Category Archives: Futurist

Kansas City, MO (PRWEB) January 14, 2014

Noted keynote speaker, global futurist and best-selling author, Jack Uldrich, has been selected to deliver keynote addresses on future trends in agriculture to three agricultural-related organizations in January of 2014. On January 15, Uldrich will be speaking at Mosaics AgCollege in Orlando, Florida. On January 21, Uldrich, a well-regarded farm futurist, will be highlighting a private firm's annual conference event in Edmonton, Alberta, and on January 30, he will be the luncheon keynote speaker at United Ags 34th annual meeting and conference in Palm Springs.

In addition to covering many of the aspects in his popular and award-winning book, "Foresight 20/20: A Futurist Explores the Trends Transforming Tomorrow," Uldrich--who is also the author of "Higher Unlearning: 39 Post-Requisite Lessons for Achieving a Successful Future"--will discuss how exponential advances in a variety of emerging technologies, including practical advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology, information management, augmented reality, robotics, RFID, "Big Data," the Internet of Things, wearable technologies, renewable energy sources and satellite and sensor technology will affect agriculture. Uldrich will also cover how social networking, biofuels and water management will transform farming in the years ahead. (A sample of some of Uldrichs ideas on the future of agriculture can be found in this chapter from his latest book, Foresight 2020, or this recent Forbes article, 10 Game-Changing Technological Trends Transforming Tomorrow.)

In the past year, Jack Uldrich, who is also recognized as a leading expert in the field of change management and unlearning, has addressed dozens of agricultural corporations and associations, including Novozymes, Land O' Lakes, Ag Spectrum, Mosaic, Case IH, The Christian Farmers Federation, The Iowa Institute for Cooperatives, The Agricultural Adaptation Council of Ontario, AgGateway, the California Ag Summit, Trimble Agriculture, InfoAg, the Minnesota-South Dakota Equipment Dealers Association, Growmark, the Mushroom Farmers of Canada, the Egg Farmers of Canada and The National Cotton Council. (A full list of his past clients can be viewed on his website. He is currently represented by a number of professional speakers' bureaus, including Leading Authorities, Convention Connection, Brooks International and Executive Speaker Bureau.)

Parties interested in learning more about Jack Uldrich, his books, his daily blog or his speaking availability are encouraged to visit his website. Media wishing to know more about either the event or interviewing Jack Uldrich as a farm futurist can contact his executive assistant Catie Glynn at catieglynn(at)gmail(dot)com or call her at (312) 342-5283.

Uldrich is a renowned global futurist, best-selling author; editor of the monthly newsletter, The Exponential Executive, and host of the award-winning website, http://www.jumpthecurve.net.

Go here to see the original:
Agricultural Futurist Jack Uldrich to Keynote Three Events in January

Tory Starbuck performs the song Veraline in Futurist Manifesto. 1988 Galactic Rebel Revolution.
Tory, Stacey Halstead (Space), Brian Hayes (Brain Wave) and J.C. play at Bernards Pub in St. Louis Mo. Tory #39;s vocals are almost inaudible due to soundman pro...

By: Tory Starbuck

Read the original here:
Tory Starbuck performs the song Veraline in Futurist Manifesto. 1988 Galactic Rebel Revolution. - Video

S

Nobody knows the future. This may seem like an obvious statement, but it bears repeating. Nobody knows the future.

Most people can generally accept this idea. But when it comes to our favorite prognosticator, we often put blinders on. Futurism is an imperfect craft in which the most earnest and educated individual must practice a fair amount of hand-wavy illusion building to even begin the process of prediction. When it comes to futurist-minded people that we like, we're more willing to remember their hits and forget their misses.

I've done a few radio interviews this month about Isaac Asimov's 1964 predictions for the world of 2014. Everyone wants to know: was Asimov right or was he wrong? And the answer isn't so simple. Like any vision of the future, even the "accurate" predictions are open to interpretation. And your take on their accuracy probably tracks closely with whether you're a fan of the man and his work.

From Asimov's 1964 New York Times article:

Communications will become sight-sound and you will see as well as hear the person you telephone. The screen can be used not only to see the people you call but also for studying documents and photographs and reading passages from books.

There are a thousand different ways to slice and dice this prediction. On its face, this prediction is spot on. But that assessment comes with the biases any person living here in the early 21st century might bring to the table.

A generous reading of this prediction will say that he predicted Skype-like technology. A more skeptical reading of this prediction will look at the dozens of landline videophone predictions from the 1950s and 60s not to mention the real-world research being done at Bell Labs and conclude that Asimov was simply repeating a common futurist trope. And that by omitting mention of the infrastructure that would deliver sight-sound telephones the internet he really missed the mark.

People have gotten quite defensive about the way that I've analyzed Asimov's predictions. And I understand why. People love Asimov. We're infinitely more forgiving of the people we love, even if we didn't know them personally. That's the nature of fandom.

But I've tried to put Asimov's predictions in the context of the early 1960s, and in so doing have pointed out that his ideas were actually pretty conservative for the time. Conservative, in the sense that he hedges many of his bets with little caveats.

Read more:
Your Favorite Futurist Is Wrong

Futurist Friday 1.10.2014
Join the Futurists for our monthly Google Hangout, where we will discuss social reading. What is social reading? What do readers want in this area? How can d...

By: Book Business

Read the original:
Futurist Friday 1.10.2014 - Video

The Unintended Consequences of Zoe #39;s Law in Australia
Sidestepping the main issue by introducing and passing legislation disguised as another issue has unintended consequences. Like us on FaceBook: http://www.fa...

By: Sexual Futurist

Continued here:
The Unintended Consequences of Zoe's Law in Australia - Video

2014 Predictions by Futurist Bettee Giles
2014 Predictions.

By: Bettee Giles

See original here:
2014 Predictions by Futurist Bettee Giles - Video

Nicholas Webb - Futurist, Speaks on Innovation, Customer Service
Nicholas J. Webb is a world-renowned business futurist and innovation thought leader. Webb is the author of The Innovation Playbook and The Digital Innovation Playbook. He is also a successful...

By: speakerchannel

See original here:
Nicholas Webb - Futurist, Speaks on Innovation, Customer Service - Video

(Editor's note: This is the second of two parts. Read Part One.)

Here are the rest of my 33 provocative predictions about 2030, and how different life will be just 17 years in the future.

Final Thoughts

Reading through the prediction above you will likely have experiences a number of thoughts ranging from agreement, to amusement, to confusion, to total disagreement.

As with most predictions, not all will be correct. But the true value in this list will come from giving serious consideration to each of them and deriving your own conclusions.

Thomas Frey is the executive director and senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute and currently Googles top-rated futurist speaker. At the Institute, he has developed original research studies, enabling him to speak on unusual topics, translating trends into unique opportunities.Tom continually pushes the envelope of understanding, creating fascinating images of the world to come. His talks on futurist topics have captivated people ranging from high level of government officials to executives in Fortune 500 companies including NASA, IBM, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Unilever, GE, Blackmont Capital, Lucent Technologies, First Data, Boeing, Ford Motor Company, Qwest, Allied Signal, Hunter Douglas, Direct TV, Capital One, National Association of Federal Credit Unions, STAMATS, Bell Canada, American Chemical Society, Times of India, Leaders in Dubai, and many more.Before launching the DaVinci Institute, Tom spent 15 years at IBM as an engineer and designer where he received over 270 awards, more than any other IBM engineer.

More:
The futurist: The other 25 dramatic predictions for ...

CarArt.us, the largest online automotive art gallery, is featuring art from world-renowned futurist Syd Mead's 50-piece Progressions' exhibit, a retrospective spanning more than 50 years.

Mead's work is shown in chronological order, starting from 1957's Bugatti concept and tracking his progression all the way up to 2010's Megacoach.

Highly influential futurist Mead graduated with distinction from the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles in 1959, beginning his career at Ford's Advanced Styling Studio in Dearborn, Michigan, before establishing Syd Mead, Inc. in 1970 in Detroit.

He moved to California five years later, and embarked on his first movie project, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in 1978. He went on to design vehicles for Bladerunner, Tron, 2010, Aliens, Mission Impossible III and Elysium.

Syd Mead's exhibition moves next to the Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery in Conway, South Carolina, and will be on show from 18 August to 18 October.

Related Articles: Designer Interviews: Syd Mead, visual futurist and conceptual designer Syd Mead exhibition opens in New York An Audience with Syd Mead at CCS

Link:
by Rufus Thompson

Rebecca Ryan has been associated with new-economy Madison for almost a decade now.

In 2005, less than a year after she brought Next Generation Consulting to Madison, the Wisconsin State Journal dubbed her a coolness consultant for her work with companies and cities to attract and retain young people. Shes spoken at the Overture Center on the new economy, been the keynote speaker at a Madison Area Technical College graduation and now chairs the board of Sustain Dane, which aims to make Dane County more environmentally friendly and economically successful at the same time.

As it did for many businesses, the Great Recession changed Next Generation. Down from a peak of 10 employees, the company is now just Ryan, 41, and her partner (both in business and life), Marti Ryan. They are futurists, helping clients (mostly municipalities now) nationwide navigate economic and demographic trends to stay relevant.

Rebecca Ryan is the resident futurist for the Arizona-based Alliance for Innovation, but shes kept a high local profile, including writing a regular column for Madison Magazine. In October, she was the target of some angry blowback for a column titled the Tier-Two Tradeoff in which she said living in a smaller city like Madison comes with an opportunity cost.

Ryan said she was taken aback by the intense reaction to the column, though she conceded in a follow-up piece that tier two which in her line of work refers to a city of between 500,000 and 1 million people might sound like an insult. She also wrote that despite the expressed wishes of some, she has every intent of staying in the city. She came in to the Cap Times offices recently to talk about what Madison has going for it, what its problems are and why shes going to stick around.

Cap Times: Tell me a bit more about Next Generations new focus.

Rebecca Ryan: Version two really came from having a crisis of faith in my clients in some ways. During the first part of my companys history we had helped a lot of companies get on "best places to work" lists and then during the recession, some leaders did things that I just really felt were unconscionable.

Such as

The classic example I got a call from the managing partner of one of the biggest public accounting firms in the world, theyd been a client of ours, and he said, Rebecca, Im going to send you a draft of an email that were going to send out tomorrow first thing and I want you to tell me what you think.

So the email comes to my inbox and its announcing a 15 percent reduction in force effective immediately. I called him and I said, "I remember you telling employees that you were running 5 percent ahead of where you were going to be with some of your initiatives." I asked what communication have they received between then and now and he said, Well, none.

View original post here:
Q&A: Futurist Rebecca Ryan says Madison needs to come to grips with its growing diversity