Tentative AEXIS 2026 Conference Schedule
Announcing the 2026 AeXIS Annual Conference Keynote Speaker Priya Parker:
The Art of Gathering: Designing for Connection, Engagement & Innovation
 We are beyond excited to welcome Priya Parker as our 2026 keynote speaker. Priya Parker is helping us take a deeper look at how anyone can create collective meaning in modern life, one gathering at a time. She is a facilitator, strategic advisor, acclaimed author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters, and the host of the New York Times podcast, Together Apart. Parker has helped numerous clients develop better in-person and virtual gatherings, including tech and Fortune 500 companies, leading non-profits, education groups, and government agencies, among others.Parker has spoken on the TED Main Stage and her sessions have been viewed over 3 million times. Drawing from her diverse training in conflict resolution, business management, public policy, and community-building, her work dives into the anatomy of gathering with purpose. Whether she is talking about gathering as a 21st-century leadership skill, fostering belonging among remote teams, the art of hosting meetings everyone wants to attend, or connecting people across identities, backgrounds, and hierarchies, Parker gives her audiences the skills they need to succeed.
Parker’s The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters was named a Best Business Book of the Year by Amazon, Esquire Magazine, NPR, the Financial Times, 1-800-CEO-READS and Bloomberg. In 2023, The Wall Street Journal tapped Parker as their work expert for their Future of Everything series. Priya Parker’s new book The Art of Fighting: The Transformative Power of Conflict is out on September 8 and is available for pre-order here.
Her work has been featured in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes.com, Oprah.com, Real Simple Magazine, Glamour, The Today Show, and Morning Joe, among others. Parker studied organizational design at M.I.T., public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and political and social thought at the University of Virginia. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and two children.
This keynote is not to be missed. Priya’s message about how we gather—and why it matters—will resonate deeply with everyone who has ever planned an event, led a campaign, or built a community of donors and volunteers.
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