Institute For The Future

Oct 5-6 Convening: Positive Platforms for a Workable Future

Technology is fundamentally reshaping the way we work, the way we think about jobs and labor, and, the way we organize to get things done in everyday life. Today, when we think about workers using on-demand platforms, we think about Lyft drivers and Instacart delivery people. Tomorrow, these same technologies will enable on-demand medical, legal, accounting, and many other services. How will jobs and work patterns be transformed in the process? How can we rethink work platforms and the ecosystem around them in order to ensure a future that works for all?

On October 5-6, IFTF is bringing together leading-edge thinkers—from policy, platforms, social innovation, worker advocacy, philanthropy, venture capital, and academia—to both answer these questions and prototype possible solutions. Positive Platforms for a Workable Future attendees include WFI Advisory Council member Teresa Caroll (Kelly Services), Palak Shah (National Domestic Workers Alliance), Douglas Atkin (Airbnb), and many more.

There will be a special keynote by David Rolf, President, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 775. As a long-time worker advocate and labor leader, David will share his thinking on how workers can build power in the 21st century. He will provide perspective on how he sees workers voices emerging in the world of platform work and how workers can draw lessons from Silicon Valley (as well as labor history) to forge more power moving forward.

Other key questions central to the IFTF Workable Futures Initiative that we are seeking to address are:

• Who are the workers accessing work on platforms like Lyft and Taskrabbit today, and what do they signal about the workers and work of the future?

• How could we blueprint a generation of Positive Platforms that create opportunities and enable sustainable livelihoods for broad swaths of the population with the goals of opportunity, equity and fair pay in mind?

• What public policy frameworks and other third-party solutions will be essential to define and support the work ecosystem of the future?

• How might we rethink value flows in work platforms in order to create benefit for innovators, workers AND society?

The convening will be led by Marina Gorbis, IFTF Executive Director, and Natalie Foster, 2015 IFTF Fellow, and will feature an early look at two new pieces of research from Devin Fidler, Research Director—Workable Futures Initiative, and Rod Falcon, Program Director—Technology Horizons.

Join the conversation on social media!

The event is closed to the public, but join us on social media: #workablefutures @IFTF. We look forward to sharing some of the insights from our discussion in the weeks to come.