UX Research conference guide for 2020
Conferences can be great to level up skills, learn from other professionals and simply have fun together. That’s also true for UX Research. With the year coming to an end, it’s time to plan conference attendance for 2020.
Below you can find the UX Research conferences taking place in the coming year. Intentionally it doesn’t contain general UX conferences also if they partially address research.
If you miss a conference on the list, write us and we’ll add it.
QRCA
January 29–31, 2020
Austin, TX, USA
Main topics: market research, the future of qualitative research
Ticket prices start from 945$ / 860€ (student discounts available)
“Keep Qual Human” is the theme of the 2020 QRCA (Qualitative Research Consultants Association) annual conference. The idea is to bring back (or keep) the focus of research on people in a world of rapid change and advancing technology. While this conference covers qualitative research in general, it has a strong focus on market research.
Design Research
March 18–20, 2020
Melbourne, Australia
Main topics: tba
Ticket price 700$ AUD / 480$ USD / 440€
Switching from year to year between Sydney and Melbourne, the 2020 event will take place in Australia’s second largest city. With workshops on the first day (e.g. “Transforming findings into actionable insights”), presentations will cover the following two days. Among others Leisa Reichelt from Atlassian and dps from Dropbox have been announced as speakers.
Advancing Research
March 30-April 1, 2020
New York City, NY, USA
Main topics: Scaling impact of research, Understanding diversity and inclusion, Broadening our perspective and Managing up
Ticket prices 995–2395$ / 905–2180€
This event is a premiere on the UX Research conference stage. The organizer Rosenfeld Media has a reputation from book publications, trainings and other UX-related conferences like DesignOps Summit. The website states that research has surpassed the state of seeking recognition and now needs to deal with advanced topics like “working with the C-suite and achieving insight at scale”. Curated by Abby Covert, Natalie Hanson, Steve Portigal and (of course) Louis Rosenfeld it’s going to be interesting to see how the newcomer conference will be accepted by visitors.
UXinsight
April 6-8, 2020
Breda, Netherlands
Main topics: Creativity in research, ResearchOps
Tickets prices 335–885€ / 370–975$
With the initial appearance in 2017, UXinsight was the first conference dedicated to UX Research in Europe. It has been constantly growing in terms of visitors and will likely host around 400 people in 2020. Starting with workshops on the first day, the topic of the second day is Creativity in Research. For the third day UXinsight cooperates with the ResearchOps Community for a full day about ResearchOps.
gamesUR Summit North America
May 14–15, 2020
Montreal, Canada
Main topics: tba
Tickets prices not announced yet; ticket sale starts January 20
Dedicated to games user research this conference moves from San Francisco to Montreal in 2020 and thus changes its name to gamesUR Summit North America. It starts on the first day with a keynote, presentations and networking activities. The second day offers “Advanced Researchers Workshops” to senior games researchers.
User Research London
June 25-26, 2020
London, UK
Main topics: No specific theme
Ticket prices 200£ (260$/235€) for the conference only, 500£ (650$/590€) for the full package
The other major UX Research conference besides UXinsight in Europe will take place for the fourth time in London. In 2019, it attracted speakers like Emma Boulton, Dalia El-Shimy and Dave Hora. The main event on June 26 will be complemented by a full day of workshops the day before.
UXRConf
June 3–5, 2020
Toronto, Canada
Main topics: UXR Team of One, UXR Frontiers, The Science Behind UXR, Leadership in Research
Ticket prices start from 806$ / 730€ for the main event (student discounts available)
Previously called Strive, the event in Toronto will be back in 2020 with its new name UXRConf. The three day conference is organized as follows: Workshops on day one, five tracks with talks on specific topics on day two and main stage keynotes on day three. Among others, Vivianne Castillo who gave the by now famous talks about self-neglect and shame in research, will facilitate a workshop on self-care in UX.
UX Research & Insights Summit
July 21–23, 2020
Boston, MA, USA
Main topics: tba
Ticket prices not announced yet (2019 prices started from 1695$ / 1540€)
This conference is part of a three day event called the Summer Insights Fest, which also includes the Tech-Driven Insights and the Consumer Trends Insights Summit (a lot of insights). In 2019, it featured speakers from researchers at Best Buy, GE, Amazon and other corporations.
People Nerds
September 24, 2020
San Francisco, USA
Main topics: tba
Ticket prices not announced yet (2019 prices were 299$)
People Nerds promises to be a “re-igniting moment away from your fast paced day-to-day.” The one-day conference is organized by dscout and this time happens a bit later in the year. More information on topics and prices will follow.
EPIC
October 25–28, 2020
Melbourne, Australia
Main topics: tba
Ticket prices not announced yet (2019 prices started from 650$ AUD / 440$ / 400€)
EPIC (stands for Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Community) aims to positively impact organizations with the practice and mindset of — you guessed it — ethnography. The conference’s theme is “Leaps & Bounds” and circles around a critical examination of scale.
My team from Condens and I will be at several of these conferences. Drop by and say hi if you are around.
