Designers Sara Yxhage and Jessica Bjermer are our new program chairs at FBTB.
Sara Yxhage and Jessica Bjermer are both designers at inUse. They are eager, humbled, and overjoyed to take on the role as program chairs for the conference.
”We will approach it like any design challenge: by identifying the user and their needs! Research 1-0-1. And then we have more than 100 competent colleagues that can help us find the best speakers in the world” says Sara Yxhage, Service Designer at inUse.
Inspiration and hands-on advice
As designer’s, Sara Yxhage and Jessica Bjermer have their own experience as attendees at the conference. They are both in agreement on what is best about FBTB and the foundation upon which they want to continue building.
”I have always loved the combination of the hands-on advice and the inspiration. It’s an amazing platform where the whole design community can come together, listen to the best speakers from around the world, do workshops and network with other designers and even our speakers. Every year you go home with your inspiration meter on max, full of impressions and meaningful talks on your mind”, says Jessica Bjermer, UX designer at inUse.
”It’s the place to be if you’re a designer and if you’re looking for inspiration. I often use the archive videos when I’m facing a new challenge in my day-to-day work. I’m very proud that inUse is the organizer of the conference. We do this for ourselves, but also to empower the whole design community … We love to learn and believe in radical generosity, where we pass knowledge on, it’s in the inUse DNA” says Sara Yxhage.
A dream team
Sara Yxhage and Jessica Bjermer will take over the roll as program chairs after Johan Berndtsson. He is one of the founders and has been working with the conference since it started in 2007, he will now stay on as a member of the program committee.
”Sara and Jessica, a dream team! Smart, generous and full of energy. They truly embody the values upon which we built inUse, and that of course have influenced the conference over the years. I’m so happy that they are taking over the helm, and I look forward to seeing what they make of it!”
What is the most rewarding thing about being program chair for the conference?
”From Business to Buttons has always been a labour of love. Working with a tight, super efficient, team of excellent people, to provide a really great experience for the Scandinavian design community is the greatest reward all in itself.”
”Some of my very best memories are from FBTB... The dreams about what this could become when we started planning the first conference almost 15 years ago. The feeling when I entered a packed China Theatre at the reboot in Stockholm 2014. The sound of hundreds starstruck guests as Woz entered through the crowd a year later. Meeting all the wonderful speakers, from Don Norman and Patricia Moore to Al Gore… And of course – the excited buzz in the breaks during, and the cheers at the closing of each event. Pure love.”
So what about FBTB2021 and beyond, what are your thoughts?
”We want to continue to inspire and empower designers! We see that many designers today experience the same challenges, wanting to shift the general misperception of our role as only pixel pushers to user-centric design strategists. Our conference should be a platform for getting the tools and confidence to break through that famous glass ceiling in order to create true important impact throughout their organisation”, says Jessica Bjermer.
”In a way, we both think it's about giving our community the courage to take action in their home court. You can’t mend bad design with a bandaid. If you truly want to help as a designer, you’ll have to address and understand the business model and ways of working. That's how designers can lead the way, and even change the world” says Sara Yxhage.