Figma announces design system meetups in 6 cities around the world

Are you building a design system at your company (and facing some roadblocks)? Come share your war stories at Figma-sponsored meetups around the world. We chose 6 initial cities for these design system events, and held our first one last week in Lagos, Nigeria. Over 300 people came out for it (😲!), so we’re excited to see how the rest unfold.

The full list:

Lagos, Nigeria (1/27)
Toronto, Canada (2/23)
Bangalore, India (Details coming soon)
Amsterdam, Netherlands (Details coming soon)
New York, United States (Details coming soon)
Los Angeles, United States (Details coming soon)
These meetups were made possible by our community, which submitted thousands of responses to our questionnaire back in November when we launched DesignSystems.com. You came out in force to volunteer as hosts or partners, and we couldn’t have put together these international gatherings without your support.

Some of you may remember we originally planned them as dinners. Given the overwhelming flood of interest, we realized we’d shut out fellow designers from attending if we capped the events to dinner-sized groups.

So, we switched to the meetup approach. Where possible, someone from Figma will fly out to speak and meet with local designers. Each city will adapt the meetup for their community, and include presentations from local designers on design systems.

Our first stop was Lagos, Nigeria

The burgeoning design scene in Lagos drew our attention months ago, thanks to the vocal community of Figma users in Nigeria. (It’s home to the largest concentration of our users in Africa.) The tech industry in Lagos is expanding, as companies like Andela and hotels.ng establish their presence in Africa and abroad.

We were excited to learn that Figma plays a unique role in Lagos’ tech ecosystem. Because we’re the only design tool that offers a free tier and runs in the cloud, we make it easier for people to incorporate design into the process of building digital products. They can access Figma designs anywhere from their work computer to the local Internet cafe.

The Lagos meetup was organized by one particularly passionate Figma user — hotels.ng designer, Namnso Ukpanah. He invited designers from hotels.ng, Andela, and Paystack to speak at the event, along with Figma’s CEO Dylan Field.

How to land your city a Figma sponsored meetup

We’re choosing cities where designers volunteered their time as hosts — it really does take a village. If you want to see a meetup in your city, please tell your design community to shout their interest over at DesignSystems.com. Or better yet, sign up and become a host. If you would like details about the meetups already scheduled, email marketing@figma.com with the subject line “Design Systems.”

DesignSystems.com revamped

Last but not least, we synthesized the data from the meetups and questionnaire to create something entirely new. We’re launching a more comprehensive DesignSystems.com soon. Stay tuned!