Design in Action is the year's largest gathering for nonprofit professionals dedicated to engaging the public on issues of architecture and design and K–12 design educators. The 2011 meeting takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from October 9 to October 11, with  an international audience of approximately 300 delegates. The conference is organized by the Association of Architecture Organizations/Architecture + Design Education Network and the Association for Community Design. Through keynote presentations, breakout sessions, and mobile tours in the community, attendees investigate how communities are strengthened through design. In addition to big picture thinking about design, sessions address key issues in several areas, including exhibitions, lectures, public programs, architecture tours, K–12 education, and the facilitation of pro bono design services. The conference also provides opportunities to gain practical insights from peers. The conference keynote address will be delivered by architect and pioneering community engagement strategist Teddy Cruz.

Teddy Cruz's work dwells at the border between San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico, where he has been developing both an architectural practice and pedagogy that emerge out of the particularities of this bicultural territory and the integration of theoretical research and design production. Estudio Teddy Cruz, in collaboration with community-based nonprofit organizations such as Casa Familiar, has been recognized internationally for its work on housing and its championing of an urban policy more inclusive of social and cultural programs. Cruz obtained a master's in design studies from Harvard University and garnered the Rome Prize in Architecture from the American Academy in Rome. In addition, he received the 2004–05 James Stirling Memorial Lecture prize and is currently an associate professor in public culture and urbanism in the Visual Arts Department at the University of California, San Diego.