Yiying Lu is an award-winning creative director and international bilingual speaker with 17 years of experience delivering engaging talks on marketing, design, creativity, and innovation at global conferences and events, such as TEDx, SXSW, Adobe MAX, Web Summit, and Talks at Google. She speaks English and Mandarin Chinese fluently and has a unique international background that spans Shanghai, Sydney, London, New York, and San Francisco. Yiying is also the founder and Director of YIYING LU LLC. Her innovation studio provides global, cross-cultural branding, marketing, and innovation services to corporations and startup accelerators, including Disney, Apple, Google, Salesforce, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Airbnb, Dropbox, PepsiCo, NTT, 500 Global, SOSV, and Y Combinator. She is the artist behind the iconic Twitter Fail Whale 🐳, the official Dumpling 🥟, Boba Tea 🧋, Chopsticks 🥢, Takeout Box 🥡 , Fortune Cookie 🥠 & Peacock 🦚 emoji, Conan O'Brien Pale Whale, Disney Shanghai Mickey Mouse designs, and many other iconic designs and brands that transcend linguistic barriers, unite people, and enchant audiences around the world. Previously, Yiying served as the Global Creative Director and Marketing Partner of venture capital firm 500 Global, where she developed effective creative campaigns to help tech startups better engage and acquire consumers, ultimately raising millions. She enjoyed working with 250+ global startup companies in branding, marketing, distribution, and capital raising. These startups range from Seed to Series D, across B2B, B2C & SaaS. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Fast Company, The Atlantic, Forbes, NBC News, TIME, Wired Magazine, CNN, and BBC. On the community side, she has been creating engaging events for a global community, including the World Emoji Day event with NTT; the World Food Day event with James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award-winning Chef Martin Yan at SXSW Sydney; the Emoji Exhibit at the Computer History Museum; and a featured artist to create artwork for Pantone Color of the Year 2024. She served as the San Francisco Arts Commissioner from 2021 to 2025. She is also a committee member of the San Francisco-Sydney Sister City Committee and the San Francisco-Zurich Sister City Committee. She is passionate about using design and storytelling to create positive social changes and empower the next generation of creators and innovators. Her life purpose is to bridge the gap between Art & Tech, Business & Culture, Beauty & Meaning, Work & Life, and East & West.