When we sat down to go through all the talk proposals for Throughline, we were flabbergasted: more than 300 of you took the time and energy to submit your ideas. By the time we’d read them all, we were ecstatic. Not just because the proposals were good—though so many of them were (way too many for us to feature them all). But because so much of what you submitted made us feel… hopeful. 

Hopeful about this field’s capacity to reshape itself—to evolve our practices without losing sight of our values. Hopeful about this community’s ability to root out AI theatre—and replace it with smarter, better approaches. Hopeful about the impact our work can have—not just on shareholders’ bank accounts, but on real people’s daily lives. 

We’re so excited to share the Throughline 2027 lineup with you. We hope it sparks something in you, too.

Prove your value doing evil corporate things—or live your values and become unemployable? This thought comes up all the time in our coaching calls and workshops—which is why we are so excited that Torrey Podmajersky will be debunking it in her opening keynote. 

If you don’t know Torrey, get ready for a treat. She’s the coauthor of the new book UX Skills for Business Strategy, out now from O’Reilly, as well as the host of Button, the content design conference. In her work with Catbird Content, she helps teams solve business and customer problems using UX and content. 

But more than any of that, Torrey is a grounding presence in UX—someone who’s not afraid to talk business outcomes, but will never try to sell you on abandoning your values. We can’t wait to hear her take on this false binary—and show you how to navigate these tensions more confidently.

Suddenly we’re all working alongside machines pretending to be people, and people pretending to be machines. Now what? It’s a big question, but if anyone can answer it, it’s Dan Hon. 

Like most of our favorite people, Dan doesn’t have a linear career path. He’s worked in startups and agencies. He’s led both creative campaigns at Wieden + Kennedy and massive civic tech initiatives at Code for America and through his consultancy, Very Little Gravitas. He’s been writing online since 1998. 

But what’s most important to know about Dan is that he always puts people at the center of his work. Whether he’s talking about AI or tech ethics, about health trackers or government software, his work is personal—and he believes ours should be, too. In fact, that’s one of the messages of his closing keynote: the value of being a person with a point of view. 

Dan’s work has inspired us for more than a decade (literally—he pops up in Design for Real Life, Sara’s 2016 book). And we’re sure his closing keynote will inspire you, too. 

Joining Torrey and Dan during the conference livestream will be a whole crew of thoughtful, creative speakers. And we’re not done yet! We’ll be dropping details soon for our Opening Showcase lightning talks, and our post-conference Encore Events. All included with your Throughline conference pass.

Here’s who’ll be on stage February 3-4: