Skip to content
Get the Main Stage PassPass
Get the Main Stage PassUS$399
Seventh editionThe lineup8 confirmed · more soon

Who’s inthe room

People who have had to hold the line themselves.

No keynote circuit. Every speaker is here because they are working on the questions inside a real organization, right now.

↓
2026 partners

Big shoutout to our friends for their support.

  • Fable
  • Outwitly
  • LottieFiles
01 — Main stage · Wed Nov 18

This year’s voices,
announced.

8 leaders on the TIFF Bell Lightbox main stage. Session titles land as the programme locks.

Vuokko Aro

Chief Design Officer, Monzo. Speaker at Design Leadership Summit 2026, Toronto.

Cynthia Savard

VP of UX, Shopify. Speaker at Design Leadership Summit 2026, Toronto.

Amy Thibodeau

Chief Design Officer, Gusto. Speaker at Design Leadership Summit 2026, Toronto.

Christian Rohrer

VP of Design, TD Bank. Speaker at Design Leadership Summit 2026, Toronto.

Peter Merholz

Consultant & Author, Humanism at Scale. Speaker at Design Leadership Summit 2026, Toronto.

Bryanne Gilkinson

Previously, Global Senior Director, Company Transformation, Adidas. Speaker at Design Leadership Summit 2026, Toronto.

Cliff Kuang

Senior Staff Designer, Google DeepMind. Speaker at Design Leadership Summit 2026, Toronto.

Katie Kovalcin

IC Design Leader, Gusto. Speaker at Design Leadership Summit 2026, Toronto.

02 — Interactive sessions · Thu Nov 19

In the rooms, hands on.

Day 3 at Intuit, for 3-day pass holders. Sessions and sign-ups will be in the DLS app.

  • Jonathan Rez, Head of Service Design, Bank of England — interactive session
  • Danielle Klein, Director, Product Design, 1Password — interactive session
  • Dave Chen, Sr. Director, UX Foundations & Enablement, 1Password — interactive session
  • Sara Fortier, CEO, Outwitly — interactive session
  • Heather McGaw, Head of UX Research, Gusto — interactive session
  • Linn Vizard, Founder, Made Manifest — interactive session
  • Jennifer Fraser, VP of Experience and Partnerships, Outwitly — interactive session
  • Nat Cooper, Principal Experience Designer, Autodesk — interactive session
DLS 2027 · first access

Missed a seat? Be first in line next year.

Get DLS 2027 tickets before they go public, and the 2026 mainstage recordings when they’re out. You’ll also get the DesignX newsletter. Unsubscribe anytime.

03 — How we choose

Nobody is here
to sell you anything.

01Doing the work now

In-seat leaders facing live organizational decisions, not full-time speakers.

02A claim in the talk

Something specific that a reasonable person in the room could disagree with.

03Staying for the room

The talk is an opening move. Speakers join the off-record conversations too.

04Different chairs

In-house, public sector, product, brand, scale-up and enterprise perspectives.

Main Stage Pass · Wed Nov 18

Hear them
in the room.

The 3-day pass is sold out. The Main Stage Pass gets you every keynote above at TIFF Bell Lightbox, plus the conversations in the breaks between them.

Get the Main Stage Pass ↗

Need sign-off first? Take it to your manager ↗