Leading Design London will bring design leaders to the Barbican Centre on Nov. 11 and 12, 2026, with a confirmed program that puts organizational effectiveness, executive influence and AI-related change alongside creative leadership.
For executives managing design as a business capability, the forthcoming conference offers a focused question: how does a design team improve the way decisions are made, rather than simply increase the volume of work it produces? This preview examines the published agenda, not outcomes from an event that has yet to take place.
Design inside complex organizations
The organizer’s schedule places several organizational topics together on the first day. Rich Rutter is scheduled to address design effectiveness in established organizations, followed by Kuba Bartwicki on doing creative work within institutions not organized around it.
The official speaker roster identifies Rutter as Clearleft’s co-founder and Bartwicki as head of design at the Government Digital Service. It lists Sarah Deford Moser, design director at Slack, for another first-day session addressing speed and the preservation of product quality.
These are scheduled subjects, not evidence that the speakers will endorse a single operating model. Their business relevance lies in the connection between a team’s creative output and the organization through which that output must travel.
AI and executive influence share the agenda
Liz Danzico, listed as vice president of design at Microsoft AI Experiences, is scheduled to discuss lessons from the Royal Academy of AI. Dan Makoski, chief design adviser at Uplifting Design, follows with a session on communicating with a chief executive about design.
The program also includes lunchtime conversations about working in an AI environment and increasing a design team’s influence. On the second day, the agenda moves through leadership approaches, design operations and collaboration. The roster includes Dominique Ward of ServiceNow, Michelle Lee of IDEO and Birgit Geiberger of IKEA.
That combination creates a useful distinction for business readers: adopting new tools and securing the authority to change a workflow are related tasks, but not the same task. A technical demonstration would not, by itself, answer a question about ownership or accountability.
What to look for before drawing conclusions
Bespoke Careers’ event listing independently confirms the dates and Barbican venue. It describes the Clearleft-organized conference as aimed at people leading teams or overseeing design direction, rather than individual contributors.
The practical test for the forthcoming discussions will be specificity. Examples that identify a decision, its owner and the evidence used to judge the result would be more useful than broad claims about influence. This is a standard for evaluating the future discussion, not a claim about what any speaker has already demonstrated.
The published program includes optional workshops booked separately. Session plans may change before the event. The agenda establishes what is planned; it does not establish improved business performance or guarantee that a method will transfer unchanged between organizations.