Beyond the Map: The journey management movement begins this October in Barcelona

It’s five o’clock, and it’s been a long and productive Thursday. But you don’t feel tired. No, you feel awake. Jazzed. Inspired. You’re standing on the iconic terrace of the Disseny Hub Barcelona, the city’s angular, glass-and-steel home to its renowned Design Museum. The last of the Mediterranean sun’s setting rays casts a golden glow on an eclectic group of people mingling — CX leaders, change-makers, storytellers, and systems thinkers — all working at the intersection of design, data, and the art and practice of journey management.

You take a relaxed sip of the cool, cucumber-infused drink in your hand, catching snippets of the lively conversations that hum around you: . . . ethical AI . . . human-centered design . . . experience intelligence . . . Bold ideas. Intriguing questions. Everyone’s thinking out loud. 

This isn’t your typical business event. This is Beyond the Map, the first-ever gathering of its kind for journey management. And if the founders have their way, it won't be the last. 

Designed to serve as the launchpad for a new kind of community, this three-day deep dive welcomes both experienced practitioners and curious professionals — anyone drawn to deeper collaboration, clearer purpose, and more thoughtful, integrated ways to shape experience.

Set against the buzzing energy of Barcelona Design Week from October 8-10, it’s not exactly a conference. It’s more like a creative collision — an interdisciplinary festival of ideas, where boundaries between disciplines blur and converge, much like the practice of journey management itself: connecting silos, surfacing insights, informing decisions, and driving action.

Here’s how it all began.

From roots to revolution: How a decade of service design sparked a movement

It all started with a question: Why isn’t there a real space for journey management? 

Inge Keizer, seasoned design strategist and curator, posed the question, and the idea quickly took shape between her and two other collaborators: Jochem van der Veer, CEO and co-founder of TheyDo and Marc Fonteijn, founder and host of the Service Design Show. Together, they envisioned a happening that would build on the experimental, cross-disciplinary energy of Service Design Days, the Barcelona-based event Keizer led for nearly a decade. “The same spirit carries into Beyond the Map,” says Keizer. “But this time, we’re going deeper. We’re asking: How do journeys truly create change?” 

With a track record of bringing unexpected voices into the conversation, Keizer is once again shaping both an experience and a community where cross-pollination is built into the blueprint. “We didn’t want to just talk about design in a silo,” she recalls of the Service Design Days. “We brought in foresight experts, ethnographers, and business thinkers.” For Beyond the Map, her team is expanding that vision. “We tweaked, and we grew, and we changed,” she adds. “Some pillars are still there. But this is an ongoing process.”

That iterative, experimental, and endlessly curious spirit is what gives Beyond the Map its edge. Part workshop, part salon, part rooftop mind-jam., it’s a live experience where the people building experience-led systems in the wild show you how they did it — and what did and didn’t work along the way.

“There are plenty of design, CX, and tech events, but nothing that brings it all together like this,” says Van der Veer. “Journey management does that. It’s the bridge between insight and action, between strategy and operations. We’re bringing people who’ve actually done it — who’ve changed how their companies work. And they’re going to show you how they did it.”

Inside the experience: A first look at the bold tracks and themes guiding the program

The vision for launching this first-ever journey management immersion comes to life over three days inside the Disseny Hub Barcelona — a cutting-edge center where art, industry, design, and innovation intersect through interdisciplinary experimentation. It’s a fitting venue for an event — and a practice — that connects the dots between the what and the why, insight and action, head and heart.

“We’re designing the attendee experience as a journey,” says Van der Veer. “It starts the moment you walk in and doesn’t end when you leave.” What better way to launch a journey management movement?

The program is built around six core themes:

• Design leadership — Leading teams and shaping innovation in complex organizations

• Futures & foresight — Designing for what’s next with long-term thinking and resilience

• Technology & AI — Collaborating with machines while keeping the human at the center

• Experience & empathy — Understanding needs and emotions to drive real-world change

• Evidence & insight — Turning raw data into decisions and scalable action

• Journeys & ecosystems — Bridging silos and managing the full experience end-to-end

You’ll hear dynamic talks and immersive presentations from over two dozen speakers, including:

• Ovetta Sampson, Founder of Right AI, bringing a bold, ethical perspective on artificial intelligence and the human side of machine learning

• Florian Vollmer, Director of Insights at Autodesk, exploring how journey data and design intelligence fuel real business transformation

• Birgit Geiberger, Global Head of Product UX Design at IKEA, offering insights on scaling meaningful experiences across teams, products, and regions

And that’s just the beginning. The full lineup includes voices from Pfizer, LEGO, Zurich Insurance, and The Ocean Cleanup, alongside academics, foresight experts, and practitioners who’ve turned maps into movements within their organizations.

Expect honest case studies. Unscripted panels. And hands-on sessions where attendees don’t just talk about experience intelligence — they bring it to life. “It’s not about a pretty journey map stuck on a wall,” says Van der Veer. “It’s about creating the systems and culture to actually manage those journeys and make real change happen.”

In one workshop, participants will use a real case from The Ocean Cleanup to prototype decisions using AI. “It’s about strategy with AI on board — but not leaving everything to AI,” says Keizer. “Letting AI support you in the right way to make those decisions to move forward.”

In another workshop, the concept of the journey as the archetypal cycle of change takes center stage — explored through guided meditation, intuitive collage, and the crafty wielding of glue sticks. It’s a hands-on, heart-open invitation to surface insights and emotions that are often left out of traditional business settings.

This isn’t your typical conference. And that’s the point.

What sets Beyond the Map apart isn’t just the program — it’s what happens in the spaces between. Those “unofficial, serendipitous moments,” as Marc Fonteijn, the event’s MC, puts it. “I’m really looking forward to those,” he says. “Where you run into somebody, get a coffee, and it turns out to be a connection for the next five years. I’m going to shake hands with serendipity.”

With its roots in service design and its heart in change-making and impact, Beyond the Map is an invitation to join a movement and contribute to an evolving field. To learn, laugh, and live experience intelligence — in real time.

“It’s a collision of minds,” says Keizer. “You’ll get your hands dirty and your mind blown.”

It’s a chance to boldly experiment, engage with smart thinkers and doers, and stretch your journey management practice even further.

It’s your invitation to go Beyond the Map. 

Ready to join the journey management movement in Barcelona? Here are the details:

• October 8–10, 2025

• Disseny Hub Barcelona

• Explore the full program and register at beyondthemap.com