Figma Config 2026
Last week I got on a plane and went to San Francisco to attend the 2026 Figma Config conference on behalf of Blizzard Entertainment.
I was fortunate enough to attend Config back in 2024 and it was a great experience, so I was excited to go back again this year. The conference is a great opportunity to meet other designers and developers, learn about the latest features in Figma, and get inspired by the work others are doing with their design systems. I was joined by a few of my colleagues, and we had a great time attending the sessions and networking with other attendees.
This year the ticket came with a tote bag, pin, art book, nail art stickers, and a jumper. The jumper is surprisingly nice, especially considering that last time I went, any swag besides the tote bag had to be bought separately, and for a ridiculous amount of money. They still had a shop this year, but fortunately I didn’t feel compelled to buy anything as the jumper was included in the ticket price.
The conference was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, which is a large convention centre that hosts many tech conferences throughout the year. The outside of the venue had a number of photo opportunities, including a large Config logo and a number of art installations. Some talks throughout the day were also held on a small outdoor stage area.
Like last time there were several activities you could line up for and try out, including a photo booth that uses Figma Weave to create an AI generated version of yourself after answering a few questions. There was also a thing they dubbed “Shared Frequencies”, where you place your hand on a button with another person to generate a print you can take home. Honestly this was a total waste of time. I’m glad there was no line for it when I went.
There were also a number of vendor booths where you could try out different products and services.
There was a large art board where you could draw and write whatever you wanted. We took the opportunity to represent Battle.net.
Much like last time the conference was nicely set up; I do wish there were more vendors and activities to do though. The conference spanned multiple days and there were large portions of downtime, especially in the morning before the first talks started.
Presentations and Learnings#
There were multiple tracks of presentations throughout the conference, covering a wide range of topics related to design, development, and collaboration. Something that was a common thread across all of these was, to nobody’s surprise, AI.
There was a lot of focus on AI and how it can be used to improve the design to developer handoff. A memorable talk was from Meta, who discussed how they use their own design system MCP server alongside the Figma MCP server. They use both of these things together with layered AI Skills to help designers and developers work together more efficiently. For instance, you can prompt an agent to generate a component, and have it iterate on it in code until it exactly matches the design. I’m already working a bunch with AI, but this talk gave me some ideas on how to level up our own workflows with better skills and prompts.
Another talk that was particularly interesting was from the team who worked on the new NASA website. They discussed how they used Figma to design and prototype the new site, and how they used Figma’s collaboration features to work with multiple teams across different locations. The talk was particularly interesting as it was a look into the process for a large scale project that I don’t often get to see. Plus it’s NASA, and that’s pretty cool in and of itself.
When it comes to the talks, I did find that a lot of them were a bit light on the technical details, and more focused on the high-level concepts. This is understandable as the conference is aimed at a wide audience, but sometimes it leaves me questioning if the presenters have actually implemented the things they are talking about, or if they are just coming up with an ideal scenario that they haven’t actually done yet. I would have liked to have seen more live demos, examples, and generally more technical content overall.
Conclusion#
It’s been a while since I’ve been to a conference and it was nice to be back in that environment. I think the conference could be improved by having more interactive sessions and workshops, as well as more opportunities for networking and collaboration. Overall, I had a great time at Figma Config 2026 and appreciate my team at Blizzard for allowing me to attend again. Check out the replays of all of the talks online if you want to see what I saw and learn more about the topics covered at the conference.
It was great to be back in San Francisco, especially during the 2026 Football World Cup 🏴. I was able to catch a few games at a local bar and it was great to see the city come alive with excitement. I also took the opportunity to take a few rides in a Waymo, and even got to see their new Ojai car in-person.
