catalyzing connection
Here’s a little bit of what I’ve been up to.
Speaking
Keynote, CMX Summit, Redwood City, May 2025
Guest speaker, BuildIRL, San Francisco, May 2025
Guest speaker, BuildIRL, San Francisco, June 2024
Keynote, American Massage Therapy Association, Chicago, May 2024
Keynote, PEPS Annual Gala, Seattle, May 2024
Fireside Chat, Caregivers Wellness Network, May 2024
Keynote, County of San Mateo Leadership Forum, March 2024
Keynote: Central Piedmont Community College, February 2024
Fireside, REI National, Virtual, January 2024
Fireside Chat, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Virtual, October 2023
Keynote, UCSF OBGYN All Hands, San Francisco, September 2023
Fireside Chat, NextStage, Putney, August 2023
Fireside Chat, Atlanta Solopreneurs Club, July 2023
Keynote, UC Berkeley NOW Conference, Berkeley June 2023
IG Live Collab with Casper ter Kuile, author of The Power of Ritual, June 2023
Fireside Chat, Vanderbilt University, Design Thinking / Design for America, March 2023
Guest speaker, KBPS, Midday Edition, March 2023
Fireside Chat, Chegg, Santa Clara, March 2023
Fireside Chat: Cultivating Connection in Adulthood, BetterCloud, Virtual, March 2023
Guest speaker, WEST Summit, Virtual, January 2023
Guest speaker, IDEO U, January 2023
Guest speaker, UX Night, November 2023
Keynote, Asana, November 2022
Guest speaker, Issroff Family Foundation, October 2022
Guest speaker, Designer-to-Author Conference, Virtual, October 2022
IG Live Collab with Danielle Bayard Jackson, future author of Fighting for Our Friendships, August 2022
Guest speaker, Adobe, Virtual, August 2022
Guest speaker, Figma, Virtual, July 2022
Guest speaker, VivaTech, Paris, June 2022
Fireside Chat, A Book Apart, May 2022
Guest speaker, The Atlantic’s Pursuit of Happiness Conference, Half Moon Bay, May 2022
Guest speaker, Google, March 2022
Keynote, Wells Enterprises, March 2022
Guest speaker, Storytelling Mastery Summit, Virtual, January 2022
Keynote and workshop for Invisibilia listeners in partnership with NPR, November 2021
Keynote, Women Donors Network, November 2021
Fireside Chat, Women Talk Design, November 2021
Fireside Chat, Human Interest, Virtual, October 2021
Guest speaker, Community Conference, Virtual, October 2021
Keynote, Ladies That UX, Virtual Conference, October 2021
Fireside Chat, Community Roundtable, Virtual, October 2021
Guest speaker, Zendesk, Virtual, September 2021
Guest speaker, Asana, Virtual, September 2021
Guest speaker and workshop for UC Davis Staff Retreat, Virtual, June 2021
Keynote, SF Design Week, Virtual, June 2021
Keynote, Workday, Virtual, May 2021
Guest speaker and workshop, Metalab, March 2021
Guest speaker, Adobe, Virtual, March 2021
Guest speaker, OneTable, Virtual, March 2021
Fireside Chat, Medley, Virtual, February 2021
Fireside Chat, Real Mental Health, February 2021
Fireside Chat, HmntyCntrd, January 2021
Guest speaker, CreativeMornings Oakland, January 2021
Guest speaker, Design for America, Virtual, December 2020
TEDx Speaker, TEDx San Rafael Women, November 2020
Guest speaker, How Leaders Lead Summit, Virtual, November 2020
Keynote, Rosenfeld Media DesignOps Summit, Virtual, October 2020
Guest speaker, CMX Summit, Virtual, October 2020
Guest speaker, PixelUp, Virtual, September 2020
Keynote, UC Davis Designathon, Virtual, September 2020
IG Live Collab with Kasley Killam, future author of The Art & Science of Connection, August 2020
Guest speaker, Women Talk Design, August 2020
Guest speaker, Adobe, Virtual, August 2020
Guest speaker, Seattle Public Library, Virtual, August 2020
Guest speaker, Quarantine Book Club with Mike Monteiro, July 2020
Keynote, “Make It Work: How to help your employees thrive and why you can't afford not to”, Lesbians Who Tech Summit, Virtual, June 2020
Guest speaker, Quarantine Book Club with Mike Monteiro, June 2020
Guest speaker, Design for America, Building the Commons, LinkedIn HQ in San Francisco, February 2020
Book Launch Party for We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships, MudLab, Oakland CA, February 2020
Leadership
Founder & Facilitator: Platonic Action Lab (PAL), 2024-Present
In 2023, I designed the PAL program based on the challenges that I’ve most frequently guided clients through in private coaching and that came up during Connection Club in the prior few years.
Platonic Action Lab guides adults through the process of intentionally creating stronger friendships and community. I’ve offered PAL as both a live cohort and as an on-demand DIY course that students can start at any time.
"I was soo lucky to come across Platonic Action Lab 😊. I moved to a new city 6 months ago, and this is exactly what I needed. The space Kat creates is so warm, supportive, fun and inspiring.
It's been a few weeks since I finished, and this is what has happened in my life since then: hosted two potlucks for two different groups at my place, was invited to a pizza night by a new friend who introduced me to her friends, I had spontaneous tea with neighbors, and I'm developing a community group around food and conviviality. All this is happening because I was not trying to do it all by myself. Because I had the support of Kat and the class behind me...
If you dream of having: more friends, better friends, a good community - PAL is a fantastic foundation for big dreams. You deserve the connections your heart is longing for. We all do."
— Maria Perez, Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner
“I feel optimistic and more confident moving forward in my life, knowing there are others who want connection and are just waiting for someone to reach out. I now feel more empowered that I can go anywhere and make friends and connections using the tools and ideas I learned here in this community. I feel much less alone and am so so grateful.”
— Lindsay, PAL Alumni
Founder & Lead Facilitator: Connection Club, 2020-2023
Reach: 2000+
I created Connection Club™ in 2020 and ran it until March 2024. I created Connection Club for people who wanted to strengthen their existing friendships and connect with other people who cherish friendship enough to prioritize. Members supported each other’s friendship-nurturing habits, and I facilitated sessions that allowed members to strengthen existing friendships and make friends within Connection Club too.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I also facilitated Connection Club sessions for CreativeMornings FieldTrips’ community of global members, further extending the reach of this connection practice and helping thousands of people feel less alone.
“Last summer, I stumbled upon an invitation for Kat's Connection Club. It sounded like a perfect match for all the things I was seeking at the time and adore about the world--a celebration of deep conversations and connection with others. My time participating in the cohort I was a part of was lovely.
Kat facilitated each session with such intentionality and care. Each gathering felt like a welcome embrace rather than an obligation or perfunctory task.
Throughout my experience, I also had the opportunity to connect with other members of my cohort during times beyond our scheduled Connection Club meetings. Through this, I met a friend who has become very near and dear to my heart. Fellow member, Cassie, and I began by scheduling monthly Zoom meetings to talk about shared books we decided to read together or podcasts related to our shared interests that we would listen to and then discuss. Our meetings quickly evolved into a deep and meaningful friendship with discussions moving into the rich tapestry of our lives. We now connect at least monthly, from across the country, to support, listen, and laugh with one another.
I had joined Connection Club in search of finding more of my people and left with a kindred spirit friendship that I absolutely cherish. Kat helped facilitate this possibility and bring it to existence through the beautifully welcoming and inclusive space she created.”
— Katie Hartman, Connection Club member
Founder & Lead Facilitator: Better than Small Talk, 2015-2020
Reach: 300+
Better than Small Talk was a community gathering for people who want to move past repetitive small talk and explore more meaningful conversations. I created and offered to the world as a way to foster community, reduce isolation, and inspire more open, authentic connections between people.
I’ve since converted all of the conversation starter cards I used into PDF downloads that anyone is welcome to use to host their own gatherings. All 300+ conversation starters are also in the appendix of my book, We Should Get Together.
Small snippet of participant feedback:
“What a wonderful concept and experience. I loved getting to know others, hearing their stories and connecting with such a different group of people.”
“I loved it! You created a very friendly and inviting and intimate experience. I was surprised how genuine and real everyone was and how enjoyable it was. So much better than small talk! Thank you so much.”
Founder & Lead Facilitator: Bay Area Black Designers, 2015-2022
Reach: 500+
Featured in Forbes: “Feel Like the Only One? How to Build Your Own Professional Community”
Bay Area Black Designers was a dynamic and supportive professional development community for Black people working as digital designers in the San Francisco Bay Area. I founded the group in the summer of 2015 because in the decade after graduating with my design degree, I’d only ever met two other Black designers. I craved community and believed that other Black designers did too.
We started as a group of five in my living room and grew organically to hundreds of members.
The members of BABD represented design professionals working in all areas of digital design, at every level from beginners to experts.
Being designers from an underrepresented group in tech, we could all relate to the isolation of feeling like “the only one” since most of us were the only Black designers in our companies or on our teams. Building community together, we could share inspiration, connection, peer mentorship, professional development, resources, feedback, support, resilience, and project collaboration.
I led workshops and community-building sessions for BABD every month for five years from 2015-2020, then from 2020-2022 I led a group coaching program within BABD called Squads. Squads focused on supporting members more deeply with their personal and professional development in an intimate small group setting.
BABD preceded and laid the foundation for numerous other communities focused on serving Black designers, including The Black Artists + Designers Guild (founded in 2018), Black Design Collective (founded in 2018), and Where Are The Black Designers (founded in 2020). Having met its mission, BABD came to a close in 2022.
“I had been looking for community where I could connect, learn, teach, and share. To my great fortune Kat had seen a need for such a community and so she had built it. That's what Kat does; she's a builder.
With relentless dedication and unwavering passion she brought nearly 500 people (who had never even met more than one or two other Black designers) together and facilitated our growth and development.
What began in Kat's living room grew to partnered meetups with the biggest and brightest companies in design and tech in the Bay Area. Throughout it all she helped me see strengths in myself I hadn't seen and encouraged me to realize a greater potential in me than I knew I had. That's what Kat does; she's a builder. And she's the best.”
— Kendall Howse, longtime Member of Bay Area Black Designers
Facilitation
Your Relationship Refresh, The Guild, SF + Virtual, March 2025
Facilitation AMA, Virtual, February 2025
Email Debt Forgiveness Party, CreativeMornings Field Trips, Virtual, September 2024
Good Neighbor Day Workshop for Cary Library Foundation, Virtual, September 2024
Six Secrets to Better Friendships, Virtual workshop, August 2024
Reignite the Power of Friendship workshop for RevelEleven, July 2024
UCSF Staff Summer Connection Social, SF, July 2024
Here to Make Friends, platonic matchmaking workshop, Virtual, June 2025
Tab Closing Party, CreativeMornings Field Trips, Virtual, February 2024
Here to Make Friends, platonic matchmaking workshop, Virtual, October 2023
Cultivating Healthy Friendships, workshop at Sum of Us Festival, September 2023
Tab Closing Party, CreativeMornings Field Trips, Virtual, August 2023
Unbusy Camp Live, Virtual, August 2023
New Student Orientation Connection Workshop, Foundation Year, Northeastern University, Boston, August 2023
The Secret to Adult Friendships, workshop for Meetup HQ’s global community with 4000+ people attending virtually, July 2023
Cultivating Authentic Connections in a Remote Work Environment, Virtual, June 2023
Film screening of Join or Die, followed by Q&A with the filmmakers Pete and Rebecca Davis, June 13
HCI: Human Connection Interaction workshop at San Francisco Design Week, June 2023
No More Zombie Conversations, workshop for ConnectFest, Virtual, April 2023
Facilitation AMA, Virtual, March 2023
Here to Make Friends, platonic matchmaking workshop, Virtual, March 2023
The Art of Meaningful Connection, RevelEleven, Virtual, November 2023
Level Up! How to Boost Your Friendship Nurturing, Virtual, November 2022
Here to Make Friends, platonic matchmaking workshop, Virtual, July 2022
The Academy of Unabashed Unfolding, workshop series,Virtual, January 2022
Designer-to-Author, workshop series, Virtual, January-February 2022
Cultivating Strong and Healthy Communities, workshop for high achieving leaders in Community.co’s membership, Virtual, November 2021
Designer-to-Author, workshop series, Virtual, October 2021
Cultivating Connection, workshop for PEO Sisterhood, September 2021
Designer-to-Author, workshop series, Virtual, August-September 2021
Workshop for Aspiring Authors, Virtual, August 2021
Designer Loneliness: Cause, Cure, and Connection, SF Design Week, Virtual, June 2021
Here to Make Friends, platonic matchmaking workshop, Virtual, May 2021
Better Adult Friendships, Virtual, April 2021
Friendship Power Pack: How to create thriving friendships in adulthood, RevelEleven, Virtual, March 2021
Friendship Tips During a Pandemic: A Panel of Experts, Clubhouse, Virtual, March 2021
Friendship Power Pack, California College of the Arts, Virtual, February 2021
Cultivating Connection workshop series, Anything Libraries, Virtual, February 2021
Designer-to-Author, workshop series, Virtual, January-February 2021
Designer-to-Author, workshop series, Virtual, August-October 2020
Connection Club workshop for CreativeMornings FieldTrips, August 2020
Quarantine Support Circle, April-May 2020
Cultivating Stronger Friendships in Challenging Times, April 2020