What if the cure to the loneliness epidemic came down to one simple thing: high-quality experiences of friendship? If you think friendship doesn’t matter, consider this: The average American hasn’t made a single new friend in the last five years, and the resultant loneliness causes as much stress and inflammation in the body as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. In this talk, author and experience designer Kat Vellos shares the most galvanizing and insightful takeaways from her book, We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships and gives participants an action plan to create more belonging and connection in their lives. 

About Kat: Kat Vellos is the author of We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships and Connected from Afar: A Guide for Staying Close When You're Far Away. Her background is in user experience design, and she’s now a speaker, educator, and facilitator who helps others transform disconnection and platonic longing into authentic connection and fulfilling friendship. 

Kat is a prolific speaker who has graced the stages of TEDx, San Francisco Design Week, Design for America, the Transforming Loneliness Summit, Rosenfeld Media’s DesignOps Summit and many more. You can find her on Twitter @katvellos and Instagram @katvellos_author.