What does it mean to lead as a designer right now, when the ground keeps shifting under our feet?

That’s the question ÌníOlúwa Abíódún poses at the start of her Throughline 2026 talk—Staying human, strategic, and sane in the AI goldrush. And her answer might surprise you. Because it’s not about moving faster than everyone else, or being the first to master every single new tool.

It’s about staying human: listening more deeply than ever, being more honest with each other, and creating space for messy, imperfect experiments together.

To find out what that actually looks like in practice—and how to get started—join us on June 26! We’ll meet up to watch Ìní’s Throughline talk. Then we’ll spend the rest of our time in live discussion with Ìní herself—going deep (and getting real) about topics like:

• How do you separate the signal from the noise when AI mandates are making teams frantic and a new tool gets thrown our way every five minutes?

• What does it look like for design to adapt to the moment—without losing sight of its values or letting go of the work we care about?

• How do we stay honest about what we don’t know or where we’re struggling when there’s so much pressure to “perform certainty” at work?

Bring your questions. Bring a snack. And bring the friendly, let’s-figure-it-out-together vibes we could all use right now.