Assembly 2026 — The Alchemy of Experience: Rooted in Humanity, Forged by Innovation

Key Takeaways

• Connection Creates Momentum: The most meaningful work emerges through shared understanding and collaboration. 

• Slowing Down Leads to Better Outcomes: Craft, reflection, and experimentation produce stronger, more differentiated work. 

• Human Judgment Is the Differentiator: AI can generate and scale, but only people bring taste, context, and accountability. 

Setting the Stage for Transformation

Set against the backdrop of a Santa Fe sunset, Ryan Schulz opened the week by grounding us in both place and purpose. Before diving into frameworks or ideas, he invited the room to pause, take in the environment, and shift into a mindset of awareness, curiosity, and connection. 

Ryan introduced the theme of The Alchemy of Experience, framing transformation as something both ancient and deeply relevant to modern work. Through the elements, he created a shared language for the days ahead, one that connected creativity, systems, and human experience.  

The most tangible expression of this idea came through a simple object: a small clay seed pot placed in each guest’s hands.

Transformation You Can Hold: As we held the pots, Ryan walked through the process of creating ceramics. Earth, Water, Air, and Fire combine through intention and effort to form something entirely new. Once transformed, it cannot return to its original state — a reminder that meaningful work, like craft, leaves a lasting imprint. 

Intention Makes the Difference: The materials alone are not enough. Transformation requires human input, care, and purpose. The same is true in our work. Tools, frameworks, and systems create the conditions, but intention is what makes the outcome meaningful. 

A Mindset for the Week Ahead: By encouraging everyone to slow down and notice the details, Ryan set the tone for the Assembly. The goal was not just to learn, but to engage more deeply, to reflect, and to be present for the conversations that would follow. 

The Elements of Alchemy

The main sessions explored the core elements of alchemy as forces actively shaping how we create, communicate, and lead. 

Stoking the Creative Fire

Kevin Leahy reframed creativity as both discipline and instinct, something that can be activated and developed across any role. 

Creativity Lives in the Balance: The strongest ideas come from the tension between exploration and discipline. When teams allow space to generate ideas and then apply structure to refine them, creativity becomes both productive and repeatable. 

Start Before You’re Ready: Progress doesn’t wait for perfect clarity. The most effective teams move forward with imperfect information, testing ideas quickly and learning through action rather than hesitation. 

Meaning Comes from Relationships Between Ideas: Insight is not just about collecting inputs. It is about identifying the relationships and tension between them. Reframing assumptions and exploring contrast often leads to unexpected breakthroughs. 

The Geology of Brand

Kathy Binkley grounded the conversation in the unseen forces shaping outcomes beneath the surface. 

Pressure Builds Before It Breaks: The most important shifts in business and brand do not happen all at once. They develop gradually, long before they become visible. Recognizing these signals early creates a strategic advantage. 

Speed Matters More Than Certainty: In a rapidly changing environment, waiting for perfect information slows progress. Organizations that test, learn, and adapt quickly are better equipped to stay relevant. 

Resilience Requires Flexibility: Strong brands are not rigid. They are grounded but adaptable, able to respond to change without losing their core identity. 

Winds of Time: Digital Media and the Return to Speech

Ben Magnuson explored how communication continues to evolve alongside the systems that support it. 

Communication Reflects Its Environment: From oral traditions to written systems to modern digital tools, communication has always adapted to its constraints. Today’s shift toward dialogue and storytelling reflects a more dynamic and participatory environment. 

Meaning Is Reinforced Through Interaction: Information alone is no longer enough. Understanding grows through conversation, repetition, and shared context. 

Abstraction Must Be Made Human: As information becomes more complex, especially data, it must become more situational and relatable in order to be useful. People engage with stories, not just systems. 

The Art of the Current: Navigating the Future of AI

Jenn Lill focused on creating the conditions that allow ideas and people to move. 

Psychological Safety Enables Creativity: Fear blocks progress. Organizations that create space for experimentation allow better ideas to emerge and adoption to grow. 

Clarity Drives Adoption: Resistance to AI is rarely about the technology. It is about uncertainty. When people understand how tools apply to their work, they engage more confidently. 

Learning Happens at Different Speeds: Each individual brings a different context and level of experience. Systems that adapt to people, rather than forcing alignment, scale more effectively. 

The Ether Advantage: The Invisible Connections that Transform Motion into Momentum

Jessica DeJong brought all of the elements together through Ether, the invisible force that creates cohesion. 

Connection Creates Momentum:  Ideas on their own create movement, but not always progress. When they align across people and disciplines, they generate the momentum that drives meaningful impact. 

Synthesis Creates Meaning: The ability to connect seemingly unrelated ideas transforms complexity into clarity. This is where real value emerges. 

Collaboration Multiplies Impact: The strongest outcomes are not created in isolation. They come from alignment, shared understanding, and collective effort. 

Bringing Alchemy into Practice

This year featured lightning talks that translated the week’s themes into personal, practical perspectives. Each speaker grounded the elements of alchemy in real-world application, showing how these ideas shape everyday decisions, systems, and creative work. 

Be Like Water: Fluidity Over Friction

Nick Villapiano explored how systems and teams can move with intention and adaptability, using the metaphor of water to illustrate how small, consistent forces create lasting impact. 

Flow Drives Sustainable Progress: The most effective systems do not rely on force. Instead, they create conditions for steady momentum. Small, well-designed components applied consistently can shape outcomes over time. 

Balance Enables Adaptability: Too much structure creates rigidity, while too little creates chaos. The most successful systems find a middle ground, guiding behavior without limiting flexibility. 

Friction Is Often Invisible but Compounding: Poorly designed systems do not always fail loudly. Instead, they accumulate inefficiencies that slow progress. Designing for flow ensures that effort compounds rather than stalls. 

The Magic of Why: Invisible Forces Behind Communication

Analisa Goldblatt focused on the role of judgment, perspective, and purpose in an era where content can be generated at scale. 

Taste Cannot Be Automated: While AI can produce content quickly, it cannot replicate the judgment required to determine what is meaningful or effective. Strong communication depends on human perspective. 

Volume Does Not Equal Value: As content becomes easier to create, the challenge shifts to ensuring quality. Without intention, more output can lead to less clarity. 

The “Why” Creates Meaning: Effective communication is rooted in purpose. Understanding why something matters gives content direction and allows it to resonate with an audience. 

The Human Element: Craft in the Age of AI

Cassidy Day reflected on the role of craft in a world increasingly shaped by automation. 

Time Shapes Quality: Creative work improves through iteration and reflection. Rushing the process often removes the nuance that makes work stand out. 

The Process Is Part of the Value: The act of making something builds skill, perspective, and intention. Craft is not just about the outcome. It is about how that outcome is created. 

Human Work Becomes More Distinct: As automation increases, work that reflects care, attention, and individuality becomes more noticeable and valuable. 

The Integrity of Input: Why Truth Needs Human Stewards in an Automated World

Min Shepherd examined the risks of removing human oversight from content systems and emphasized the importance of maintaining accountability. 

Efficiency Without Oversight Creates Risk: Automating processes without human validation can introduce errors that scale quickly and quietly across systems. 

Accuracy Requires Active Stewardship: Content systems degrade when they are not maintained. Ongoing verification and ownership are essential to preserving trust. 

Human Judgment Is Irreplaceable: Only people can assess nuance, question outputs, and take responsibility for outcomes. This role becomes more important as systems scale. 

Don’t Flatten the Story: What Comics Reveal about Leadership in a Moment that Demands Depth

Lee Ackerman used the structure of comics to explore how meaning is created through participation and perspective. 

Space Invites Engagement: Leaving intentional gaps allows others to contribute, interpret, and engage more deeply with ideas. 

Over-Polished Communication Limits Understanding: When everything is fully explained, there is little room for curiosity or collaboration. Depth comes from allowing complexity to remain visible. 

Meaning Is Co-Created: The strongest ideas are not delivered fully formed. They emerge through interaction, shared perspective, and collective interpretation. 

Panel — From Earth to Ether: How AI Is Reshaping Teams, Culture, and the Human Pace of Work

We’re grateful to have been joined by Doug DeMarco, Director of Design Engineering at Peacock; Katie Sebkhi, Director of UX Strategy; Konstantin Shishkin, Chief Growth Officer at Goodwin; and Scott Hornung, Director of AI Innovation at One North, for a dynamic panel discussion moderated by Kat Kollett, Senior Director of Strategy at One North.

As organizations rapidly adopt AI, the conversation explored not just what these tools can do, but how they are reshaping teams, workflows, and the way work happens. Panelists emphasized that while AI accelerates output, the real challenge lies in maintaining alignment, quality, and human connection in increasingly dynamic environments. 

Strategic Focus & Challenges: Panelists shared how organizations are navigating the tension between speed and structure. While AI enables faster execution, leaders are still working to define clear processes, align teams, and ensure that innovation does not outpace intention. 

Process Before Automation: A recurring theme was the importance of designing strong foundations before layering in AI. Applying AI to unclear or inefficient processes often creates additional friction, reinforcing the need to understand and refine workflows first. 

Permission to Play & Adoption: Successful adoption depends on creating space for experimentation. Teams learn fastest when they are encouraged to explore tools, share insights, and build confidence together. Peer-to-peer learning and visible early adopters play a critical role in driving broader engagement. 

AI in Practice: Panelists highlighted how AI is already improving workflows, from automating repetitive tasks to surfacing insights at scale. At the same time, they acknowledged challenges around governance, cost, and tool saturation as organizations balance exploration with discipline. 

The group closed with a mix of optimism and realism. While the pace of change continues to accelerate, there was strong alignment on one idea: success will depend on how well organizations integrate AI while preserving the human elements that drive creativity, trust, and meaningful work. 

Immerse Yourself in Santa Fe

Whether you experienced Assembly in person or are discovering it now, this curated collection of moments, imagery, and sound is designed to carry forward the energy, ideas, and connections sparked in Santa Fe. 

• Photo Gallery: A collection capturing the sessions, setting, and moments that defined Assembly 2026 
• Santa Fe Inspired Playlist: Songs inspired by the landscape, atmosphere, and energy of the Southwest 
• The Elements Playlist: A curated mix of songs that bring the elements to life through lyrics, themes, and references