Realistic Hope - Facing global challenges and what to do about it!

ABOUT THE TALK We are running out of water, robots will take our jobs, we are eating ourselves to an early death, old age pension and health systems are bankrupting governments, and an immigration crisis is unravelling the European integration project. A growing number of nightmares, perfect storms, and global catastrophes create fear of the future. One response is technocratic optimism - we'll invent our way out of these impending crises! Or we'll simply ignore them as politically too hot to handle, too uncomfortable for experts - denied until crisis hits. History is littered with late lessons from early warnings. Populism flourishes in the depths of despair. Despite the gloom, there is another way to look at the future. We don't have to be pessimistic or optimistic - we can find realistic hope. Where does this hope come from? From future-oriented thinkers who do not ignore reality, but taking these challenges into account, realise the possibility of making a better future for many more people. This talk is based on a book written by an international and influential collection of future shapers. It is aimed at anyone who is interested in learning to use open futures thinking to refresh the present, forge new, common ground, and redesign destiny. ABOUT THE SPEAKER Martin is a foresight, strategy and innovation consultant with expertise across various business sectors. He has held several roles, including change agent, consultant, facilitator, trainer and new business developer. Martin has worked on consulting assignments, organizational transformation projects and strategic initiatives, with a focus on combining foresight analysis and collaborative innovation approaches (foresight, insight, action). Involved in corporate and multi-stakeholder settings, he works with a range of partners, consultants, innovators and entrepreneurs as well as foresight practitioners around the globe. Martin graduated from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and he is an alumni of Oxford Scenarios Programme. He is also also co-founder of YouMeo (www.youmeo.fr). Organized as open innovation lab, YouMeO develops highly agile and collaborative working methods in order to support strategic innovation and transformation projects of all kinds (start-ups as well as internal innovation projects in large companies) by bringing together a diverse yet complementary set of stakeholders to effectively address its customer’s toughest challenges. YouMeO co-creates value in close collaboration with its clients, in a pragmatic and agile manner. Short cycles of work, a taste for experimentation, and the desire and ability to quickly provide practical solutions are our key assets which are becoming more and more important in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous business context.