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
Futurists often get asked things like ‘Okay then – who’s going to win the ‘flag’ this year’. In Melbourne Cup time most of my friends ring me asking for a hot tip. Given my consistent poor form at selecting a winner, why they would ask me is anyone’s guess (unless they are working out who…
Read More >Does your organisation suffer what Futurists call ‘Operational Sleepwalking’? That most organisations (and people) willingly sleepwalk their way into their futures is not all that surprising. What is surprising about that however is that those people and those organisations are: * Surprised when something unexpected (and not to their liking) happens and, * Claim they…
Read More >Maree Conway, of ‘University Futures’ has joined the Australian Strategic Planning Institute as a lead facilitator for the Institute’s programs. Maree’s experience in policy development, planning and strategy initiatives provides additional weight to the sessions on offer. TASPI now have three key facilitators that cover critical steps in the Strategic Planning Process – Enhanced Awareness…
Read More >The latest edition of Fast Thinking has hit the streets and includes another tool for those seeking to develop innovation and strategy. Marcus Barber explains how to use, what he calls an ‘iiBubble’, a process that helps capture an idea to see if it has innovation ‘legs’. As one of the tools unique to Barber…
Read More >Looking Up Feeling Good would like to wish the very talented and focused futurist, Sophie Barber a happy birthday today. Sophie’s amazing talent at suggesting the possible future for a positive outcome is a true inspiration and we look forward to many more insights as the complexity of challenges continues to test our understanding, commitment…
Read More >The CoreNet Global Melbourne 2007 Summit incorporated a thought provoking Hypothetical panel discussion on the future of corporate real estate and the drivers for sustainability. With an economic futures framework provided by Melbourne University Professor of Economics Neville Norman who moderated the discussion, the panel included Aggie Aitken, Head of Workplace Development at ANZ; Strategic…
Read More >Among other great articles, the winter 2007 edition of Fast Thinking magazine highlights the ‘8 Factor’ model for effective employee engagement, created by strategic futurist Marcus Barber. Using the model he shows how organisations can develop greater flexibility when it comes to providing incentives as a means for improving productivity and ensuring longevity for staff.…
Read More >Last night the ABC program ‘A Difference of Opinion’ looked at the issues of the housing affordability ciris. The panel provided some quality perspectives as to what was causing the challenge and what kind of actions might need to occur in order to address the issue with Ross Gittins’ early observation that the debate completely…
Read More >Dan Atkins, former manager of Environmental policy at Toyota and now Director of Sustainable Business Practises and Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will speak at the South East Networks / VicUrban Business Breakfast at the Sandown Racecourse on Wednesday the 27th of June. Both Dan (who’ll discuss how Toyota applies its Environmental Policy in order to…
Read More >Looking Up Feeling Good’s advanced signals reporting service ‘Future Alerts’ is now available as a monthly subscription offering. Designed to provide your organisation with signals indicating potential change, each report comes with analysis of the signals and how they might impact your business. Applying some advanced Environmental Scanning process, including the ‘VSTEEP’ model, you can…
Read More >