About Speakers What to Expect Moments Tickets SOLD OUT 2026 tickets are gone. Thank you for the incredible support. An independent design gathering in Tokyo. Where Eastern craft meets Western innovation. February 16-18, 2026 Get Notified for 2027 What to Expect Become a Sponsor MADE POSSIBLE BY ABOUT This isn't another keynote conference. Tokyo Design Forum is a small, independent gathering—50 designers, founders, and builders who are actually shipping. The value isn't just the talks. It's being in the room with each other. Two days in Tokyo. Real conversations. Connections that last. WHY TOKYO The future is built together. For too long, the best builders only gathered in one city. Meanwhile, Tokyo perfected craft at scale—invisible systems, uncompromising quality. Western innovation meets Eastern precision. One conversation, not two separate ones. Trunk Hotel (Cat Street). Two days in the heart of Tokyo's creative district. Small venue. Walking distance to everything. More about the venue → FEATURING LEADERS FROM SPEAKERS The people building at the edge. Designers who've shipped at scale. Founders who've built from scratch. Voices from both worlds. Jorge Noguchi HEAD OF ADVERTISING ASIA, NYT Nearly two decades in APAC advertising. TDF 2026 Jorge Noguchi HEAD OF ADVERTISING ASIA, NYT Executive Director and Head of Advertising for Asia at The New York Times, bringing nearly two decades of advertising experience in the Asia Pacific region. Previously held key positions at the South China Morning Post and Dow Jones Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong. Leads advertising initiatives across digital, audio, print, and events for prestigious clients including Samsung, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore Airlines, and Grand Seiko. LinkedIn Pietro Schirano CEO, MAGICPATH Previously Anthropic, Uber, Facebook. TDF 2026 Pietro Schirano CEO, MAGICPATH Pietro Schirano is a leading innovator in AI and technology, renowned for his work blending artificial intelligence with design and creative work. He is the founder and CEO of MagicPath, the first professional AI design tool. Pietro has a proven track record of shipping AI-driven product innovations at companies like Anthropic, Meta, and Brex, and his independent projects such as Claude Engineer have reached millions. 𝕏 @skirano Website Naomi Oren CO-FOUNDER, JETSKI Ex-Google & Bandai. Illustrator & strategist. TDF 2026 Naomi Oren CO-FOUNDER, JETSKI Co-founder of Jetski, a Tokyo-based creative collective started by former Google Brand Studio creatives. Award-winning bilingual social strategist and illustrator with 10+ years in Japan working with Apple, Google, and Bandai. LinkedIn Website Elvin Hu HCI RESEARCHER Previous Lead Design @ Google. TDF 2026 Elvin Hu HCI RESEARCHER Elvin Hu is a product designer and HCI researcher working at the intersection of design and emerging technology. During his time at Google, he helped bring Generative AI into Chrome, shaped core experiences across Chrome for Android and iOS, and led the browser's once-in-a-decade icon refresh in 2022. Now back in academia and based in Japan, his research centers on wearable technologies and accessibility. 𝕏 @elvin_not_11 Website Maheen Sohail AI DESIGN LEADER, META Gen AI Lead. Educator on AI-Native Design. TDF 2026 Maheen Sohail AI DESIGN LEADER, META Staff Product Design Lead at Meta driving generative AI product experiences. Over 8+ years at Meta, she has shaped flagship AR/VR products from Metaverse to Ray-Ban smart glasses, and led design of AI models in FAIR Labs. Creator and instructor of 'Become an AI Product Designer', training hundreds of designers globally in AI-native design. 𝕏 @maheen_sohail LinkedIn Xinni C. UX DESIGNER, GOOGLE JAPAN AI tools & designer-dev collaboration. TDF 2026 Xinni C. UX DESIGNER, GOOGLE JAPAN Google product designer and engineer focused on AI-powered design tools and seamless designer–developer collaboration. Originally from Singapore, started her design career in California at Google, and later spent two years designing products specifically for the Japanese market. Now based in Tokyo, she co-hosts the Vibe Coders Tokyo meetup at Google's Shibuya office. Morgan Knutson MORGAN CO. Co-founder Shift (IPO), Ex-Dropbox, Google. TDF 2026 Morgan Knutson MORGAN CO. Running a product design and brand studio at Morgan Co. Co-founded Shift (IPO 2020) and re-invented car buying. Built an often copied banking experience at Zero Financial (Acquired by Avant 2021). Advisor at Grindr. Early Dropbox, Google, and more. 𝕏 @morganknutson Website PANELIST Rogie King PRODUCT DESIGNER, FIGMA Artist, design engineer, tool builder. TDF 2026 Rogie King PRODUCT DESIGNER, FIGMA Designer Advocate at Figma. Creator of Noise & Texture plugin. Multi-disciplinary designer, illustrator, and front-end developer exploring the intersection of art and code. 𝕏 @rogie Website Wakana Sakai UX DESIGNER & EDUCATOR Bridging Japanese & Western design. TDF 2026 Wakana Sakai UX DESIGNER & EDUCATOR UX designer and educator with 5+ years of experience bridging Japanese and Western design cultures. Currently splits her time between a Japan-based creative agency and a U.S. startup, literally switching between Japanese and North American design mindsets daily. Wakana has taught over 80 UX/UI students and applies a lean, MVP-style UX approach to help teams bring rapid experimentation into Japan's detail-oriented workflows. Website Effy Zhang MEMBER OF TECHNICAL STAFF, ANTHROPIC Ex-Baserun founder. Cruise, Square. TDF 2026 Effy Zhang MEMBER OF TECHNICAL STAFF, ANTHROPIC Member of Technical Staff at Anthropic. Previously co-founded Baserun (YC S23, acquired), an observability and evaluation platform for LLM applications. Former design lead at Cruise, where she built developer tools that accelerated autonomous vehicle research and development. Early designer at Square, building tools to help small merchants run their businesses. 𝕏 @effyyzhang Ben Huffman CO-FOUNDER & CEO, CONTRA Building independent work future. TDF 2026 Ben Huffman CO-FOUNDER & CEO, CONTRA Co-founder and CEO of Contra, building the professional network for independents. Creative director with background in graphic design and music production. 𝕏 @contraben Website Brian Lovin PRODUCT DESIGNER, NOTION Co-founder Campsite, Spectrum. TDF 2026 Brian Lovin PRODUCT DESIGNER, NOTION Product designer at Notion building AI products. Co-founder of Campsite (team collaboration platform). Previously spent 4 years designing GitHub Mobile apps after GitHub acquired his startup Spectrum. Former payments designer at Facebook working across Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Co-hosted Design Details podcast for 9 years. 𝕏 @brian_lovin Website Michael Flarup CEO, NORTHPLAY Author of The App Icon Book. TDF 2026 Michael Flarup CEO, NORTHPLAY Michael is a Danish designer and entrepreneur known for turning playful ideas into polished products. He leads the award-winning game studio Northplay, creators of the upcoming Dinolords, and Pixelresort, a design studio rooted in vibrant, playful visual design. He is also the creator of the acclaimed App Icon Books, two self-published volumes celebrating the craft of iconography. 𝕏 @flarup Website Rob Hope FOUNDER, ONE PAGE LOVE Web designer, maker & Host of Yo! Podcast. TDF 2026 Rob Hope FOUNDER, ONE PAGE LOVE South African born web designer, developer and maker who runs One Page Love and hosts the Yo! Podcast. After a decade freelancing, he finally took the leap to work on his side projects full time. When not building online he loves to surf, travel and listen to 90s punk rock. 𝕏 @robhope Website Ryo Lu HEAD OF DESIGN, CURSOR Previously led design at Notion + Stripe. TDF 2026 Ryo Lu HEAD OF DESIGN, CURSOR Head of Design at Cursor. Previously 5 years at Notion as founding designer and design lead, working on Notion AI, Timeline, API & Platform. Before that: Stripe, Asana, and Head of Design at Ping++. 𝕏 @ryolu_ Website Gabriel Valdivia INDEPENDENT DESIGN LEADER VR/AR pioneer. Ex-Meta, Google. TDF 2026 Gabriel Valdivia INDEPENDENT DESIGN LEADER Fractional design leader with over 15 years of experience helping teams move from zero to one. Currently partners with early-stage startups like Dex Camera, Daylight Computer, Workmate, and Slingshot AI to shape product vision and build strong design foundations. Previously led the Design team and reimagined the product at Patreon, directed design at CNN and Canopy, built tools for at-risk communities at Google's Jigsaw, and led storytelling and VR design at Meta. 𝕏 @gabrielvaldivia Website PANELIST Kurt Varner VP OF DESIGN, ADOBE Ex-Dropbox, Frame.io. Leader. TDF 2026 Kurt Varner VP OF DESIGN, ADOBE Kurt is Vice President of Design at Adobe, where he leads teams across collaboration, asset management, sharing, community, home experiences, and adobe.com. Before joining Adobe, he served as VP of Design at Frame.io, which was acquired by Adobe for $1.3 billion in 2021. His career also includes leadership roles at Dropbox, where he led the team behind Dropbox Paper, and at Shyp, where he served as Head of Design. 𝕏 @kurtvarner Website Chris Palmieri CO-FOUNDER, AQ 20+ years designing products in Japan. TDF 2026 Chris Palmieri CO-FOUNDER, AQ Co-founder and Managing Director of AQ, a product design studio in Tokyo and Paris. Has led design for Google, Mercari, ASICS, and Tokyo Art Beat. Teaches Japanese design and culture at the University of Illinois. 𝕏 @cpalmieri LinkedIn Website INTERVIEWER Garrett Fowler FOUNDER, OFFSITE Ex-Airbnb, Facebook, Tome. Connector. TDF 2026 Garrett Fowler FOUNDER, OFFSITE Founder of Offsite, a talent agency and creative community redefining design recruitment. Previously built byG and built teams for Airbnb, Facebook, Tome, and OpenSea. Connects great humans with great humans. 𝕏 @gdfovercs Website Soleio DESIGN LEADER & ANGEL INVESTOR AI investor. Figma, Cursor, Granola. TDF 2026 Soleio DESIGN LEADER & ANGEL INVESTOR One of Facebook's first two product designers, where he shaped the company's visual language and designed core features including Like, Groups, Video, Chat, and Messenger over six years. Later served as Head of Design at Dropbox, growing the team from three to over 40 designers. Now an angel investor backing AI-forward companies redefining how we create and collaborate, including Cursor, Figma, Granola, Legora, Vercel, Perplexity, and Framer. 𝕏 @soleio Website Michael Jaafar DESIGN DIRECTOR, T BRAND STUDIO NYT branded content for global brands. TDF 2026 Michael Jaafar DESIGN DIRECTOR, T BRAND STUDIO Design Director at T Brand Studio International, the branded-content agency of The New York Times. With over 15 years in advertising, visual communication, and design, Michael has helped expand the studio's presence across Asia-Pacific, overseeing compelling campaigns and story-led brand content for clients including Rosewood Hotels, Patek Philippe, Singapore Airlines, Grab, and Samsung. LinkedIn PANELIST Kevin Twohy FOUNDER, TWOHY DESIGN WORKS 0-to-1 designer. Built Board console. TDF 2026 Kevin Twohy FOUNDER, TWOHY DESIGN WORKS Founder of Twohy Design Works, an independent studio specializing in zero-to-one product design for early-stage companies. Over his 10+ year career, Kevin has designed products for organizations ranging from The New York Times and Vice to Everlane and Mirror. Recently helped create Board, the first face-to-face tabletop game console, and worked on digital experience design for Sandbar's Stream and Stream Ring. 𝕏 @kevintwohy Website Drew Wilson CEO & FOUNDER, OPACITY Serial entrepreneur with multiple exits. TDF 2026 Drew Wilson CEO & FOUNDER, OPACITY Founder of Opacity and serial entrepreneur with multiple successful exits. Former Head of Design & Billing at Clerk. Previously built and sold Plasso to GoDaddy, co-founded Letter (banking), and created products used by millions. Also organizes Valio Con conference and has 15.7K followers sharing insights on design and development. 𝕏 @drewwilson Website What people are saying Early reactions from the community. Want to add yours? Tag @forum_tokyo. Brian Benitez @notorioususb “Back in the earlier days, the design community was super tight-knit and it felt like a magical time to be a designer. As the industry grew, we lost that intimacy and connection we used to have. With revivals like @valiocon and now @forum_tokyo happening—WE ARE SO BACK!” Jorge Noguchi NYT Exec. Director of Advertising APAC “Design has always been a global language, but we rarely see true cross-cultural exchange happen in an authentic way. Tokyo Design Forum is creating that bridge — and doing it with the kind of intimacy that makes it matter.” Justin Uyemura Founder of Cool Kids Design Studio “My two favorite things finally combined: design + Tokyo. Can't wait for this!!” Jeff Broderick @brdrck “Looks like @notorioususb just gave us a reason to be in Japan 👀Tokyo Design Forum 2026 is gonna be wild.” Share your thoughts → 2026 SOLD OUT Thank you. Our inaugural gathering sold out. We're humbled by the response and can't wait to bring everyone together in Tokyo this February. 2027 Be the first to know Enter your email to get early access when tickets for next year go on sale. Notify Me Help us build year one. This is an independent event. Your support makes it possible. Become a Sponsor FAQ Questions? Who is Tokyo Design Forum for? + Why Tokyo? What makes this different from every other design conference? + What's included with my ticket? + How many people will be there? + I want to sponsor. How does that work? + What's the refund policy? + How do I justify this to my company or team? + Have another question? Email us! BROUGHT TO YOU BY A design and strategy studio based in Japan, NVGT helps startups and global brands build products, raise capital, and grow through design. We partner with founders and teams who need high-stakes creative direction that moves the needle. Tokyo Design Forum is one of the ways we're helping reconnect the global design community and bridge East–West design cultures. Follow on X → Visit our website → FOUNDER SPOTLIGHT Brian Benitez Founder & Creative Director, NVGT · Based in Japan Over 15 years, Brian has shaped defining launches for Chime, Hinge, Adobe, The New York Times, Weebly (acquired by Square), and Atom Limbs — helping teams raise over $1 billion in funding. Now based in Japan, he leads NVGT, a design and strategy studio bridging East–West design cultures through high-stakes creative direction. Follow on X → Stay Updated Get speaker announcements and early ticket access. Subscribe TOKYO DESIGN FORUM · February 2026 · hello@tokyodesignforum.com · @forum_tokyo · © 2026 Tokyo Design Forum Brought to you by NVGT