(How to) Convince Your Boss to Send You to CanUX 2025

Wanna come to CanUX and need help convincing your boss to send you? Here are 10 reasons that should help you close the deal. We’ve done all the work for you, all you really need to do is send them the link to this article.

1. NETWORK WITH THE COMMUNITY IN PERSON (ONE MONTH EARLY)
The last 4+ years, have been tough on all of us. And while we’ve certainly come a long way in learning how to work remotely and stay connected virtually, when it comes to being among our tribe, nothing virtual comes even close to hanging out in person buoyed by the wave of energy that CanUX typically exhibits. If you’re in a bit a lull, bring your entire team, it will recharge your batteries (professionally speaking) more than the usual ‘smoke and Miros’ we’ve come accustomed to as virtual team building exercises. Bonus this year, our conference happens a month earlier, on Oct 1-4, 2025, allowing us to take advantage of much better weather conditions.

2. AMAZING KEYNOTES (and more to come!)
We have announced 2 keynotes so far. London, UK-based Kate Tarling, CEO and Founder of The Service Org Group, and author of the best-selling “The Service Organization: How to Deliver and Lead Successful Services, Sustainably” (2023), will join Seattle-based renowned author Scott Berkun, publisher of nine books including his newest, “How Design Makes The World”.

3. A MULTITUDE OF PERSPECTIVES
We take pride on doing our part in curating a product that covers multiple perspectives. So far, we’ve announced 16 speakers and workshop instructors from 4 countries in Europe and North America, representing companies like Carnegie Mellon, Disney/ESPN, Ford Motor Co., Ubisoft, Shopify, Harmonic Design, Outwitly, The Gov’t of Estonia, &friends, The Service Org, Career Sabotage, Bitovi, etc.

4. YOU GET HALF OF YOUR WEEKEND BACK
For years, we’ve received requests to move CanUX earlier in the week. For the second edition in a row, the two CanUX plenary conference days will take place on Friday and Saturday, Oct 3-4, 2025 rather than Sat-Sun as it was the case in our previous editions. This has the advantage of only losing one day of work (Friday), while still being able to spend the Sunday with your family or visiting the city if you’re coming from out of town.

5. A PAN-CANADIAN AUDIENCE EH?
CanUX is the largest annual gathering of UX design professionals in Canada. That’s right, CanUX attracts Canadians, from across the Great White North, from Halifax to Vancouver, with large contingents hailing from Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto. You’ll get at chance to connect, chat and learn from people who share not only your geographical location, but also similar markets, audiences and hurdles on the way to UX success. A true event by Canadians for Canadians.

6. IT’S AFFORDABLE
As a non-profit event, we try to create a world-class conference on a limited budget. But unlike other conferences out there charging an arm and a leg, we actively choose to pass the cost savings to our attendees. Other similar UX events in Canada and the US cost 2 to 3 times the amount of our early bird and regular prices (CDN$579-689 or US$420-500) tickets. Not to mention that we bring this content right into our own backyard so you don’t have to spend money on flights and expensive hotels in the US, or have to deal with your friendly airport TSA agents.

7. CANADIAN SPEAKERS
As Canada’s premier UX event, we bring a healthy dose of Canadian content, whether it’s Canadian designers from the coast to coast, or Canadian designers making an impact while working abroad. Having international speakers is a fantastic way of exposing our audience to what is globally relevant in the world of UX, but first and foremost we have Canada covered too. That’s right, the majority of CanUX speakers are Canadians, which feels right to us particularly given the political climate in 2025.

8. HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS: GET TO LEARN BY DOING
2025 marks the fifth year CanUX will run workshops on both Wednesday, October 1st and Thursday, October 2nd, the two days preceding the conference main program. The first three workshops announced will focus on research (Meena Kothandaraman‘s “Building Connection:
Enhancing Research Engagement Through Creative Protocols”), enterprise design (Jean-Sebastien Daigle‘s “Breaking down silos : Co-Designing Enterprise with EDGY”) and getting the most of your 1:1 meetings (Farai Madzima‘s “How to Sabotage Your 1:1 Meetings”). All the public workshop are linked on our Program page.

9. A STUNNING VENUE
Enjoying great content in a boring grey box is not much fun. CanUX takes place in an architecturally stunning venue, the Douglas Cardinal-designed Canadian Museum of History. Bathing in natural light, curved lines and white Tyndall stone, the venue will make you feel like you’re part of an art exhibit (in all fairness, there are exhibits open around the venue so while on a break, you can always take a peek at the world’s largest indoor collection of totem poles). And after having to take a year off last year due to construction at the venue and on the Alexandria Bridge, we’re delighted to be back and check out the new digs.

10. IT’S OUR 15th ANNIVERSARY!
With our original event taking place in Ottawa 15 years ago in October 2010, we are thrilled to welcome you for our 13th edition, and to continue to share and learn from each other in 2025. So why not join us? Head on over to our tickets page, and join us this Fall.

*Image credit: CanUX & Elida Arrizza