NeoCon Announces 2024 Keynote Speakers

NeoCon 2024 introduces its keynote speakers for this year's event, three global creative leaders who push the boundaries of their respective craft from entertainment to fashion. Their presentations will offer an exploration into storytelling through design.

Bob Weis, Global Entertainment Leader, Gensler

Leveraging the Power of Storytelling in the Places We Create

Monday, June 10 at 10:00 a.m. CDT

The last few years have tested the limits of our cities and built environments across the globe, leaving people and their communities with an urgent need for a return to vibrancy and experiences they can enjoy and remember together. Today, storytelling in design has become a top priority for clients and their stake holders, as well as our own aspirations as creators. Drawing from more than thirty years at Walt Disney Imagineering creating story-driven experiences and his current role as Global Entertainment Leader at Gensler, Bob Weis will demonstrate how creatives can use this magical tool to bring vibrancy to everyday places and spaces.

Yinka Ilori, British-Nigerian Multi-Disciplinary Artist and Designer

The Power of Affirmation: Yinka Ilori in conversation with Khoi Vo and Cheryl Durst

Tuesday, June 11 at 10:00 a.m. CDT

British-Nigerian Multi-disciplinary Artist and Designer Yinka Ilori is known for his dynamic public installations and color-forward aesthetic that evoke feelings of joy and bring communities together around the world. Behind his progressive work lies a philosophy grounded in design’s power to tell stories of identity, culture, and purpose, and inspire the dreamer in everyone. In an intimate “fireside chat” style keynote, Ilori will discuss how he harnesses diverse mediums of design as a catalyst to tell stories, using creativity and colors as a language to celebrate cultural identities, and the power of design to elevate the individual while unifying the masses.

Ruth E. Carter, Two-Time Academy-Award Winning Costume Designer

Designing AfroFuturism: The Art of Storytelling in Costume Design

Wednesday, June 12 at 10:00 a.m. CDT

Ruth E. Carter became the first Black woman to win an Oscar for Costume Design in 2019. This affirmed her voice through the creation of Afrofuturism and devotion to retraining the eye to see beauty through costume design. Igniting a cultural renaissance, Carter’s decades long work in film proves that diversity in design and representation in story matters to audiences. This proved true again when Carter made history in 2023 winning her second Oscar for Wakanda Forever. In this keynote, one of the most sought-after costume designers on the globe, takes us on a journey, from concept to creation, to design the Afrofuture and shares how the art of storytelling translates in costume design and the building of worlds.