2020 Australia – Futurist’s Report

A group of leading Australian Futurists gathered over the weekend to consider the 10 core themes set to be tackled at Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra in April. Convened by Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber, the 2020 Australia Futurists Summit utilised some of the advanced facilitation and strategy development techniques as a means for extracting additional perspectives of how Australia might begin to address the 10 Core themes, and encapsulated thinking and insight from Futurists around Australia.

 

The final report has been offered to just ten journalists and commentators in Australia and will be quarantined from public dissemination until after the Prime Minister’s summit has been concluded.  At that point it is likely that a comparative assessment between the ideas and content emerging from the PM’s summit, and that of the Australian Futurists will highlight some interesting areas for further discussion.

Some comparative questions could be:

  • What was the depth of consideration of the theme?
  • What assumptions were identified and how might those assumptions have shaped the conversation in Canberra?
  • What vested interests were identified and what anticipated responses are likely from those groups?

The report will also be offered to the Prime Minister following the summit in Canberra and each theme will be offered to the chairs.

For a Futurist, 50 Years isn’t so long ago

Aug 17, 2011

A quick note for the history buffs among us – in this month of August fifty years ago, the first components of the Berlin Wall were constructed with rings of barbed wire severing Berlin into visually distinct west and east Berlin. Russia’s main challenge at that time was the 10,000 or so East Germans each…

Read More >

The Flaws in Demand & Supply thinking

Aug 7, 2011

Let me start by saying that my Masters of Science qualification is NOT held in economics and with that said I’m holding an interested person’s perspective toward wanting to know ‘why’ and ‘how’. I have some questions and thoughts about the theory of Supply and Demand and would be happy to have some feedback from…

Read More >

Cultured Meat’s potential for energy and water reductions

Jul 18, 2011

Below you’ll find this afternoon’s discussion with ABC Darwin radio in which host Vicki Kerrigan chats with futurist Marcus Barber about the emerging research into lab grown meat as a potential addition to or replacement of, existing livestock farming methods.   The program streamed live on 105.7 ABC Darwin this afternoon, discussing the University of…

Read More >

Speaking of the Future at the World Futures Conference

Jul 11, 2011

Continuing the futures discussions on ABC Darwin Radio, this time with Paul Dale who is filling in for Vicki Kerrigan whilst Vicki is handling the breakfast time slot, we discuss some of the conference sessions at the World Futures Conference here in Vancouver   You can listen to the audio stream here and cue this…

Read More >

Getting Your Future Right

Jul 8, 2011

My slides from today’s presentation on ‘Getting You Future Right’ can be found at the link below   To those at the session, my apologies for the technical challenges and hope these slides can provide more context for you – contact me if you have any questions.  Access the Slides Here

Read More >

The Future of You Part 2

Jun 27, 2011

Here’s the upload of my conversation with Vicki Kerrigan at ABC Radio Darwin. In it I offer the first three of ten steps designed to help you get your future right. In last week’s session I left Vicki with a question to ponder: Is my life headed where I want it to go, and if…

Read More >

The future of… You

Jun 12, 2011

Futurist Marcus Barber will be joining ABC’s Vicki Kerrigan in Darwin for the first of an ongoing discussion about the future this Wednesday. Each week on Wednesday afternoon’s, Vicki and Marcus will discuss the future of something, how we prepare for the future, what the future looks like for some industries and other related futures…

Read More >

Innovation in Manufacturing – there really IS a Future! But action needs to happen NOW!

May 25, 2011

The panel session at the National Manufacturing Week 2011 went well though with four of us on the panel, time was quite compressed. Some really good thoughts from Phillip Chindamo from AIG, Damon Cantwell from Deloitte and Erol Harvey from Minifab, delightfully chaired by Sandra George from SEBN at the City of Greater Dandenong. Rather…

Read More >

Building on Innovation for a vibrant and sustainable future – a focus for future manufacturing

May 23, 2011

On Thursday I’ll be part of the panel that wraps up the National Manufacturing Week 2011 in Melbourne at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre under the theme of Meeting the challenges of the next generation of manufacturing with a focus on Innovation and Sustainability. It should be an interesting chat as we consider what…

Read More >

What Australia Can learn from Finland’s Education System

May 1, 2011

There’s lots to like about borrowing ideas from other areas especially where those ideas can lead to a significant positive shift. In the link below, Zaid Ali Alsagoff an educational blogging specialist highlights why the Finnish Education system stands as a potential model to embrace. And whilst there are examples of this type of thinking…

Read More >