Nivan

10 hours in 30 seconds — our Nivan Chicago conference this past May. From morning check-in to the closing cocktail hour, the day brought together some of the sharpest minds in AI and UX for keynotes, networking, and the kind of real connections that don't happen over a screen. And this was just the beginning. Our next chapter is already in motion. Join us on September 24 for our next Creative Duel in Chicago — a live showcase where design and AI go head to head. #AIxUX #UXDesign #TechEvents #Innovation #NivanLive Nick Allen Noel Childs David Kazaryan Bob Nesbitt Linnea Hagen Gavin Lew Suzanne Currie Bennett Hornbostel Varun Kapoor Alex Schulko Casey Hudetz Tony Bynum Ben Shown Kyle T. Schulz Sarah Wallace Eric Smallwood Matthew Alverson Kevin Yuda Ashley Craig Niketa Jhaveri Carlos Manalo

Where's the best thinking in AI and UX happening in 2026? We pulled together the innovation conferences worth your time and travel this year — across 8 countries, from Montreal to Kuala Lumpur — into one open resource. No ranking. Just the dates, cities, and formats, so you can plan. The field gets sharper when the whole community can see what's out there — so we included the events we don't host, too. 👇 Second half of 2026: 🇺🇸 Creative Duel Nivan — Chicago https://lnkd.in/ggae9_Dx 🇨🇦 HCI International — Montreal https://lnkd.in/gK8rSUB2 🇦🇺 UX Australia — Sydney https://lnkd.in/g8y6upBq 🇦🇹 UXCon Vienna — Vienna https://www.uxcon.io/ 🇩🇪 HATCH Conference — Berlin https://lnkd.in/eC7DeATZ 🇩🇰 Future Product Days — Copenhagen https://lnkd.in/dvX-yPiU 🇺🇸 The AI Conference — San Francisco https://aiconference.com/ 🇺🇸 UXCON26 — Silver Spring https://lnkd.in/dF-uTN58 🇲🇾 FuseCon — Kuala Lumpur https://www.fusecon.asia/ 🇩🇪 PUSH UX — Munich https://lnkd.in/eWpPZMD8 🇺🇸 EPIC — Chicago https://lnkd.in/g3UM6VhK 🇧🇬 UX Sofia — Sofia https://uxsofia.com/ Full list, always updated → https://lnkd.in/gSq8FSmQ Which one are you going to this year? Drop it below. 👇 #UX #AI #Design #UXResearch #InnovatingAcrossTime Nivan UX Australia uxcon vienna Hatch Conference Future Product Days The AI Conference IxDF - Interaction Design Foundation FuseCon Asia PUSH UX EPIC People Lucrat Bulgaria

When the debate ended, the thinking didn't. We caught up with Varun Kapoor, Lead Product Designer at Microsoft — one of the minds who stepped into the Creative Duel at Nivan 2026 — and his reflections stuck with us: 💬 Don't fear AI. Make it your companion. 💬 Before you build, understand the purpose with empathy. Don't build bad or mean things. 💬 Hope to see more conversations about robotics — that's the next thing coming. This is what a Creative Duel is built for: two contrasting viewpoints, one hard question, and a room sharp enough to sit with the tension instead of resolving it too quickly. No hot takes. Real judgment, out loud. Now we're looking for the next voices to step into the ring. If you're a designer, technologist, or builder who can argue a position with conviction — and change your mind when the argument is better — we want you on stage. 🗓️ Applications for the next Creative Duel close Monday, July 20th. Registration: https://lnkd.in/gZwExw7m Innovating across time, together. #NivanLive #InnovatingAcrossTime #ContextShapesInnovation #QuestioningTheFuture #CreativeDuel #DesignLeadership #AI Varun Kapoor Daya Johnson

The most telling feedback from Nivan Event wasn't about what we did — it was about the choices behind it. "Niketa chose different metrics for this conference. Intimacy over scale, depth over breadth, human connection over efficiency. And got a fundamentally different experience as a result." — Ashley Craig, Managing Director, Research and Product Innovation "Less hype. More signal. They created something that felt like true community building." — Heather Prekop, Latana Intimacy over scale. Signal over hype. That was the whole idea — and hearing it reflected back means the world. Thank you. #NivanLive #UX #Community #ResearchAndInnovation Ashley Craig Heather Prekop

You've experienced Nivan on stage. Now meet the people building what happens next. Back on May 21st, the Creative Duel did exactly what it was built to do — three sets of real practitioners took opposite sides on AI, technology, and the future of design, in front of a room that came to think harder. The honest disagreement most conferences quietly avoid. And people didn't just watch it. They leaned in. That kind of energy doesn't happen by accident. It's this team — trading ideas over happy hours, sweating the small details, and putting real care into every moment of the experience. And we're just getting started. We're already deep in prep for the next Creative Duel, and we're still looking for a few practitioners who can hold their ground on the questions shaping our field. Know someone who'd be perfect on that stage? Send them our way 👇 https://lnkd.in/g6vWNc9J #NivanLive #CreativeDuel

Two practitioners. One stage. They publicly disagree. That's the Creative Duel — Nivan's format where two experts take opposing sides on the questions shaping our field and defend them in front of a live audience. No panels. No "it depends." Just clarity and contrast. We're locking in speakers for the next Creative Duel, and we're looking for people ready to challenge and be challenged on AI, design, product, leadership, and innovation. You'd be a fit if you: → Hold a real position and can defend it with conviction → Can turn a bold argument into three sharp points → Want to think out loud with someone who sees it differently Abundance vs Attention. Automation vs Agency. The strongest ideas don't come from agreement — they come from tension held honestly. Applications close Monday, July 20. If that's you, apply at nivan.live. https://lnkd.in/gZwExw7m #NivanLive #CreativeDuel #AI #UX #Leadership #Innovation

We recorded every speaker. Now we're giving it all away. 🎥 Meet Nivan Circle — every talk from our event, now living on nivan.live. The room's energy fades. The ideas shouldn't. So we recorded it all, and the full library is yours — free. No gatekeeping, no catch. Missed the event? Want to relive that one talk that rewired your brain? Press play. 💙 👉 Join the Circle at nivan.live www.nivan.live/nivancircle Come for one video. Stay for the whole library. Always be connected. → nivan.live #NivanLive #NivanCircle #Community

What if we could see across time to design a better future? That single question, asked in Chicago — a city that has always rebuilt and reimagined itself — became Nivan. We started from a simple belief: innovation without context is incomplete. Ideas aren't invented in isolation. They're shaped over time, by what came before and what we choose to carry forward. Nivan means peace, renewal, and higher consciousness — the calm after transformation, where creation and clarity meet. It's our answer to a world where design and research too often live in silos, and where progress gets discussed without human connection. Past, present, and future as one continuum. That's the room we're building. Swipe through to meet the why behind Nivan. → #NivanLive #InnovatingAcrossTime #ContextShapesInnovation #ProgressWithPerspective

Most people see the final keynote. We see the unresolved tensions, the late-night design pivots, and the shared grit it takes to build a living archive from scratch. Nivan isn't a one-day trend; it’s a multi-season commitment to making complex systems human. This team built the room, but you all made it a community. Wishing our entire network a reflective, intentional week. Rest up — we have a lot more to design together. #NivanLive #ContextShapesInnovation

Independence Day is a reminder of what happens when a collective vision gets built with grit and intention. True innovation requires space for honest reckoning and cross-industry collision. Before Nivan even held its first flagship conference, our partners stepped up to build that exact room with us. They didn't do it to celebrate hype — they did it to pressure-test what’s real. Thank you to the organizations helping us design responsibly across time horizons. #Nivan2026 #ProgressWithPerspective