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NEWS & NOTES

How does the whole programme work?

by Cheryl May | Jun 2025 | About RSD14, Participant FAQs, SDA blog

Here’s what to expect for Relating Systems Thinking and Design, RSD14. The programme runs from October 3 to 21 as a series of online and in-person events dedicated to systemic design.

Over the past few years, October has evolved into a month of systemic design, with the RSD symposium marking the close of one season and the renewal of the next. It coincides with observances such as Sukkot, BIPOC heritage and commemorative events, the many UN-designated international days, and harvest festivals across cultures. The RSD programme is designed to honour this confluence—making space for spiritual observance, daily rhythms, and the work of personal and collective transformation.

In an ongoing effort to be mindful of international travel, much of the programme takes place online. Sessions are one-hour, modular, and designed so that you can choose your own adventure. When you log in to the events platform, you can select sessions that resonate with you, add them to your calendar, and join with a single link.

First up is the community-led RSDX festival, taking place from October 3 to 6. This is a unique programme, often full of surprises, organised through contributions from systemic designers around the world. RSDX reflects current research and practice trends—and signals the arcs of our design community, ranging from single sessions to mini-symposia co-presented with other groups and organisations.

In 2020, Paper Talks—presentations of peer-reviewed articles—moved online. It opens with a day of knowledge communities on October 7, then, on any day between October 8 and 10, you can do a deep dive into a discussion with authors. These one-hour sessions cluster three or four papers that converge or diverge on a shared topic. Authors present their work, and there is ample time for open discussion.

We also included some gap days for adjacent communities to continue our tradition of symposium takeovers in the online space.

October 11 is an online takeover day. Relational Connectedness, hosted by the Coordinated Management of Meaning Institute, is a space for designers to explore the question of how we would go about designing better social worlds through our communication, relationships, and the larger systems in which we are a part. Explore ways that you can enrich your work through greater communication design.
The second takeover, on October 12, is a #NewMacy and American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) collaboration. Ecologies of Knowing explores relationality and arcs of impact across domains of information mapping, architecture, design, and organisational structures in diverse disciplines, geographies, and generations.

The in-person symposium, RSD14–Toronto, is an inviting and inclusive space for researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and academics to make and renew acquaintances and engage in conversations that arise from shared topics and common interests. Hosted on campus at OCADU from October 15 to 18, this is a great reason to visit one of the founding schools of the RSD movement.

What follows is an opportunity for a smaller convening on October 19: a wisdom-sharing retreat on the Toronto Islands for those engaged in systems(ic) design leadership and capability building, hosted by The Systems School and building on the work of reconceptualising leadership as a relational field.

Our final day, ARC25 on October 21, includes co-inquiry roundtables on systemic design case reporting, held at 10:00 AM in several time zones, and the Systemic Design General Assembly.

Weekly Sightlines articles are devoted to relationality, with contributions from RSD speakers, chairs, editors, advisors, and board members. It also marks the inaugural issue of the Anthology of Reflexive Contributors (ARC25), which will be available as a digital magazine and in print at RSD14-Toronto.