We are happy to announce that on the 9th of April, we will be launching a special event dubbed the APF Friends of Foresight public event. All members, non-members and friends of APF are invited! The Friends of Foresight gatherings will feature talks, book launches and other foresight knowledge sharing activities. We aim to provide a free and worldwide space where our guests, members, and friends learn, interact, and shape the future together. However, don't you worry, the APF Futures Friday regular programming will resume in May and roll out more exciting and engaged APF members-only events. We are delighted to invite you to join our forthcoming inaugural Friends of Foresight public event. This year APF is all about transformation and network as we envision creating spaces that generate a global collaborative foresight community.

The future is an uncertain, uncomfortable prospect for people and society at large. Recent and unprecedented events have proven that, despite what some politicians and economists may tell us, the future is not set in stone. Instead, it is constantly being shaped and redefined by the everyday decisions of individuals and organizations, some without the best of intentions or understanding of the consequences.

Join the authors of The Future Starts Now, Theo Priestley and Bronwyn Williams, together with a selection of the futurist contributors, in a discussion that charts some of the topics in the new book, the challenges ahead, and guidance on how to avoid making the decisions that lead us to darker paths ahead.

The Future Starts Now: Expert Insights into the Future of Business, Technology and Society by Theo Priestley and Bronwyn Williams (Bloomsbury Business) is published on the 15^th April 2021.

TIMES: 

• 6pm BST (London)
• 1am PST (Manilla)
• 3am AEST (Melbbourne)
• 1pm EDT (New York, NY)
• 10am PDT (San Francisco; CA)

Run-down of event (1h event):

Minutes 00-05 - Bronwyn and Theo will introduce their new book.

Minutes 05-45 - Panel discussion with co-authors as an ‘in-conversation’

Minutes 45-60 - Q&A session

Panellists:

Bronwyn Williams

Bronwyn is an opinionated futurist, economist and trend analyst.

She works as a foresight lead and trend translator for Africa’s leading trends research company, Flux Trends. In this role she has consulted to political and business leaders across the continent. Bronwyn is also a well-known media personality regarding macro economic trends, and she has been invited to speak at hundreds of corporate, media and government events and workshops around the world, explaining how the intersection and complexity of emerging economic, political social and technological trends are set to change the world as we know it, all over again.

As the co-author of The Future Starts Now, Bronwyn is cautiously optimistic that the more people who know about what could go wrong, the more chances we have to make the future go right. The future is too important to leave to the experts. There is no one-size-fits-all utopia. What the future needs most is more individuals taking individual responsibility for the impact of their individual choices on the world around them. In other words, the future needs YOU.

Theo Priestley

Theo is the world’s first anti-futurist.

He’s spoken around the world hundreds of industry conferences, advised blue-chip clients, written leading business publications, on technology trends and their impact on society and business.

In the beginning Theo was a strong advocate for technology, having held Vice President and Chief Evangelist positions at large, global enterprise software companies, however, over the years, having analysed the trends and software eating the world, he realised that technological advancement at all costs is not necessarily in the best interests of humanity.

These are exciting times to be living in but interesting times require careful foresight into the consequences of the decisions we take in business, technology, and policy that can end up affecting every single one of un here on space ship Earth.

As such, Theo has become an antifuturist. Today, he analysis how future should look through a hyper-critical lens, rather than following the hype.

As the co-author of The Future Starts Now, Theo aims to spread his antifuturist manifesto. He hopes the book will encourage more people, in business and in life, to consider the long-term consequences of the actions they take and support today.

Nikolas Badminton

Nikolas Badminton is the CEO and Lead Futurist of foresight think tank Exponential Minds. He is an award-winning, dynamic and innovative Researcher, Author and Keynote Speaker who shares an awe-inspiring vision of trends that shape the future to world-leading organizations and governments.

Nikolas’ chapter in The Future Starts Now is titled Start With Dystopia and looks at the powerful, terrifying and entertaining stories that have seeped into popular culture and are now being propagated through mainstream media, blogs, podcasts and social media as being the forewarning of modern society out of control. But, as Nikolas points out, we can use the dystopian visions as of where we do not want to end up as a starting point to designing and creating the positive futures we do want to live in.

Dali Tembo

Dali Tembo is an Afrofuturist and Co-Founder of The Culture Foundry, a South African based consumer trends and insights agency.

Dali’s chapter in The Future Starts Now is called The African Opportunity and looks at the approaching African demographic dividend as well as debunking many of the misconceptions the rest of the world has about Africa’s present and future.

Cathy Hackl

Cathy Hackl is a futurist, event speaker and tech thought leader. She specializes in augmented reality, virtual reality, spatial computing, emerging technology.

Cathy’s chapter in The Future Starts Now is titled Back to the Future (of Ourselves) and looks at the metaverse and transhumanism as our flesh and blood lives blur with mixed and extra reality.

Dion Chang

Dion Chang is a world-renowned futurist and trend analyst, and the founder of Flux Trends, a business trends analysis agency focused on helping businesses unpack social, economic and political trends as business strategy.

Dion’s chapter in The Future Starts Now is titled Keeping Up With The Kadavers and focuses on the dark side of our dreams of immortality.

RSVP now! 

The event will be recorded.