2017 SAlesforce Design Leadership Conference in Graphis design annual

Each year, Salesforce sponsors the Design Leadership Conference, an event that asks Salesforce employees, company partners, and guests to rethink their approach to design. This year, creative luminaries gathered at San Francisco's de Young Museum and revealed which ideas from days-gone-by inspired their successes. The day included legendary car designer, J Mays, and BOOM Supersonic—the company reimagining the Concorde jet—as well as product designers from Detroit's Shinola among others.

2017 SAlesforce Design Leadership Conference Film

the 2016 SAlesforce Design Leadership Conference

The annual Salesforce Design Leadership Conference is a one-day symposium with some of the world’s most exciting innovators. It’s a day that will leave you reevaluating your perspectives on design.

Read the blog post for last year's event here.

Form Follows Me

The 20th century challenge was to design a world of useful new machines. Form Followed Function. The rise of consumer culture introduced empathy and user centric design. Form followed Emotion. We are now entering an era of quantification and automation. Every person, place, and thing is being written about, annotated, digitized, and automated. Machines and services are designed to serve our new analog and digital composite self: the Meta-Me. What does that mean for the world of product and experience design? Mark will discuss the impacts of ubiquitous computing, invisible interfaces, and machine intelligence on design, daily life, and business. Let’s explore where all this is headed. What happens when Form Follows Me?

Design Meets Story

What happens when the publishing industry scrambles to go digital? Simple: go analog. Join John Zissimos in conversation with New York Times best-selling author, Doug Dorst, and learn how he and J.J. Abrams collaborated on the novel S., one of the most exciting literary achievements in years. It’s the perfect convergence of story and graphic design, and can only be experienced on that humble material we call paper. Don’t miss one of the most interesting and forward-thinking talents on the literary scene today.

Germ Harmony

Germs surround us. These microbial systems live in our homes, offices, public buildings, and of course, all over our bodies. Where do these microbial communities come from and can they be designed for healthier environments? Engineer, biodiversity scientist, and TED Senior Fellow, Jessica Green brings the hidden world of germs to life through art, animation, and film, and shares her vision on how genomic-designed architecture may help create more healthful lives.

ALCHEMY OF ATMOSPHERE

Based in Miami, Oppenheim Architecture encompasses all realms of design, ranging from large-scale urban architecture, hotels and resorts, luxury homes, and interiors and furnishings. An alchemist of atmosphere, Chad Oppenheim transforms the prosaic into the poetic – eliciting a site’s inherent power through passion and sensitivity toward man and nature. With stunning new benchmarks in Australia, Jordan, Manila, and right here at home, Mr. Oppenheim is transforming the way people live and work in profound and innovative ways. Don’t miss your chance to hear from one of the world’s most exciting architects working today.

Humans or Machines?

Is the question either/or, is there a happy medium? Join Patrick Kalaher of frog, as he discusses the emerging relationship between humans and machines within what frog calls Big Design. And, how in the short to medium term, humans and machines will work together to create new types of systems and processes that will achieve more than either humans or machines could by themselves.

You Thought That Was Fast

400 miles in 35 minutes? It hardly seems possible. But it is. And it’s happening right now with a collection of brilliant minds determined to change the way we connect, commute, and deliver goods at speeds only imagined in science fiction novels. Join Chris Vasquez, Director of Product Engineering at Hyperloop One, in conversation with Salesforce Creative Chief John Zissimos, as they discuss the fifth mode of transportation. And how public transport can be redesigned to be carbon-free, energy efficient, safe, on demand, and really, really fast.

Disrupting Diversity

Two heads are better than one, as the cliché goes. But what if the two heads think the same way? Does it leave room for new ideas? Join Creative Director Kat Gordon in conversation with Salesforce CCO John Zissimos as they discuss how individuals with varied backgrounds can bring valuable assets to the table, and how our differences can create powerful new paths to innovation. Can true diversity lead to smarter design and greater profitability? The answer lies in the 3% equation. It’s an interesting discussion you won’t want to miss.

THE 2015 SALESFORCE DESIGN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE Opener