Australia’s 2020 Future – the Futurist’s report goes ‘live’ tomorrow

Some of Australia’s leading futurists gathered in Melbourne in March to provide a specialist Futures approach to addressing the Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra. The outcome of that Summit and the development that subsequently followed has led to the creation of the report ‘Australia 2020 Futurists Summit’ that has worked through each of the ten themes highlighted by Prime Minister Rudd

 

The report has been under a media embargo until the 19th of April so as not to be clumped in with the deluge of media releases, white papers and industry dinners all trying to infuence the thinking of the 1000 delegates attending the Prime Minister’s Summit.

Conveynor of the Futurists Summit, Strategic Futurist and Director of Looking Up Feeling Good Pty Ltd, Marcus Barber explains – “The issue for quality futures work is to be open to as many possibilities as is feasible given the time scale and resources available.  Our report seeks to take a holistic view rather than become an attempt by an industry or stakeholder group with a vested interest to shape the direction of thinking.  We sought to include the thinking of the vested interests but only as a means to assess how they are likely to respond to change”

The Futurists report drew on the inputs of a number of co-contributors:  Marcus Barber of Looking Up Feeling Good; Charles Brass of the Futures Foundation; Maree Conway of Thinking Futures; Josh Floyd, researcher, educator and consultant; Anita Kelleher of Designer Futures; John McBride of Strategic Futures Concepts; Stephen McGrail of Futureye; Rowena Morrow of Prospective Services; Luke Naismith of  Knowledge Futures; and Andrew Wynberg a specialist in energy policy.

You can request a copy of the report here

The Melbourne Cup and a Futurist’s view

Nov 4, 2012

Okay the time has come again where people ask me, as a professional futurist, for my tips for the Melbourne Cup. As always I advise them that my area of expertise does not reside with horse racing so really, I have as much chance as anyone and their own system, of selecting a winner. That…

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Make your own teeth? Should parents have a ‘licence to parent’? and more on ABC Darwin

Oct 31, 2012

ABC Darwin’s Vicki Kerrigan and I chat about the future of dentistry – is it possible to grow you own teeth? Are dentist visits going to become a thing of the past? And in the second of today’s updates, we also chatted about the Future of Parenting – is it time that you needed a…

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Time to combine Life Cycle design & penalties for environmental waste to solve a ballooning problem

Oct 21, 2012

Organisations like CleanUp Australia and Take3.org have (along with many others) taken a leading role at identifying and removing waste that has entered our environment. Their efforts are fantastic yet have one clear problem – they rely on volunteers to clean up the mess of others, after the fact – it’s a ‘playing catch-up’ strategy.…

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Selective Consumption and the Retail sector

Oct 13, 2012

The Retail sector in Australia is slowing coming to grips with the fact that for the past 50 years, they’ve had a captured market and enormous profit margins. and that now, the times have changed. Whilst many point to the internet as a cause of their woes, others are pointing out the apparent high cost…

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Strategic Agility and the Art of Paying Attention

Sep 24, 2012

he many people who’ve been through one of The Australian Strategic Planning Institute’s workshops over the past six years, will know how much emphasis is placed on the need to pay attention to things going on around you. In particular as part of the idea of tracking your progress toward your desired future (your Vision).…

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How to Build an Effective Twitter Group

Sep 18, 2012

As a Futurist I’m often asked what I think about certain social media tools (and most technology for that matter). My answer is always aligned to the thought that ‘if the technology is working for you, and not against you, it’s probably a good thing. Here then are my thoughts about building up a useful…

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The Future of Beer (and alcohol)

Sep 11, 2012

Will alcohol have a legitimate place in societies in the years to come? As we slowly awaken to the horrendous impact of alcohol related harm and it’s social and financial costs, will Australia’s widely held acceptance of alcohol consumption begin to wane? This MP3 of my chat with Vicki Kerrigan on   ABC Darwin drew…

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The Top 3 Questions and Answers for the Future

Aug 28, 2012

Well as I’ve discovered them! These three questions (and my normal answers) are based on what I get asked consistently when I’m presenting or facilitating a session about Strategic Planning, ‘the future of…’, and how societies might look five, ten or twenty years from now: Question One – ‘What is the most important thing to…

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Heading down the drain with the ‘4 Minute Shower’.

Aug 16, 2012

Every now and again what sounds like a really good idea turns out to be less beneficial than what was hoped for.  Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber wonders whether or not the Victorian Government’s ‘4 Minute Shower’ idea is a current example? For those of you that have read my paper ‘A Drop in the Ocean’…

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Mars on Earth – is the red planet an indicator of things to come?

Aug 5, 2012

There’s a lot to like about Mars. For centuries the name given to the Roman God of War (in honour of its blood stained hue) it has given us an opportunity and point of focus to think beyond our own planet. There’s been some vast mythologies about the deep channels (interpreted as canals meant signs…

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