Advancing the Value of Ethnography

EPIC Calendar

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EPIC Members can access all Learning Week sessions, livestreamed sessions from our annual conference, premium video, and discounted tutorial, course, and in-person conference registration rates.

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Upcoming Events

Tutorial

Designing AI to Think with Us, Not for Us: A Guide to Cognitive Offloading

Learn strategic tools and cognitive science expertise you need to drive insights, design, and decision making that empowers people and builds trust.

Wednesday, May 7, 2025 | 9:00 am – 12:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

Proxies for Attention: The Reciprocal Modeling of People and Digital Systems

As ubiquitous digital systems transform of human attention and agency, a better understanding of reciprocal modeling helps us address important social and technical challenges.

Monday, May 12, 2025 | 8:30 am – 10:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

Open Social

Fill your cup with community!

Monday, May 12, 2025 | 10:00 am – 10:30 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

Weaving NLP and Qualitative Methodologies

Learn about an approach to integrating Natural Language Processing and qualitative research.

Monday, May 12, 2025 | 10:30 am – 11:30 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

Authoritarian Transitions or Democratic Resilience?

Leading experts on patterns of democracy and authoritarianism, AI policy, and far right politics share frameworks to interpret current events.

Monday, May 12, 2025 | 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

AI and the Future of the Digital Public Square

Will new technologies improve or further undermine democratic participation in the public square?

Monday, May 12, 2025 | 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

Localizing GenAI in a Global Context: The Role of Qualitative Research

How can we push localization beyond translation to foreground local contexts, knowledge systems, and modes of interaction?

Tuesday, May 13, 2025 | 8:00 am – 9:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

Semiotic Sensemaking with AI

Find out how locally nuanced cultural analysis alongside AI enabled tools can help us explore patterns at scale.

Tuesday, May 13, 2025 | 9:30 am – 10:30 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

The Promise and Perils of Synthetic Data

Find out how experts are evaluating new frontiers and methodological evolution in research with the rise of LLM-generated data.

Tuesday, May 13, 2025 | 10:30 am – 11:45 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

AI Research Tools and Ethnographic Methodologies

Establish an ethnographic foundation for sensemaking with AI – while navigating constraints and resisting applications that devalue our work.

Tuesday, May 13, 2025 | 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Tutorial

Mobilizing Teams with Tangible Theory: Collective Sensemaking for Actionable and Scalable Insights

Use interactive theory instruments that empower stakeholders and non-experts to realize the full potential of insights for business, product, and service opportunities.

Wednesday, May 14, 2025 | 8:00 am – 11:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

What Insights Enable: Focusing on the Value that Anchors Our Work

Frame value propositions for deeper, more strategic insights at a time when AI tools promise fast, cheap answers.

Wednesday, May 14, 2025 | 8:00 am – 9:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

Generative AI, Cognitive Offloading, and the Future of Critical Thinking in Research and Society

Hear what recent research on cognitive offloading and critical thinking is showing, the social implications of these findings, and productive ways to interpret and act on them.

Wednesday, May 14, 2025 | 9:00 am – 10:15 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

How Is AI Integration Transforming Organizations? New Opportunities for Ethnography, Research, and Strategy

AI adoption is driving organizational transformation that raises fundamental questions about the nature of work, decision making, and value creation—an important opportunity space for us to guide and catalyze change.

Wednesday, May 14, 2025 | 11:00 am – 12:15 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

The New Truth Factory: When Insights Are Infinite, Who Decides What’s Real?

Learn how generative AI is shifting research and conceptions of ‘truth’ and how researchers can respond.

Thursday, May 15, 2025 | 8:00 am – 9:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

Curiosity, Confidence, and Change: A Collaborative Space to Confront Research Realities and New Opportunities

A talk and workshop that creates space to openly confront – and collaboratively address – pressing challenges in research value, strategy, and quality.

Thursday, May 15, 2025 | 9:00 am – 10:15 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

The Value of Research in Organizations: Culture, Strategy, and Scale

Learn about organizational cultures where research can thrive and how the right operational model can increase research’s strategic impact.

Thursday, May 15, 2025 | 10:30 am – 11:30 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

How to Make Networking Suck Less (and Start to Enjoy It!)

Learn strategies for professional networking in times of both plentitude and precarity.

Thursday, May 15, 2025 | 11:30 am – 12:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

Moving from Insights to Organizational Learning

An interactive workshop to create new opportunity spaces for ethnography and research that go beyond product into diverse business functions and ecosystems.

Thursday, May 15, 2025 | 1:00 pm – 2:15 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

Who’s Hiring and What Are They Looking For?

Gain insights into the core skills that are most in demand today and how expectations for research roles are shifting beyond traditional tech environments.

Thursday, May 15, 2025 | 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Learning Week

Learning Circle: Sociotechnical Systems & Assemblages

Hear about (and join!) a learning group centered around a collection of EPIC articles about sociotechnical systems and assemblages.

Friday, May 16, 2025 | 9:30 am – 10:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Tutorial

Trust Unpacked: Using Social Insights to Understand and Cultivate Trust

Learn and apply social frameworks that enhance trust research and strategies for cultivating trust with stakeholders, customers, or markets.

Monday, May 19, 2025 | 8:30 am – 11:30 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Tutorial

Beyond “It’s Complex”: How to Recognize, Analyze, and Apply Systems Frameworks

Learn systems thinking, complexity models, and practical tools for sensemaking and influencing strategic change.

Monday, May 19, 2025 | 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)
Member Meetup

May Member Meetup

Join us for a casual hangout and meet some excellent folks! Board and staff members will brief you on the latest EPIC news, then we’ll connect around common interests.

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 | 8:00 am – 9:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC−07:00)