Remain Relevant in the Age of GenAI - Become a Dinosaur

Designers are being told to “adapt or be replaced.”
Tools are racing ahead. Skillsets are shifting. And Generative AI is redrawing the creative landscape faster than most of us can sketch a wireframe.

But what if the best strategy isn’t to panic… but to become a dinosaur?

Yes. A dinosaur.

Why Dinosaurs Still Matter

We’ve been taught the wrong lesson about dinosaurs:
That they were doomed, outdated, and too slow to survive.

But here’s the truth:

Dinosaurs ruled Earth for over 150 million years—longer than any species before or after.
They were masters of adaptation, variation, and ecological fluency.
Even after the extinction event, they didn’t vanish—they evolved. Every bird is living proof.

As a self-declared Graphicdesignosaurus with 30 years in design, Mario Van der Meulen unpacks the evolutionary lessons we need to hear now more than ever.

This Talk Will Help You:

🔹 Reframe AI not as extinction, but evolution
🔹 Build your creative adaptability and future fluency
🔹 Develop staying power in a fast-moving profession
🔹 Let go of productivity panic and focus on value creation
🔹 Reconnect to curiosity, relevance, and reinvention

Who This Talk Is For:

• Designers feeling overwhelmed by GenAI

• Design leaders navigating rapid transformation

• Creative professionals rethinking their path forward

• Organizations investing in design resilience

• Anyone who’s been told “don’t be a dinosaur”

What People Say:

“Finally, a talk that doesn’t shame designers about AI—but uplifts them.”
— Principal Product Designer, Fintech

“The dinosaur metaphor stuck with me for weeks. Funny, smart, and sneakily profound.”
— Head of UX, Global Retail Brand

“A powerful call to re-own our place in design—not by resisting the future, but by understanding the past.”
— Director of Design Ops

Key Takeaways:

🔹 The three traits dinosaurs mastered that designers need today
🔹 Why resilience, not reinvention, is your superpower
🔹 How to build creative confidence in a GenAI-saturated world
🔹 Why “extinction” is a lazy metaphor—and how to build your own longevity
🔹 How to turn your design practice into a force that thrives under pressure

Formats:

• Keynote (40 min)

• Team offsite talk + Q&A

• Workshop: “Designing with Staying Power” (half-day)

Bonus Thought:

You don’t need to become faster than the AI.
You need to become more relevant than ever.

This is your time to evolve, not disappear.
Let’s become the kind of dinosaurs worth designing after.