On December 12th 2025, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) School of Graduate Studies Exhibition and Experience Design program welcomed back judges for their annual FIT Capstone Event. Professionals from across a variety of industries, including events, retail, and museums arrived to socialize, network, and judge the students’ Capstone projects, offering feedback and support in their future careers.
This year, I had the honor of meeting many of the students at ExhibitorLIVE, which allowed me to approach the presentations with a different set of eyes than many of the others. While others were considering who they wanted to offer jobs, I was busy asking the judges: were you listening?
Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, Brooke Carlson congratulated the students by saying, “You now have design superpowers. You are building your careers as creatives, thinkers, leaders, and makers who will steward the industry’s professionals, who see the value and human experiences, connections, and role of design in our lives.”
If I had to consider one word to describe this cohort of students it would be: connection. It follows in line with the year’s theme of “Please stay on the line. Your Big Idea is very important to us.”
In the presentations I had the honor of sitting in on, there was an emphasis on conversation. Instead of providing answers the students created environments designed to leave audiences with open ended questions and strong moments of emotions that needed to be discussed. Many of the exhibits conceptualized offered ideas and considerations, history and facts, but no solutions. Audiences were left with open-ended moments that pushed them to fully consider what was being presented and what it meant to them.
The Capstone Event is intended to be a moment of guidance, giving students ideas and comments on how to make the presentations more cohesive specifically for marketing, flow, and the design itself. Yet, emotion became the centerpiece across the floor, creating debates in small rooms about the particulars of a lesson. It became more than just the design itself, the feedback became a reflection of the lessons that the students were trying to present. Regardless of if they knew it or not, each student brought the audience into their world and made them care. They created a nuanced connection that branched further than, perhaps, initially intended.
Beyond the reaction of the judges, the presentations themselves branched into connection with their exhibits in a strong anti-technology sentiment. This is not to say that the exhibits did not feature technology, but rather that audiences were expected to disconnect from their phones, shut down the fast paced world of the internet, and settle with what was before them. Shut off the digital world and reengage with the physical world around you. In many ways, without being outwardly vocal, the presentations were anti-AI, rooted in authentic experiences, and asked similar questions:
In a world where everything is moving nonstop and everyone is plugged into the internet, how do you connect to each other? How do you connect to a story? How do you connect to society? How do you connect to those you’ve never met?
Lindsay Eiseman may have said it best, “Designers impact the world. What we do affects the future.”
Ultimately, the future is what the FIT Capstone Event is about. It is the one time of the year where professionals across industries – events, hospitality, museums, and even fashion – join together to provide support to the students who are at the heart of the event. We support the students and create the path to the industry and world that we wish to build. We connect and we are listening.
