

A YouTube playlist with recordings of all 47 sessions (some split into multiple videos) from Config. As the conference had 5 tracks on the first day and 6 tracks on the second, I didn’t attend most of those sessions and looking forward to catching up during the next few weeks.

Herbert and Jenny from Figma’s editorial team take us behind the scenes of Config 2023 with daily recaps of what it was like in the heart of the action.

Dylan’s recap of all the updates from the keynote, in a brand-new blog. “Our vision is to build a new kind of design tool — one that is designed for the entire product development team. Today’s launches reimagine how design and development come together in Figma. I’m excited to introduce three ways we’re doing this: making developers feel at home in Figma with Dev Mode, connecting design to the language of code with variables, and putting a step in between a 2D design and a shipped product with advanced prototyping.”

If you have time for only one thing this week, this should be it. First, Figma CEO Dylan Field introduces new features — variables, auto layout updates, and advanced prototyping. Then, CTO Kris Rasmussen talks about rethinking product building from the ground up and how the new Dev Mode is bringing design and engineering closer together. In the end, Dylan talks about file browser refresh, font previews, and what AI could look like in Figma — wrapping things up by announcing the acquisition of Diagram.

I watched every Config keynote over the years, and this year’s announcements were the most anticipated and ambitious ever. It’s incredible to see how Figma is growing in depth and breadth at the same time, now providing incredibly advanced tools while covering an entire product-building process from brainstorming to design to development. Exciting time to be a maker.

Great resource from O/M Studio: “Welcome to San Francisco! To celebrate Config 2023 in partnership with Figma, we curated a guide to help you get the most out of your visit to our hometown. Our San Francisco guide points you to all of our favorite restaurants, bars, shops, and activities. Friends don’t let friends drink bad coffee, right?”

Figma dropped a fun pre-Config teaser that gives clues about 5 upcoming releases after solving 5 puzzles. The clues might be more tricky than the puzzles themselves!

The official mobile app for in-person attendees is a great way to see the full conference agenda, build your schedule, access speaker profiles, the location maps, and get real-time updates.

Kyler Phillips launched a really useful unofficial guide to events and meetups taking place during Config 2023 in San Francisco. I’ll be there for a few days and try to join some of them, depending on jet lag and energy level.