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Cultivating Community Offline: A Short History of the Core77 Conference

Making the decision to throw a design conference is ambitious, to say the least. Between securing speakers and presenters, organizing a variety of events, solidifying venues and marketing the event, hosting a conference is intense work. At it’s heart, the annual Core77 Conference is an opportunity to bring our dynamic online community together in real life, a real place where attendees can interact with Core77 staff, presenters and the larger audience in a unique environment. Additionally, the Core77 Conference is an unparalleled opportunity for everyone to network and forge new personal and professional relationships. Through teamwork and extensive planning, Core77 launched our inaugural design conference, Object Culture, in 2014.

There’s still time to attend this September’s Core77 Conference! Buy your ticket today!

2014: Object Culture

Intended for those interested in broadening their perspective and gaining new insights of contemporary design practice and its impact on business, society and culture, the annual conference drew a wide array of participants with interests varying from UI/UX to consumer product design to design techniques for entrepreneurship.

Held in our hometown of Brooklyn, the first Core77 Conference featured speakers who covered topics ranging from bike culture to wearables to design techniques and theories and concluded with a social evening of food and drinks. It wasn’t perfect, but as Michael Ditullo said in his 2014 conference presentation on “Design in the C-Suite,” “If you only aim for perfection and skip the process, you won’t go anywhere.” Now in year three, we’re pretty deep in the process and and our conference this year reflects just how far we’ve come.

Highlights from the 2015 Conference: Designing Here/Now

2015: Designing Here/Now

We’re always learning, so our 2015 conference implemented a number of developments. As Designing Here/Now, we wanted to connect with our West Coast audience and dropped into the bustling design community in downtown Los Angeles, California. With a speaker line-up representing some of the most interesting design entrepreneurs and practices in Los Angeles including Matthew Manos of Very Nice, WET Designs, Tad Toulis of SONOS, Jessie Kawata of NASA JPL, Brandon Ravenhill, Tanya Aguiniga, Javier Verdura of Tesla and Pip Tompkin, the City of Angels proved to be the perfect location for our event—so much so that the conference will be returning there this year! 

2016: Designing Here/Now

With the addition of a second day, this year we’re adding a formal day of practical workshops and behind-the-scenes tours to our day-long symposium hosted at the dramatic cathedral of the Vibiana in Downtown Los Angeles. The 2016 theme at the Core77 Conference: Designing Here/Now focuses on the way that designers can lead interdisciplinary teams to create innovative new products. With two years of experience hosting conferences already under our belt, the third is expected to be the best yet.

Focusing on the idea of co-creation, through talks and interactive practice, the conference will address the topics of human-centered design in the age of technology, startup strategies and storytelling. This year’s presenters represent more than the disruptive startups and established brands they’ve worked to build—Microsoft, Google, IDEO, PAX Labs, Eames Office, Hyperloop One and more—they are working in ways that will inspire your practice and shape your long term perspective on the role of design in our near future.

On day one of the conference attendees will experience presentations and panels in our symposium. We’ll provide lunch, snacks and plenty of opportunities to interact with ideas and fellow attendees. These ideas will be further expanded on day two during a morning of workshops lead by Core77’s network professionals at The Standard Downtown followed by lunch at the A+D Architecture and Design Museum.

Core77 2015 Conference walking tour of downtown Los Angeles led by Alissa Walker

Then the activities continue with Friday afternoon behind-the-scene tours. For the second year in a row, Curbed Urbanism Editor Alissa Walker will be leading a walking tour of downtown Los Angeles. Gensler Architect Audrey Wu will be leading a tour of LA’s new SkySlide. Part of OUE Skyspace LA, the space offers visitors a 360-degree view of Los Angeles on the tallest open-air observation deck in California and includes the 1.25" thick, forty five foot long, glass slide—positioned 1,000 feet above downtown Los Angeles.

A ride on the SkySlide (Source: Brian van der Brug for Los Angeles Times)

Last but not least, the Hyperloop One team will be leading the Hyperloop One Tour, exploring the 55,000 square-foot, 2.5 acre, headquarters of the company that’s making Elon Musk’s vision for future transportation—located right in the heart of the downtown Los Angeles Arts District.

Hyperloop Campus (Source: Hyperloop)

Still wondering what makes the Core77 Conference so special? While our overall industrial design conference experience is largely unmatched, “The diversity of the audience what is really exciting and unique,” says Core77 Co-founder Stuart Constantine. “You never know what type of person you’ll be sitting next to through the day—where they come from, what they do, what their story is. This mix is something we pride ourselves on, and always have.”

Learn more about contemporary design practice at this September’s Core77 Conference in Los Angeles. Buy your ticket today!