2026 Design Educators Conference Call for Speaker Abstracts

The 2026 Conference adopts the theme Field Trip, inviting reflection on the ways design education ventures beyond familiar terrains to engage with new contexts of learning. 

Field trips are about curiosity, mobility and encountering the unexpected. In what ways might excursions—whether literal or metaphorical—generate new knowledge? What discoveries are inspiring our practice and transforming the ways we teach and understand design?

Design educators, practitioners and thought leaders are invited to submit proposals to present at the 2026 RGD Design Educators Conference taking place in partnership with Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey on May 28.

Deadline to submit: Monday, February 9, 2026., 11:59 pm ET

Presentation Abstracts

We encourage proposals that examine design education as an open-ended adventure. Submissions may consider:

• Teaching practices that extend learning into community, environment, or non-traditional spaces
• Approaches to risk, uncertainty, or play as critical methods of inquiry
• Case studies of projects, courses, or institutional shifts that reimagine the role of design in society
• Theoretical contributions that situate design teaching in relation to exploration, adaptation and transformation

Abstracts should not exceed 500 words and must clearly outline the presentation title, objectives and intended outcomes.

Presentation format: 20-minute talk + 10-minute Q&A

Workshop Abstracts

Submissions are invited for interactive, hands-on, participant-driven sessions under the theme Field Trip. Workshops should create opportunities for collective exploration—whether through practical activities, discussion or exercises—that take participants in new directions. Sessions might introduce tools, frameworks, or methods that cultivate curiosity and discovery, while connecting to broader questions of how design education can adapt and expand in response to the unexpected.

Proposals should be no more than 500 words in length and include the title, objectives and intended outcomes of the session.

Workshop Format: 60 minutes in length, and facilitators will be expected to provide detailed materials or outlines for participant engagement.