What’s New in XDS Connect 2025
We’re thrilled to welcome you back to XDS Connect powered by Atomhawk—your go-to platform for scheduling meetings, planning your agenda, and connecting with the XDS community.
This year, we’ve rolled out a number of new features and enhancements based on your feedback to make connecting and collaborating even easier. Whether you’re a Developer, Service Provider, or part of our wider creative community, XDS Connect has something new for you.
Here’s what’s new in 2025:
📅 CALENDAR UPDATES
Calendar Subscriptions
You can now subscribe to your personal XDS Connect calendar and sync it with Outlook, Google Calendar, or iCal.
- It’s a one-way sync—updates made in XDS Connect will appear in your personal calendar (not the other way around).
- Depending on your calendar platform, updates may take up to 24 hours to reflect.
- Generate your link in the My Calendar section.
Meetings Outside of XDS Floor Hours
You can now book meetings before and after official XDS floor hours.
- Great for breakfast catch-ups or dinner meetings.
- These meetings can be longer than 30 minutes.
- You’ll define your own meeting location, as these happen off the conference floor.
Session Double-Booking (Smart Overlap)
Some overlapping is now possible to give you more flexibility:
✔️ Session + Social Event
✔️ Social Event + Meeting
✔️ Session + Meeting
❌ Two meetings cannot be booked at the same time (for obvious reasons)
🖥 DASHBOARD ENHANCEMENTS
Calendar Preview Enhancements
Your My Calendar Preview now shows the location of each session or meeting—so you can quickly see where you need to be throughout the day.
🤝 PROFILE & TEAMS PAGES
XDS Spark Integration
You can now link your XDS Spark profile to your XDS Connect profile.
- You’ll be searchable by your Spark company info
- Showcase your studio’s identity and values to the wider community
Green Certification Display
Studios with a green certification can now proudly display this on their Teams Page. A small step that showcases big values.
🎨 NEW AVATARS
Gary and Voof are back with a glow-up!
- Thanks to our friends at Side, you can now choose from brand-new custom Gary and Voof avatars in place of your headshot.
- Go wild. Be iconic.
FOR SERVICE PROVIDERS
💬 INTEREST REQUEST CREDITS
We’ve introduced a new Request Credit System to help streamline connections and reduce inbox overload for Developers.
- You can have up to 50 pending Interest Requests at any one time.
- Once a request is accepted, declined, or cancelled—you get that credit back.
- You can still schedule unlimited meetings—this system only limits how many pending requests you can have at once.
✅ Be thoughtful and intentional when sending requests.
🕒 If you don’t hear back after a while, consider cancelling the request to free up a credit.
🔍 INTEREST REQUEST STATUS
You can now track the progress of your pending requests:
Navigate to My Meeting Activity → Interest Request → Pending to see their status:
- Delivered
- Seen
- On Hold
- Forwarded
FOR DEVELOPERS
🚦INTEREST REQUEST TOGGLE
You now have more control over your availability.
- Toggle between Accepting and Not Accepting Interest Requests in My Profile & Settings
- Even if you’re not accepting requests, you can still receive direct messages
- Use this feature to manage your bandwidth and signal your availability to Service Providers
✋ PUT REQUESTS “ON HOLD”
Not quite ready to decide? Use the new On Hold option.
- Perfect if you’re waiting to confirm availability or want to pass the request along to a colleague
- Keeps the Service Provider informed and avoids leaving them hanging
- You’ll receive a daily reminder for any requests on hold, so they won’t get lost in the shuffle
Ready to Dive In?
Log into XDS Connect, update your profile, explore the session schedule, and start building your personal XDS 2025 experience. We can’t wait to see how you use the new features to make the most of your time in Vancouver—and beyond.
Let the connections begin.
— The XDS Connect Team