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

Vale Richard Pratt

Apr 28, 2009

Richard Pratt has succumbed to a battle with prostate cancer and there’s no doubt that many words will be written on paper destined to end up as recycle materials at his VISY Industries plants. There’s a harmony in that thought – all those words of type and paper discussing Richard Pratt will be recycling through…

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How to Spend your $900 – think about your future needs first

Apr 19, 2009

Thousands of Australians are just receiving or are about to receive a pretty handsome cheque from the Federal Government as part of the economic stimulous package. The question then is ‘what do I spend this on?’ Below I offer a futurist’s view on where certain generational types might consider spending the bonus.   As a…

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Australia 2020 – one year on, now what?

Mar 31, 2009

It is almost a year since the Australia 2020 Summit was held in Canberra and it is expected that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will provide feedback on the summit, the ideas it generated as well as the ideas of those not at the summit who provided input and thinking. Of course a lot has changed…

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Wearable Technologies coming to some clothing near you

Mar 16, 2009

A few years ago whilst researching and generating ideas for the National Geographic Channel’s futures based TV shows ‘Future Matters’ I discussed the idea of what I then called ‘WEs’ or Wearable Electronics. I mentioned that this was a substantially different approach than portable electronics, which is what most mobile phones and laptop computers were…

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When a Car Insurance company leaves a bad taste in your mouth

Mar 2, 2009

It is a tad unfortunate that in the past couple of weeks I’ve had to experience the way in which one of the players in the car insurance industry treats its customers. I haven’t lost a single demerit point since well into last century and consider myself a pretty safe driver. So a couple of…

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Recession Proof Marketing – how to survive and thrive in a recession

Mar 1, 2009

Marcus Barber has teamed up with Marketing expert Tod O’Reilly to write ‘Recession Proof Marketing – how to survive and thrive in a recession’. The book is due for completion by the end of March, 2009 and pre orders are now being taken for advance copies Tod was the account manager for both the David…

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2009 – Living with an economic downturn – a view from Russia

Feb 15, 2009

At the Long Now group run by Stewart Brand, they have regular guest speakers on a whole range of topics. Recently they had Russian Dmitry Orlov who discussed what happened in Russia during the economic crisis in the early 1990’s and what people around the world might need to do to prepare for the current…

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2009 – a year for Playing ‘Catch-Up’ (Part 1)

Jan 18, 2009

This is Part one with Part two (looking at who will probably better off at this time next year) to come shortly. If you are in a position to sharpen your thinking, catch a breath or use some time to improve your understanding of the ways in which we create our societies, then I have…

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Ahead for 2009 on 774 ABC’s conversation hour

Jan 12, 2009

What’s emerging for 2009? What might shape the near term future, what can we do about it and what are some of the indicators suggesting change or otherwise? Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber joined Raphael Epstein and co-host Denise Scott, as part of the panel to answer the questions on the 774 ABC’s conversation hour today……

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2008 – what a year it was!

Dec 27, 2008

Yes you read right – thinking ahead I’m anticipating an amazing 2008. Happy new year to all for when it happens (depending on the calendar you subscribe to) and I look forward to some fun, challenges, stresses and enjoyment for the year ahead. Marcus Barber 🙂 PS – Hope 2007 was a good one

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