Wendy presenting at TEDx Auckland

Last Thursday I spoke at the TEDx event held in Auckland (TEDx is a program of local, self-organised events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience).

It was a brilliantly organised event, and I was honoured to be involved. My presentation as the ‘Reluctant Futurist’ was on the Danger of Now, and the slides are available here on our website. Photos from the event are available here on Flickr, and videos will hopefully be available on the TEDx website soon.

My thanks to all involved, the excellent audience, and Richard and the team at the Department of Doing for all of their hard work.

Photo by Joanna Alpe of We Love Inc.

Through an introduction made by Dr Morgan Williams, I met up with Hardin Tibbs in London for lunch. Hardin is a top futures researcher and strategy consultant, so I was very interested to discuss our plans for a national strategy, in particular how best to pursue Part III of Project 2058, being the strategy component.

Hardin was very positive about our proposed strategy, and suggested a number of innovative ideas about how we can go about its development. My key problem has been how the timeframe of 50 years would translate into the strategy, i.e. does the team at Sustainable Future need to complete many strategies over time or just one. Hardin suggested a solution, which I have since discussed with Morgan (in Wellington). We are hoping to do some more work on the possible solution – putting Hardin’s ideas into practice. Hardin has offered his assistance when we reach the point of strategy development, so we look forward to working with him in the future.

While I was in London I had the chance to visit a number of think tanks. It was great to see how these organisations operate, and the many different ways they are publishing and expressing their ideas.

On Thursday I visited Forum for the Future at their office in Finsbury, London. Forum for the Future was established as a charity in 1996 by Jonathan Porritt and Paul Ekins, and now has more than 70 staff and interns, and offices in London, Cheltenham and Bristol. It was interesting to learn that they do a lot of consultancy work, working in partnership with businesses, local government and government groups.

On Friday my first visit was to South London, near London Bridge. Here I met with Peter Harrington, Head of Communications of Demos. Demos is an independent think tank whose work I have been following for some time. It was excellent to get the chance to meet some of the team, and to hear about the different projects they are working on. I recommend visiting their website and exploring their numerous publications and podcasts.

Next stop was the New Economics Foundation (nef). I didn’t have an appointment, but they were kind enough to show me around their offices. I was impressed by the sheer number of publications they have produced, and purchased a few to add to our growing library. Their report ‘A Green New Deal’ is an excellent read, and worth checking out if you haven’t already. We discuss this initiative in our Report 6: Four Possible Futures for New Zealand in 2058.

I also visited Chatham House, located in St James’ Square. Chatham House (or the Royal Institute for International Affairs) is known for being the home of the Chatham House Rule, which states:

“When a meeting or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.”

Chatham House produces a range of papers and reports, with a focus on energy, environment and resource governance; international economics; and regional and security studies. Hardin Tibbs, who I had met earlier (see earlier blogg) is a co-author of one of their reports: Food Futures.

On Friday I also was able to visit the Foresight team, which operates from within the Government Office for Science. I met with Mary Lawrence, Project Manager, who was very generous with her time. Mary explained the history of the organisation, and the full breadth of the work they do. The model is an interesting one, in that there is a specialised team of futures thinkers within Foresight, and they are contracted to do work by other government departments. This means that the expertise they have is shared across the board, enabling all parts of the public sector to integrate long-term thinking. Mary also told me about an ex-Foresight employee who now works in the public sector in Wellington, so I hope to catch up with him to discuss the potential for such a model to work in New Zealand. This meeting was very useful for the work we are doing in Project 2058, especially the upcoming Science paper.

I caught the train down to the University of Surrey, where I met with Professor Tim Jackson, author of the excellent SDC report ‘Prosperity without Growth’. Tim and I had discussed the response to the report, and he kindly let me record a brief interview with him. We are currently working on preparing this interview to go on our website, so keep an eye out for this. Thank you Tim.

Another fantastic conference, and many lessons learnt. I will be writing more specific entries about the conference soon, but until then, slides from my presentation at the Professional Members’ Forum on Monday are available here. I was also able to film a number of interviews with other speakers at the conference, as I did last year. All going to plan, we hope to have these available on our website in September – along with a video of my presentation – so be sure to keep an eye on the website.

Today I presented to the committee on the activities of the Australia and New Zealand node, which included discussing the following three points:

1. Supporting the Annual Global MP Delphi
2. In 2010, developing an ANZ Delphi (now creating a database of 100 remarkable people in the region)
3. Promoting and lobbying for Parliamentary Committees for the Future.

One of the key members of the Millennium Project, Theodore J Gordon, has offered to help with the region’s delphi, providing software and training. The pictures below are of the committee and  a node chair  presenting in second life.

Cheers, Wendy

Hi. I am now in Chicago. The World Futures Conference starts this Friday. Prior to the Conference proper, representatives from each of the nodes of the Millennium Project meet in advance to share information and discuss the next steps. I was fortunate to be asked to represent the Australasian node, as both the two co-chairs, based in Australia, were unable to attend. Pictured above is Theodore J Gordon (standing) and on the far left, almost out of sight is Jerome C Glenn. Both are co-authors of the  2009 State of the Future report, which has only recently been published and will be released on August 1. Until the release date, the executive summary is available to read online.

Representatives hail from nodes in Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Haiti, India, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria,Poland,  Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and of course, New Zealand.

I will try and add a comment daily, to give you a flavour of what is happening here. So until then…Cheers, Wendy

I spent an hour at the EPA, talking to John Stassi. It was very interesting to see how the agency had evolved since its creation. Considering the plans rumored for the changes to New Zealand’s own institutional framework, and the Phase 2 changes proposed for the RMA, it seems appropriate to understand more about the challenges faced by the EPA, and how such an organisation might work in NZ.  John recommended a few books on topic. Thanks John.

We visited the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree provided some interesting snapshots of what people wish for the world.