The Initiative held two all-Initiative conferences:

March 2001: a two-day inaugural conference sponsored by the Spencer Foundation on Adolescence, Technology and Identity. The developmental perspective of this conference informs the Initiative publication Falling for Science: Objects in Mind.

March 2005: a day-long symposium on Evocative Objects.  Its presentations are represented in the Initiative publication Evocative Objects: Things We Think With.

As part of its research program on Information Technologies and Professional Identity, the Initiative held two conferences (September 2003 and May 2005). Each brought together designers, engineers, biologists, architects, and nuclear weapons scientists, who explored the effects of simulation on their fields.