Speakers
Want to learn shiny new things about UX and design? Our friendly, knowledgeable and approachable speakers will help and inspire you. You’ll also have time to ask all your questions!
We will announce our first speakers and workshop teachers soon! Our speakers and workshop teachers are the best in their fields, and they love to share what they know, how they work and what drives them. On top of that, they are all smashingly nice, and really want to help!
Had a wonderful day @smashingconf. Thanks for putting up such a great event! And so happy that it's happening all over again in 2024. #smashingconf
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Christine Vallaure
Christine Vallaure is the founder of moonlearning.io, a UX, UI Design, and Figma learning platform where design meets code. She’s also the author of theSolo.io, a practical guide to building and growing digital products as a company of one, and a regular speaker at design and tech conferences.
With over a decade of experience collaborating with leading brands, agencies, and startups across Berlin, Mexico City, and London, Christine now calls Madrid home..
Christine is passionate about bridging the gap between design and code. She encourages designers and developers to learn from each other, fostering curiosity, collaboration, and mutual respect. Through her teaching, writing, and workshops, Christine helps designers confidently tackle new challenges while staying current with the tools and advancements shaping the industry.
- On the web
- https://www.moonlearning.io
- On LinkedIn
- christinevallaure
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Pablo Stanley
Pablo Stanley is a Latinx designer. He is the co-founder and CEO at Bueno, Blush & Musho, and the creator of Humankind, and Robotos. Previously, lead designer at InVision, Udemy, and Lyft. He gives talks and workshops worldwide on product design, animation, illustration systems, storytelling, accessibility, behavioral economics, and the art of comics.
He has a channel called Sketch Together, where he shares design tutorials, live streams, critiques, and other random stuff. Is also producing a kids animated show with TIME Studios, and his open-source doodles include Open Peeps, Avataaars, Humaaans, Open Doodles, Bottts, and Buttsss.
Currently, Pablo is the designer and creator at Musho, an AI design tool transforming prompts into nearly-complete, dev-ready websites with simple layouts, great copy, and stunning images.
- On the web
- http://pablostanley.com/
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Gemma O’Brien
Gemma O’Brien is an internationally renowned designer and artist known for her bold graphics, illustrative lettering and murals. Her work has been commissioned by Apple, Nike, Google, and is held in the permanent collection of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City.
Outside her commercial design work, she explores language, nature and the human experience through her art practice.
- On the web
- https://www.gemmaobrien.com
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Harrison Wheeler
Harrison builds teams, inspires through storytelling, and communicates complex design ideas to both technical and non-technical audiences to ensure that products are as effective as they are beautiful.
Currently, he’s a Director of Product Design at LinkedIn, where he focuses on people management and building the vision for consumer and enterprise experiences.
Outside of work, he enjoys contributing to the UX Design community through articles, interviews, and speaking about all things design. This interest inspired him to launch Technically Speaking with Harrison Wheeler, a podcast about BIPOC designers, entrepreneurs & technologists sharing their unique challenges, triumphs, and the “why” behind their decisions.
- On the web
- https://www.harrisonwheeler.com
- On LinkedIn
- hmwheeler
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Nathan Curtis
Founder and design systems consultant at Directed Edges. He’s passionate about information architecture, UX, front-end dev and design systems. He wrote Modular Web Design in 2009, blogs frequently on Medium.com today, and speaks regularly at events worldwide.
- On the web
- https://www.directededges.com
- On LinkedIn
- nathancurtis
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John V Willshire
John set up Smithery, an independent Strategic Design Practice, in 2011 to help clients make things people want, rather than make people want things. This practice has grown to help organisations take an active role in shaping their futures as they look out over an uncertain landscape.
This involves learning to perceive and understand new realities, sparking appropriate internal innovation, and acting on these instincts to make real change. John’s work is informed by a wide range of different fields, including systemic sensibilities, futures thinking, innovation frameworks, and information design. This combination helps clients think broader, for longer.
Recent projects include developing a Future Trends and Signals System for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), scouting the emerging Climate and Health intersection for Wellcome Trust, and setting a strategic framework for building capabilities for Unilever.
- On the web
- https://smithery.com/
- On LinkedIn
- in/johnvwillshire/
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Dee Scarano
Dee Scarano consults and coaches startups and large corporations around the world in product strategy, innovation methods, and rapid validation of business ideas — across industries that range from agriculture in Brazil, to micro-credit in India, and manufacturing & logistics across the United States.
She’s a world leader in Design Sprint facilitation and has trained teams and lead innovation at organizations such as Google, Twitter, LEGO, Microsoft, Tetra Pak, Lufthansa, Verizon, and many more.
Dee has also coached at Google’s startup accelerator and is a trainer in AJ&Smart's Design Sprint Masterclass and Workshopper Master courses.
- On the web
- https://www.deescarano.com
- On LinkedIn
- deescarano
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Nick Desbarats
Independent Educator and Best-selling Author
As an independent educator and best-selling author, Nick Desbarats has taught data visualization and information dashboard design to thousands of professionals in over a dozen countries at organizations such as NASA, Bloomberg, Visa, The United Nations, Shopify, The Internal Revenue Service, and The Central Bank of Tanzania.
Nick is the author of the Amazon #1 New Release “Practical Charts” (2023) and the upcoming “Practical Dashboards” (2025) books, and he regularly contributes articles to The Journal of the Data Visualization Society (Nightingale) that are among that publication’s most widely read and shared.
- On the web
- https://www.practicalreporting.com/
- On LinkedIn
- nickdesbarats
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Maggie Appleton
Maggie Appleton is a designer, anthopologist and (mediocre — her words :)) developer. She's originally from London but grew up in international schools in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore. After a career at various education and open source initiatives, she now leads design at Elicit.
Design, anthropology, and programming are at the core of everything she makes, and combining them into a coherent career is a weird and ongoing challenge.
- On the web
- https://maggieappleton.com/
- On LinkedIn
- maggieappleton
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Jason Mesut
Jason Mesut helps people pursue positive futures. Navigating the uncertainties of their present. For the benefit of themselves, their organisations and broader society. He does this through executive coaching, community leadership, strategic consulting, and his signature ‘Shaping’ workshops.
Jason has spent over 20 years working within UX, Design, and Innovation consulting worlds for leading organisations. Mentoring, leading, and managing designers to do the work of their lives for the benefit of others.
He now runs his own coaching, design and innovation consultancy, Resonant. Works as a Design Partner at Group of Humans, a network of global creative leaders. Coaches through the Coaching with Chemistry network. And also co-hosts events for IxDA London.
- On the web
- https://medium.com/@jasonmesut
- On LinkedIn
- jasonmesut
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Cameron Worboys
Cameron is a hands-on design director currently working at Cash app. Prior to Cash, Cam has led award winning work for Wise, Beats by Dre and Apple. His background primarily focuses on large-scale consumer-facing products, with an emphasis on core experience teams and global design systems. Some of his most notable work includes the recent Wise Rebrand and the redesign of Beats' digital experiences.
As a designer and leader, he is passionate about collaborating with great people to create exceptional work.
- On the web
- https://www.cameronworboys.com
- On LinkedIn
- cameronworboys
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Mystery Speaker
Obviously, our Mystery Speaker is a bit of a… well, Mystery. In true smashing style, you can expect something wonderful. Make sure to set your alarm on day two of the conference, because you don't want to miss this.
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Vitaly Friedman
Creative Lead and Co-Founder of Smashing Magazine
Vitaly Friedman loves beautiful content and doesn’t like to give in easily. When he is not writing or speaking at a conference, he’s most probably running front-end/UX workshops and webinars. He loves solving complex UX, front-end and performance problems.
- On the web
- https://smashingmagazine.com
- On LinkedIn
- vitalyfriedman
