A Digital Strategy Podcast

We Rated Figma Config 2026 Before Going

Episode Summary

Figma went public in July and rebranded itself as an AI company. Now, by one founder's count, roughly 80% of its biggest conference is AI talks. So is Config still worth going to? In this episode, Marcello and Symon preview Figma Config 2025 on the flight out, before they've seen a single talk. They get into what changes when a design conference belongs to a publicly traded company, why "AI, AI, AI" is starting to feel exhausting, and what they're actually hoping to see: real workflow use cases, not the same demos. They also run an experiment, rating the conference now based on expectations, then again in a follow-up once they're back. A two-part Config preview and follow-up. This is part one.

Episode Notes

💡 Key Topics:

• Figma's July IPO and the pivot to positioning itself as an AI company, right down to the software description
• The claim that ~80% of Config talks are now AI, and whether that's a good or exhausting thing
• What going public adds to the program: a new investor and analyst session
• Why 3Blue1Brown, a math channel, is speaking at a design conference
• Last year's product slate (Figma Make, Figma Buzz) and where those tools actually landed
• Why Figma's AI feels painfully slow, and why some people are leaving for faster platforms
• The talks that actually stuck: sentient car-factory robots, Nicole McLaughlin's upcycled fashion, the mouth-roof accessibility device
• The Weavy acquisition and what node-based generative tooling adds to Figma
• Anthropic on the Config lineup, and the design-tool overlap (they run on Webflow too)
• The real question: with the IPO and the AI rebrand, is Config still worth the trip?

📖 Chapters:

• 0:06 — Heading to Config (and forgetting to pack)
• 0:31 — What Config is, and why the IPO changes it
• 1:47 — The big theme: AI, AI, AI
• 2:00 — Is Figma an AI company now?
• 2:56 — The new investor and analyst session
• 3:34 — Last year's drops: Make, Buzz, and the rest
• 4:00 — Why Figma's AI feels painfully slow
• 4:46 — AI fatigue vs. hoping for real use cases
• 5:42 — The talks they still remember: robots and upcycled fashion
• 6:12 — Hardware, accessibility, and Config as a tech conference
• 6:53 — Content and community-building talks
• 8:03 — Why Config matters for a B2B design shop
• 8:45 — The Weavy acquisition
• 9:28 — Anthropic at Config (and why they're on Webflow)
• 10:43 — Rating the conference before they go
• 11:46 — The verdict: a six and a seven

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