Speakers & Guests

By day, a Sr. Creative Lead at Duolingo focused on user growth — shipping initiatives that have scaled to over a million incremental daily active users. By night, Co-Founder & President of the Asian Creative Foundation, reaching 15k+ creatives globally.

An award-winning creative director at IBM, leading design and motion for its AI code assistant. 25+ years spanning creative direction, motion, 2D/3D, environmental design, branding, and film. "Asking Siddiq what kind of designer he is, it's like asking a rainbow to pick one color."

Founder & Creative Director of Abike Studio, a design and experiential agency at the intersection of culture, space, and brand — producing activations, campaigns, and immersive environments for clients like Spotify, NBPA, Instagram, and Dove. A third-culture lens fluent across IRL and digital space, bringing the precision of production and the instinct of culture into one practice.

Emmy Award-winning Principal Designer at Cisco leading design and strategy of AI-driven workplace experiences and Agentic UX. Previously defined the mobile vision for Google Drive and shaped products at IBM. Has mentored over 4,000 designers worldwide.

Senior product designer at Thrivent. Previously designed at PayPal, Coinbase, Meta Creative X, MongoDB, and partnered with brands such as Four Seasons, Marie Claire, and Mejuri. Her work has reached ~3B+ users globally and contributed to ~$50M+ in funding and revenue. Speaking on “Designing at the Intersection of Fashion and Tech.”

Co-executive director of learning and programs at AIGA, teaching at SVA and Parsons. His talk "Haunting Machines" explores a bizarre AI hallucination — a ChatGPT-fabricated book attributed to him — and what it revealed about the "ghosts" in generative AI.

Mustafa Bağdatlı spent 9 years at Google, the last 6+ leading UX for Cloud AI (Gemini Enterprise, Retail AI, Discovery AI). Now independent at aiconsultant.com, running vision sprints for retail, commerce, and AI teams on what AI should feel like for the customers using it and the teams running it.

Leading the Portfolio / Interview Preparation workshop covering brand/visual design and product/UI/UX portfolio presentation and interview readiness.

Co-leading the Portfolio / Interview Preparation workshop with Christie Shin, bringing 30+ years of design expertise to real-time portfolio feedback sessions.

Making NYC the biggest startup ecosystem in the world. Throwing some of the coolest hackathons in NYC. Ex-Founder, Venture Scout, and Engineer leading the Design × Dev Hackathon.

Senior Product Designer at EY and organizer with Friends of Figma NYC. Co-leading the Design × Dev Hackathon workshop experience.

Bringing the ACF lens to the Community Roundtable — a global creative network of 15k+ designers. By day, Sr. Creative Lead at Duolingo, shipping growth initiatives that have scaled to over a million incremental DAUs.

Moderating the Community Roundtable on organizations shaping NYC design. Graduate student with a background in criminal justice, passionate about international business and human rights. Driven to leverage strategy to create meaningful impact in global communities.

Founder of Her Rising Initiative, a nonprofit closing the opportunity gap and increasing women in leadership — 80+ chapters globally introducing girls to entrepreneurship, policy, and advocacy. Studying policy and government at Cornell. Spoke at the 2024 White House Youth Policy Summit.

Executive Director of AIGA NY, with 25+ years of management and customer service experience in the creative sector. At AIGA NY, she builds relationships with members, the board, sponsoring corporations, and a range of external partners. BA in creative writing and classical studies from Hunter College.

David is a seasoned developer with over a decade of experience building dynamic, data-driven applications. He began his career at Scholastic, creating educational games, before joining Code and Theory, where he led development on high-profile projects. He later transitioned to CNN full-time, where he specializes in real-time applications and interactive maps that power live news coverage and editorial storytelling. Outside of his full-time role, David has served as a contract senior developer at Cynda Media Lab in NYC, showcasing his versatility across a wide range of creative and technical projects. He also shares his expertise as a guest lecturer at the Fashion Institute of Technology, mentoring the next generation of designers.

A creative at heart and software engineer by trade. 25+ years coding, 15+ years in NYC tech, 10+ years in leadership. Serial founding/early engineer at Artsy, Octave, Cityblock, Kismet, Puzzmo, and SendingStone.

Multi-faceted designer with over 15 years of experience across disciplines. Notable clients include Grey Goose, Red Bull US, Tag Heuer, AMC, and DC Universe. Exploring the intersection of design practice and AI as a means to explore trauma.

Specializes in narrative-driven growth, go-to-market strategy, and digital transformation. Partners with C-suite leaders to build content ecosystems and brand experiences at the intersection of design, technology, and innovation. Translates strategy into scalable, high-impact outcomes across global organizations.