Institute For The Future

World Future 2016 Summit - Join me in Washington, DC!

Limited space still available - registration is separate from the conference.

Join IFTF's Research Director Miriam Lueck Avery as she will be teaching and speaking at the World Futures Society summit on July 22-24 at Washington Hilton, Washington DC. Miriam will be engaging on the topics of "Embodied Futures" and "From Doom to Dilemma Flipping: Innovation for Planetary Well-being".

July 22: Embodied Futures

Brighter futures aim to affect positive change. At the Institute for the Future we frequently talk about this as the Foresight to Insight to Action cycle. However, futures as visions, as ideas, do not motivate action. Emotions motivate action—and those live in our embodied practice. This session will explore the futurist as a sculptor in the mediums of hope and fear, and the foresight practitioner as an agent of emotional intelligence and empowerment. At IFTF we draw on a phrase coined by Jane McGonigal, “urgent optimism,” to describe the state we’re trying to steer people towards. Clear-eyed analysis of present reality and future possibility feeds both urgency and optimism, but analysis must always meet an audience where they are, emotionally as well as intellectually. 

Practitioners: please bring your stories of triumph and defeat in bringing your whole self to your practice. Newbies: come and be prepared to "tune your instrument," as mindfulness researcher Jon Kabat-Zinn puts it. This class will cover several tools from IFTF’s Foresight Studio toolkit that support emotionally balanced, embodied practice, as well as additional approaches integrated from mindfulness, improve, and mind-body wellness.

July 23: From Doom to Dilemma Flipping: Innovation for Planetary Well-being

This session will engage participants in a dilemma-flipping imagination exercise around urgent issues environmental, climate, and planetary impact. Session hosts Miriam Lueck Avery, Sam Miller, Michel Saloff-Coste and Leslie Tourneville will set the stage with brief provocations framing the topic with innovation ecosystems, personal+planetary health, and entrepreneurial handprints. Then we will launch into a semi-structured activity aimed at sharpening our collective capacity for hopeful action and connecting futurists who believe we need a more holistic, integrated, and hopeful paradigm than “sustainability” to address planetary challenges.

 

Get more details about speakers and ticket information >>

Learn more about our Foresight to Insight to Action methodology and sign up for our Foresight Practitioner training hosted at our Palo Alto location four times a year >>