Our vision for the first-ever In/Visible Talks conference, held on January 11, 2018, was to bring together designers, artists, and creative thinkers from a range of disciplines to talk about the creative process and inspire each other to learn and grow. We couldn’t have been more pleased with the results.

The speakers blew us away with their vulnerability, authenticity, and insight into what really happens behind the scenes (versus what gets reported in case studies). They entertained us with their stories, and they inspired us with their learnings.

Even the venue, The Pearl, energized us with its gorgeous and acoustically fabulous conference space, second-story pop-up shop, and a rooftop deck (where Lunch + Learn was held) featuring views of the San Francisco Bay.

It was a life-changing day. As one attendee shared with us, “[The conference] awakened my own awesome and helped me rethink how, what, and why I do what I do.”

Here are some highlights.

In addition to signing copies of her extraordinary science-meets-art pop-up book, This Book Is a Planetarium, Kelli Anderson talked about lo-fi magic and urged us to get tactile in her talk on “The Hidden Talents of Everyday Things”.

In “Taking a Design Stretch”, Samantha Warren reminded us that inspiration strikes when you least expect it—and “You have to let it strike you!”

Panelists Heather Day, Tim Belonax, Adam Katz, and Brian Singer encouraged everyone to define, break, and create their own rules in “The Intersections of Art and Design”.

Find your own “side door”, that thing that makes you and your work unique, and leverage it, said Communications Coach Dia Bondi in “The Art of Your Work—Knowing What Matters in Doing What You Do”.

“Be transparent + invite participation + define the rules + be courageous” was one of the takeaways from Tim Murray’s talk on “Primal Collaboration”.

Hardware Interface Designer Basheer Tome had us laughing out loud over images of his wildly destructive and brilliant creative process for his talk on “Faking the Future”.

For the live podcast, Making Ways Host Rob Goodman interviewed Lumi CEO Jesse Genet. “Ideas fail a lot, but people aren’t failures,” was one of her many encouraging messages.

In “Where’s the Light? Lessons in Fumbling Through Creative Darkness”, Marta Harding suggested we ask different questions when we’re stuck, such as “What do you want to do next? Who are the people you want to do it with? Am I threatening the status quo, or am I the status quo?”

Talk about a career shakeup! Maria Giudice shared recent personal changes in “Remaking the Making Company” and encouraged everyone to “Treat everything like design. Evaluate. Iterate. Evolve. Repeat. And plan not to know the answers yet—or ever.” (Some attendees sketched their notes about the talks, as you see here.)

“Doing nothing is completely necessary” was the big takeaway we got from Jenny Odell’s talk on “How to Do Nothing”, and sometimes that means engaging in bird-noticing—not just watching, but listening.

Hear it straight from an attendee! Read all about Lisa Clapper of the Yay Collective‘s experience at In/Visible Talks here.

The conversations continue! Find out about upcoming Salons, Workshops, and other special events here.