XCamp 2025
Last week I was invited to participate on a panel at XCamp, a two-day digital experience conference in Saskatoon, hosted by Zu. Rocking an analog theme, 2025 is the third year of the conference.
All about the details
XCamp was easily one of the best conference experiences I've ever had. Speaking to the organizers, I mentioned how truly impressed I was with the attention to detail. Their response was this: “we have to, our name is on it” - which sums up all you need to know about Zu. You can tell a lot of time and energy was poured into every detail and Zu is clearly paying close attention to the conference experience year-over-year and pushing themselves to greater heights.
I was especially impressed with the sense of community you could feel in the room. As a travelling Albertan, it was easy to observe how tight-knit the community in Saskatoon and neighboring Regina is - yet I never felt like an outsider for a single moment. Everyone was extremely welcoming.
I met some amazing people, passionate about the work they do, and pushing user experience forward. It is clear to me that organizations in Saskatchewan are getting serious about digital experience and designing better services for their users by investing in teams, reshaping their orgs, and empowering leaders to get the job done.
Keynote speakers
Although thematically aligned, each speaker brought something very different to their talks. The two keynote speakers left us with a lot to think about:
Cheesan Chew talked about using friction as a strategic advantage, and that reducing everything down for the sake of speed and convenience, isn’t always going to lead to a stronger brand.
Emily Schmidt gave us countless reasons why we all need to explore behavioural science (ethically) within the design of our products to make our impact so much stronger.
Talks and sessions
I also attended a workshop led by futurist Colin Hoeft - hearing about his strategic foresight work reminded me a lot of what we do here in Alberta. Colin walked us through a Three Horizons activity and really drove home the need for organizations to balance effort toward all three.
Nate Heagy provided a peek behind the curtain on how big tech companies like Twitter and Pintrest constantly iterate and run experiments at scale. It's really fascinating to hear stories about the process itself and how the results are not always sunshine and rainbows.
Wait, we get a DJ show too?
One of the highlights for me though was easily the DJ demonstration by world champion DJ Vekked. Albert Jame and Vekked took the stage to tell stories about how a career in DJing provided the foundation in understanding people, responding to the unexpected, and creating an experience that people will remember. As someone who still enjoys a show now and then and who grew up around DJs - it was a real treat to see a world-class turntablist scratch live in an intimate setting.
Metrics workshop
Not that Fouad Jallouli needed help, but I assisted in his metrics workshop. Fouad provided a path for folks to think about different metrics for digital products and services. I loved his articulation of failure demand and how that has to be included in a holistic view of our work. The group was highly engaged and asked a lot of questions, which made it really fun for us.
Panel discussion
I joined Jess Perchie and Chelsea Rink on stage for a panel discussion moderated by Rachel Kehrig. Rachel led us through topics like what roles are needed for digital experience teams today, how to build trust within an organization, and what are some good places to get started for people less familiar with experience design work. I was extremely impressed by both Chelsea and Jess. Learning about Chelsea’s journey to experience design leadership and how driven Jess is on building her team and crafting an experience strategy was really inspiring.
Until next year
XCamp delivered on so many levels. The experience of the conference itself, the energy in the room, Saskatchewan's welcoming design community, not to mention the loads of knowledge we all took home with us. Huge thank you to the organizers and speakers, it was an amazing two days. My calendar is already blocked for the next one.
