Where: George Brown College, Toronto

The RGD invites design educators and researchers from across the country to attend our annual Design Educators Conference, which will take place in Toronto on October 3.

Organized in collaboration with George Brown College, the 2025 conference theme is ShiftShaping.

This year’s Design Educators Conference represents our commitment to transformation—viewing uncertainty as a canvas for innovation, failure as a stepping stone for learning and bold experimentation as the pathway to evolution.

Join us as we explore design’s potential to adapt, flourish and influence through a mindset rooted in curiosity, resilience and the courage to challenge the norms.

The conference takes place immediately after DesignThinkers.

Registration is open now. Early Bird pricing ends September 12.

Keynote speakers for the conference:

Opening Keynote by Danah Abdulla

Danah Abdulla is a designer, researcher and educator whose work explores new narratives and practices that challenge traditional disciplinary boundaries in design. She is a Reader in Anti/Post/Decolonial Histories, Theories, Praxes at the Decolonising the Arts Institute, University of the Arts London. Danah is the author of Designerly Ways of Knowing and Design Otherwise: Transforming Design Education in the Arab Region, and is a founding member of the Decolonising Design platform. She also founded Kalimat Magazine, a publication dedicated to Arab thought and culture. Danah will also be speaking at DesignThinkers Toronto.

Closing Keynote by Lesley-Ann Noel

Lesley-Ann Noel is a designer, researcher and author of Design Social Change, known for her equity-centred approach to design. Now Dean of Design at OCAD University, her work focuses on inclusive, community-led practices in education, public health and social innovation.