The goal of the annual DNDA Summit is to provide a vehicle for practitioners and educators from across the world to learn from one another, sharing lessons learned from their work – from successes, hurdles faced, and failures. The primary objective is to stimulate, and demonstrate the benefits of humanity-centered design, showcasing the accomplishments of early career professionals and provide encouragement and support when they need it most: at the start of their career.

The summit and awards program will be an annual event. The first year, the event will be held on November 14-15 in San Diego. Why November 2024? Why San Diego, California? The “World Design Capital” is a designation awarded every two years by the World Design Organization (headquartered in Quebec, Canada). The San Diego, California, USA-Tjuana, Baja California, Mexico region is the world design capital for 2024: WDC 2024.

Humanity-centered design is one of the themes of WDC 2024 which makes it appropriate to be the location for the first awards and summit of the DNDA program.

The DNDA Summit has two major components: The Formal Summit for 1 ½ days, starting Thursday, November 14 and the informal “Unconference” on the afternoon of Friday, November 15.