What We Do
IFTF Events
Institute for the Future brings people together to make the future—today. Whether you’re a strategic leader in a large organization, a practicing foresight professional, a community leader, or simply interested in learning more about futures thinking, IFTF events can help you turn foresight into critical insights that lead to action.
Explore the list of upcoming events below and check back regularly for new additions and other updates!
Workshop
EXPERIMENTS FOR THE DECISIVE DECADE
Oct 25-26, 2022 • 8am-11am PDT • Online
2 half days | Partner-only | Early registration recommended
Explore new foresight research illuminating how individuals, organizations, and communities are innovating and responding to the major shifts and core challenges of the Decisive Decade. At this workshop exclusively for IFTF Vantage partners, we'll re-imagine our own goals, lives, habits, and routines to adapt to these core challenges of the next 10 years.
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Webinar
IFTF FORESIGHT TALKS: Designing Experiences for Higher Quality Foresight
Thu, Oct 27 • 9am PDT | 12pm EDT
60 minutes | Public | Free
You just wrote a stellar scenario set. Splendid job! But what now? Is there something more that could be done to help people get more fully immersed in these challenging alternative worlds? Futurists owe it to their clients, communities and audiences to enable the richest possible insights and conversations about the futures to flourish. Join us when IFTF Research Fellow Jacques Barcia talks to pioneering experiential futurist Dr. Stuart Candy, Director of Situation Lab and Associate Professor of Design at Carnegie Mellon University, Advisor at NASA JPL and Fellow of The Long Now Foundation and the World Economic Forum, about the current state of experiential futures practices – and why he thinks futurists are in a better place today to help change organizations and society. He’ll walk us through the process used for creating his award-winning discursive design project for the United Nations Development Programme, and answer your questions about bringing futures to life!
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Webinar
LEARN WITH IFTF: Foresight Essentials
Wed, Nov 2, 2022 • 5pm PDT
30 minutes | Public | Free
Join Institute for the Future’s foresight learning experts Lyn Jeffery and Sara Skvirsky for a live 30-minute introductory webinar to see for yourself how IFTF Foresight Essentials builds world-ready, future-ready skills and mindsets. We can help you build foresight and foresight leadership into your daily work and practices!
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Webinar
IFTF FORESIGHT TALKS: How to Forecast Environmental Change without Being an Environmental Scientist
Thu, Nov 3 • 9am PDT | 12pm EDT
60 minutes | Public | Free
How do you comprehend the future of climate change at a planetary scale? Join IFTF Distinguished Fellow Mike Liebhold to learn how he uses combinatorial forecasting and systems thinking to track changing ecosystems, behavioral systems, and core technologies such as green computing and climate modeling. Drawing on his decades of experience, Mike will walk us through the current planetary crises he’s tracking and share a few concrete methods for tracking them.
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Training
IFTF SCENARIO BUILDING
Nov 7-18, 2022 • 9am PST | 12pm EST | 17:00 UTC
5 sessions (3 hrs each) | Public | Paid | Space is limited; Early registration recommended
Learn the art and science of crafting alternative futures scenarios and develop an action plan around them. Join expert IFTF faculty in this in-depth training on scenario building, where we will introduce the mythic underpinnings of the alternative futures method as practiced at IFTF.
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Training
IFTF FORESIGHT ESSENTIALS
Nov 21-Dec 15, 2022 • 9am EST | 14:00 UTC | 3pm CET
6 sessions (4 hrs each & 2 hr orientation) | Public | Paid | Space is limited; Early registration recommended
IFTF Foresight Essentials' flagship training is a one-of-a-kind course designed to help individuals and organizations develop their skills in the art and science of foresight. Learn a comprehensive set of tools and frameworks for a complete professional foresight practice.
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Training
IFTF FAST FUTURES: Foresight for Beginners in 90 Minutes
Tue, Dec 6, 2022 • 10am PDT | 1pm EDT
90 minutes | Public | $99
Are you curious about foresight, but don't know anything about it yet? Join us for IFTF Fast Futures—a 90-minute, introductory-level online learning experience that will teach you how to get started with your own creative foresight! Led by IFTF Research Director Jane McGonigal, Ph.D., this live-online training is designed for individuals with little or no previous experience with futures thinking or creative foresight.
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Webinar
PARTNER WITH IFTF: Vantage
Wed, Dec 7, 2022 • 5pm PST
Thur, Dec 8, 2022 • 9am CST/SGT | 12pm AEDT | 2pm NZDT
30 minutes | Public | Free
Are you prepared to help your organization become more sustainable, resilient, and profitable than ever before? Join us for 30 minutes and learn how our partners prepare to navigate the future using IFTF’s expert strategic foresight and powerful online tools, such as IFTF Future Factors emerging signals platform and Vantage Point strategic foresight hub.
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Webinar
IFTF FORESIGHT TALKS: Designing Better Futures for Youth in Foster Care
Wed, Dec 7 • 10am PDT | 1pm EDT
60 minutes | Public | Free
How do you apply foresight tools, techniques, and mindsets to intentionally design youth-serving systems that can help some of our most vulnerable community members—youth exiting foster care—thrive in adulthood? Join us on Wednesday, December 7 at 10am PST/1pm EST when Rachel Maguire, Research Director of IFTF Health Futures Lab, and Jennifer Rodriguez, Executive Director of the Youth Law Center, share how IFTF and YLC partnered to produce a foresight report—going public in 2023— that brings to life a radically different future for young people in the United States who are exiting the foster care system, an institution that is far from future-ready. They’ll share their process for engaging a diverse group of people, including young people with relevant lived experiences, to both develop the forecasts and identify key insights and implications for youth. They’ll highlight how important it is to bring futures thinking to young people involved in these systems, and explain how foresight work must be applied differently when working with individuals for whom the future historically has not been a safe place filled with possibility.
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Training
IFTF FORESIGHT ESSENTIALS
Feb 1-Mar 8, 2023 • 5pm PST | 9am CST/SGT | 12pm AEDT | 2pm NZDT
6 sessions (4 hrs each & 2 hr orientation) | Public | Paid | Space is limited; Early registration recommended
IFTF Foresight Essentials' flagship training is a one-of-a-kind course designed to help individuals and organizations develop their skills in the art and science of foresight. Learn a comprehensive set of tools and frameworks for a complete professional foresight practice.
LEARN MORE »
Training
IFTF FORESIGHT ESSENTIALS
Feb 28-Apr 4, 2023 • 9am PDT | 12pm EDT | 5pm CET
6 sessions (4 hrs each & 2 hr orientation) | Public | Paid | Space is limited; Early registration recommended
IFTF Foresight Essentials' flagship training is a one-of-a-kind course designed to help individuals and organizations develop their skills in the art and science of foresight. Learn a comprehensive set of tools and frameworks for a complete professional foresight practice.
LEARN MORE »
Training
IFTF SCENARIO BUILDING
Apr 17-May 2, 2023 • 9am PDT | 12pm EDT | 6pm CEST
5 sessions (3 hrs each) | Public | Paid | Space is limited; Early registration recommended
Learn the art and science of crafting alternative futures scenarios and develop an action plan around them. Join expert IFTF faculty in this in-depth training on scenario building, where we will introduce the mythic underpinnings of the alternative futures method as practiced at IFTF.
LEARN MORE »
Training
IFTF FORESIGHT ESSENTIALS
Apr 18-20, 2023 • 9am-5:30pm PDT • Palo Alto, CA
3 days | Public | Paid | Space is limited; Early registration recommended
IFTF Foresight Essentials' flagship training is a one-of-a-kind course designed to help individuals and organizations develop their skills in the art and science of foresight. Learn a comprehensive set of tools and frameworks for a complete professional foresight practice.
LEARN MORE »
Training
IFTF DESIGN FUTURES
May 2-16, 2023 • 8am PDT | 11am EDT | 5pm CEST • Live-Online
2 days | Public | Paid | Space is limited; Early registration recommended
Learn to make the future come alive in the present. Design Futures is a practice that uses design principles, media, and immersive experiences in combination with provocative insights about the future, to help your audience better understand what the future could be.
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Training
IFTF FORESIGHT ESSENTIALS
May 3-Jun 7, 2023 • 9am EDT | 2pm BST | 3pm CEST
6 sessions (4 hrs each & 2 hr orientation) | Public | Paid | Space is limited; Early registration recommended
IFTF Foresight Essentials' flagship training is a one-of-a-kind course designed to help individuals and organizations develop their skills in the art and science of foresight. Learn a comprehensive set of tools and frameworks for a complete professional foresight practice.
LEARN MORE »