Announcing the Roundtables at IIEX West 2026
Sixteen hosted roundtables are confirmed for IIEX West 2026, with eight different conversations each day.
Each roundtable gives attendees 45 minutes to dig deeper into a shared challenge with peers working through similar questions. You’ll have the opportunity to compare approaches, challenge assumptions, and add another layer of perspective to what you’re hearing across the broader IIEX West program.
Attendees can choose one roundtable each day, allowing you to take part in two different conversations over the course of the event.
Here’s what’s on the schedule, and why each conversation may be worth joining.
Day One — Tuesday, October 27
Customer Decision Making
Hosted by: Christopher Brace, Founder & CEO, Story Legacy
A chance to pressure-test how you’re interpreting customer behavior against the experiences of other researchers. Bring the decisions or behaviors your team is struggling to explain and hear how others are approaching them.
UX + Market Research Convergence
Hosted by: Lauren Isaacson, Founder & Research Director, Curio Research
For teams navigating the overlap between UX and insights, this is an opportunity to compare where the disciplines are coming together, where friction still exists, and how other organizations are making the relationship work.
The ROI of Insights
Hosted by: Gary Rudman, GTR Consulting
One of the hardest challenges in insights is showing the business what the work is worth. This conversation gives you a chance to hear how others are making that case, what resonates with leadership, and where traditional measures of research value fall short.
Research Operations & Scaling Lean
Hosted by: Z Johnson, Founder, MRXplorer
If your team is being asked to do more without a matching increase in resources, you’re not alone. Compare the processes, tools, and tradeoffs other teams are using to make research more sustainable without creating unnecessary complexity.
The Evolving Panel & Sample Ecosystem
Hosted by: Amy Spencer
Participant quality and access are changing quickly. This table gives researchers a place to compare what they’re seeing firsthand, where they’re encountering problems, and how they’re adjusting their approach.
Beyond NPS
Hosted by: Chris Hauck, President, HauckEye
If your organization relies heavily on NPS, or has started questioning what it really tells you, this is a chance to compare notes with others facing the same challenge and explore what stronger measurement could look like.
Insights Influence & Socialization
Hosted by: Allison Rak, CEO, Vatoca
Good research doesn’t automatically lead to action. This conversation is for people trying to increase the visibility and influence of insights inside their organization and learn what other teams are doing to make their work harder to ignore.
Startup Mentality in Insights
Hosted by: Rob Volpe
Insights teams are under pressure to move faster, experiment more, and respond to changing business needs. This table is a chance to talk about where greater agility helps, where it creates risk, and how others are finding the right balance.
Day Two — Wednesday, October 28
Behavioral Economics in Practice
Hosted by: Will Leach, Founder & CEO, Mindstate Group
Bring a current research or business challenge and explore how a behavioral lens might change the way you approach it. The value comes from comparing how practitioners are applying behavioral principles to real work and decisions.
AI Ethics & Governance in Research
Hosted by: Lauren McCluskey, Principal, Responsive Research
Many organizations are moving faster with AI than their policies are. This conversation gives practitioners a place to compare the questions they’re confronting, the safeguards they’re putting in place, and where they believe clearer boundaries are still needed.
Customer Experience Design & Measurement
Hosted by: Paula Rosecky, Qualitative Insights Strategist & Founder, Paula Rosecky & Company
For anyone trying to connect customer feedback to meaningful improvements, this is an opportunity to compare how other organizations are moving from measurement to action and where that process tends to break down.
Quantifying Qualitative Data
Hosted by: Katrina Noelle, Founder & Strategic Growth Director, KNow Research & Hootology
As new tools make it possible to work with qualitative data at greater scale, researchers are making new decisions about what to automate, what to quantify, and what needs to remain distinctly human. This table gives you a place to work through those tradeoffs with peers.
Democratizing Research / DIY Tools
Hosted by: Andy Garlikov, Director of Strategic Insights, HowSo.co
Giving more people access to research can increase speed and reach, but it can also create new quality and governance challenges. Compare how other teams are enabling self-service research while maintaining the standards that matter.
Data Quality
Hosted by: Mickey Hill
Data quality concerns touch nearly every part of research today. This conversation creates space to discuss what teams are actually doing about those challenges and where the industry still needs better answers.
Synthetic Insights
Hosted by: Julie Knox, Head of Jigsaw USA, Strat7 Jigsaw
Synthetic respondents are creating both excitement and skepticism. This is a place to compare where practitioners see genuine value, where they remain cautious, and what evidence they need before going further.
Storytelling with Data
Hosted by: Marc Engel
The challenge is often less about having the findings and more about making them land with different stakeholders. Bring the communication challenges you’re facing and hear how others are making their insights clearer, more memorable, and easier to act on.
How to choose your roundtable
Start with the challenge your team is actively working through.
If several topics interest you, choose the one where hearing how other people are approaching the problem could genuinely change what you do next. You’ll get more from the conversation if you arrive with a real question, decision, or obstacle in mind.
There may not be one “right answer” at the table. The value comes from hearing several perspectives and leaving with new ways to think about the problem.
Join the conversation at IIEX West
The roundtables are one part of a two-day IIEX West agenda built to give attendees multiple ways to learn, exchange ideas, and engage with the people around them.
Alongside the roundtables, you’ll hear from leaders at organizations including:
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Airbnb
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Mozilla
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Visa
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Warner Bros Discovery
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Microsoft
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Roblox
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Charter Communications
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Ancestry
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Stanford University
IIEX West 2026 takes place October 27–28 at Pier 27 in San Francisco.
Speakers, participating companies, sessions, and event details were confirmed at the time of publication. All speakers, sessions, schedules, and program details are subject to change.