A new marketing, innovation and ventures group has formally launched today, withan impressive list of foundation clients.

Rh7thm has been created by Julian Ward, founder and former managing director of creative digital agency We Are Social Australia, and futurist and author Ross Dawson, who is also the founding chairman of Advanced Human Technologies.

Rh7thm integrates a forward-facing marketing, technology and innovation company with a ventures group, including advisory and investment in start-ups and its own ventures.

The group includes VR/AR/MR specialist MultiDimensionCorp, which provides strategic advice and development services, and runs a corporate research consortium in the space as well as a number of other start-ups.

Rh7thm launches with a highly experienced executive team, including COO and chief of brand Rosanna Iacono, who formerly held c-suite and brand lead roles at home and globally for companies such as Nike, Jurlique, Freedom Furniture, and Sass & Bide.

Phil Brown, who comes from a leadership role heading up content strategy at King Content, will be head of content, while industry stalwart Rob Shwetz has joined Rh7thm as head of client strategy.

The company has been operating below the radar for some time, and has already worked with a range of prominent organisations in Australia, Europe and the US.

Rh7thms foundation clients include Commonwealth Bank, Transport NSW and Epson.

Ward said Rh7thm has been completely engineered for new times.

We are putting the right things at our core to deliver more effective, agile and evidence-based marketing, technology and innovation services, with a greater range of ways to look at this both pre and post spending client dollars, he said.

We are bringing experienced and adaptable people who understand client business and will be supercharged by the Rh7thm 7 Drivers Knowledge System, which puts our team members in the actual terrain with game-changing companies, as well as participating in our own ventures as part of their role.

This is built into the culture from day one. It is fundamental to the ability to effectively advise clients as we go forward.

Dawson said Rh7thm actively explores the future to better create success for its clients today.

Organisations need to understand how their business, customer and industry environment will evolve to market effectively and develop the right capabilities, he said.

Our ventures activities are strategically focused on where we see the biggest impacts converging, building our insights and ability to help our clients understand in their current context what they need to do drive growth and opportunity.

Picture (L-R):Julian Ward, Rosanna Iacono, Rob Shwetz, Ross Dawson, Phil Brown

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We Are Social Founder Julian Ward & Futurist Ross Dawson Launch ... - B&T

A bid to save Scarborough's Futurist Theatre from demolition has failed after a High Court judge ruled the council's decision to tear it down should not be reviewed.

It is the latest in a string of attempts to prevent the now derelict theatre from being demolished, a move voted for by Scarborough councillors in January.

Campaigners trying to save the building subsequently employed a team of solicitors to help try and overturn the decision, in which councillors voted 22 to 21 in favour of demolition.

They were seeking a judicial review into the council's decision to demolish the building. However a High Court judge has now rejected their bid to bring proceedings against the council, meaning the vote will not be scrutinised.

Following the council's decision earlier this year to spend 4 million knocking down the former theatre which has been derelict since 2014 the campaign attempted to get the building listed in order to stave off demolition. However, the application was rejected.

A message on Save the Futurist Theatre's campaign page on Facebook said the group would be meeting with its legal team this week.

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Further blow in bid to stop demolition of Scarborough Futurist - The Stage

As is customary, the courtroom's occupants rise when the judge enters. But that ritual is a vestige of a different age: This particular jurist does not require such ceremony. Being an amalgamation of metal and silicon, JusticeBot4000 needs no genuflection and is concerned solely with the ruthlessly efficient resolution of disputes.

Having just processed the parties' respective, figurative mountains of paperwork in mere seconds, she (the robot was given a remarkably lifelike female appearance) uses her sensors to scan the vitals of the litigants, looking for any last-minute data that may skew her ruling.

Two minutes after first being assigned the case, JusticeBot4000 renders her verdict: The defendant owes the plaintiff $68,242.82. Both judge and collection agent, she wheels herself over to the defendant's table and scans the payment dongle embedded in the skin of his forearm. Case closed, plaintiff paid; an outcome that would have taken three years if sought in 2017 took a scant three minutes.

This perhaps inevitable progression terrifies and titillates me in equal measure. Besides the fact that I have heretofore been something of a Luddite, the former emotion is a fear borne out of sentimentality and solidarity with my species. My immediate reaction to the scenario is that only a person has the requisite combination of intellectual and emotional intelligence to be able to decide the fate of another human.

This perspective is foolish because we are no match for the analytical capabilities of a smartphone, let alone a specifically programmed robot judge. And, as I am fond of repeating, emotions are the kink in the works of an efficient mode of conflict resolution. Just because I do not choose to date a cyborg does not mean that I would be opposed to having one sit on the bench.

I like the idea of an automated justice system for the same reason that I welcome the arrival of autonomous automobiles. An occasional GPS malfunction and accompanying fender bender is a fair trade for a network of distracted, potentially drunken idiots plying our highways piloting half-ton hunks of steel.

Similarly, no matter the issues that may arise on a micro-level with JusticeBot4000 and her ilk, they pale in comparison to the ones that we humans have created. We had our shot and blew it by fomenting a system with ludicrous costs, massive delays, inconsistent outcomes and high levels of dissatisfaction.

I am not merely picking on judges: Lawyers could be replaced fairly easily, as well. As full as my head is with legal principles and strategy, I could never compete with a purpose-built Matloq or PRYMSN on that front. Though I suppose I am not totally useless: I have compassion, I am fueled mostly by rotisserie chicken instead of expensive batteries and I flatter myself by thinking I would look better in a bowtie.

Of course, a shift in this direction would require a fundamental restructuring of our sociopolitical system and of the Constitution that governs it. JusticeBot4000 will have a fresh Constitution on our collective desks within the hour, just before she turns to the task of building electronic replacements for the denizens of our statehouses and Congress. You heard it here first: JusticeBot4000 for President in 2024.

T.J. Voboril is a partner at Reynolds, Kalamaya & Voboril LLC, a local law firm, and the owner-mediator at Voice of Reason Dispute Resolution. For more information, contact Voboril at 970-306-6456 or tj@rkvlaw.com or visit http://www.rkvlaw.com.

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Robot judges and related pseudo-futurist musings - Vail Daily News

The High Court in Leeds has refused Permission for a Judicial Review of the Borough Councils decision to demolish the Futurist Theatre.

The save the futurist campaign group has started legal action against the council seeking a review of the decision which was take in January but the high court dismissed the action on Friday afternoon.

The Save the futurist group say they will be speaking to their legal team next week in light of the decision.

Councillor Janet Jefferson, who has been heavily involved in the campaign to save the building, gave us her reaction today's judgement.

The save the Futurist group issued legal proceedings against Scarborough Borough Council on On 7th April 2017seeking permission to judicially review its decisions of 9th January and 17th January 2017 to demolish Scarboroughs Futurist Theatre.

In order to take the legal actionThe Save The Futurist group was required to become a legal entity and reformed as Save The Futurist Theatre (Scarborough) Ltd.

The group engaged solicitors, Squire Patton Boggs LLP of Leeds to work on the action together with a leading London public law QC. A fund raising campaign was started to help fund the legal action.

Speaking in May,Debi Silver from Save the Futurist explained why they were taking the action.

"The reason we're taking legal action against Scarborough Borough Council is because we're not happy with how the whole thing has been dealt with.

At the end of the day, we don't feel what they've done has been done correctly and it's left us with no other option.

I can't tell you the amount of work that's gone into bringing this case forward, presenting it to our solicitors.

This is a huge undertaking that's gone on, it's not been done lightly.

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Judicial Review In To Futurist Decision Refused - Yorkshire Coast Radio

Iowa Ideas

Jun 15, 2017 at 4:26 pm

Rachel Hatch, program officer for community vitality at The McConnell Foundation, will keynote the regionalism / workforce track at Iowa Ideas 2017. Hatch will speak Thursday, September 21in Cedar Rapids.

Hatch will bring a unique perspective to Iowa Ideas as a Cedar Falls native who has spent nearly a decade in Northern California, working with some of the world's largest companies to study and act on emerging trends.

The McConnell Foundation, which is based out of California, focuses on building better communities through philanthropy and awards money to non-profits, public education agencies and government agencies in Northern California. Hatch is currently concentrating on downtown revitalization in the community of Redding, California.

She previously served as the research director at the Institute for the Future, a think tank based in Palo Alto, California. She worked with Fortune 100 companies, government groups and philanthropic organizations to focus on trends and disruptions that are likely to influence their work in the next decade.

The aim of foresight is to anticipate the future in order to make better decisions in the present, she said in a reflection about her time with the Institute for the Future.

Rachel is also co-curator of TEDxRedding, which brings together practical visionaries from the Redding area and beyond to share ideas.

The Iowa Ideas Conference, Sept. 20-22, will include 80 sessions and more than 250 speakers across eight tracks. The statewide gathering will mix panel discussions, interviews with state leaders and thought-provoking experiences to help move complex issues forward. Iowa Ideas is for anyone: doers, industry leaders, policy makers, lifelong learners and those who want to lead the conversation about the future of our state.

Other topics to be discussedin the Regionalism / Workforce track include new approaches to workforce development, the impacts of technology on Iowa's employers, the role of immigrants and diverse populations in Iowa's workforce, rural community vitality and regional efforts.

Iowa Ideas 2017 will kick off Wednesday, September 20, with an opening celebration and keynote address from best-selling author and innovation expert Alec Ross.

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Rachel Hatch, futurist and community vitality expert, to keynote regionalism / workforce track - The Gazette: Eastern Iowa Breaking News and Headlines

Neo-Futurist alumnae Rachel Claff and Dina Walters curate It Came from ... the Neo-Futurarium XII: Dawn of the Neo-Futurarium! the 12th annual series of staged readings of the best worst film scripts of all time.

The summer 2017 festival features four of the clunkiest, junkiest movies ever made (details below), brought to life by past and present Neo-Futurists and acclaimed guest artists. Includes a Pride weekend show and gender-bending casts.

The festival will take place Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. (performances run 75-90 minutes without intermission):

Caged! (1950), June 24, 2017 Face/Off (1997), July 1, 2017 Suspiria (1977), July 8, 2017 Someone I Touched (1975), July 15, 2017

All events take place at The Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL 60640. Some street parking; Berwyn El stop (Red line); #92 (Foster) bus; #22 (Clark) bus.

Online tickets at neofilmfestxii.eventbrite.com. $15 for each performance; $12 for students (with ID); $50 for a festival pass (all four shows)

ABOUT THE FILMS:

June 24: Caged! (1950) - Nave teenager Marie is thrown into the ladies' slammer for being an accessory to robbery. Will she come out a woman ... or a wildcat? Bust out and come to this over-the-top Pride Weekend reading featuring an all-female-identified cast! Directed by Neo-Futurist alumnus David Kodeski (Wicked Woman; The Flaming Urge) and festival curator Rachel Claff.

July 1: Face/Off (1997) - In our 2009 reading of Cool as Ice, Dina Walters played the role she was born to play: Vanilla Ice. This year she plays the other role she was born to play: Nicolas Cage. Trying to take her down (via sketchy surgical science) is Neo-Futurist Kristie Koehler-Vuocolo as John Travolta. Bullets and doves will fly in this face-swappin', gender-swappin' spectacular! Walters also directs.

July 8: Suspiria (1977) - From the moment she arrives at the prestigious Tanz Academy, ballet dancer Suzy Bannion senses that something horribly evil lurks within its walls. So what if Suspiria's got gorgeous cinematography and buckets of gore? Director and Neo-Futurist alumna Stephanie Shaw is out to prove that this gonzo Italian horror film is as chock full of cheese as a good manicotti.

July 15: Someone I Touched (1975) - Man, made-for-TV movies were so different in the 1970s. Like, remember that one where a pregnant Cloris Leachman's husband cheated on her with a teenager and got syphilis? And then Cloris was worried her baby wouldn't have arms? But she still found time to sing the movie's theme song? *Sigh* Those were the days. Directed by festival veteran Edward Thomas-Herrera (Devil Girl from Mars; Sorority Girl).

Production team: Neo-Futurist alumna Rachel Claff (Creator, Head Curator), Neo-Futurist alumna Dina Walters (Assistant Curator), Jeremy Hornik (Selection Committee; Production), Jason Meyer (Selection Committee; Production), Bob Stockfish (Selection Committee; Production), and Neo-Futurist alumna MeLinda Evans (Technician).

It Came from ... the Neo-Futurarium! (staged readings of the best bad films of all time) was founded in 2002 by Neo-Futurist alumna Rachel Claff. Since then, over 60 terrible, awful movies have been staged, from sci-fi schlock (Devil Girl from Mars; Night of the Lepus) to deplorable drama (Day of the Dolphin) to miserable musicals (The Apple; Purple Rain) to appalling animation (My Little Pony: The Movie).

The festival has featured countless Neo-Futurists as well as theater companies from Chicago and beyond, including The House Theatre, The Plagiarists, Barrel of Monkeys, WildClaw Theatre, and Dad's Garage (Atlanta, GA). The "film fest," as it's affectionately called, has consistently played to sold-out crowds of movie aficionados and has garnered attention from the Chicago Tribune, Time Out Chicago, A/V Club, and more.

More information about ICFTNF is at http://www.facebook.com/ICFTNF, and for more about the Neo-Futurists, go to neofuturists.org or call 773-275-5255.

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12th Annual IT CAME FROM...THE NEO-FUTURARIUM! Lineup Announced - Broadway World

Futurist, strategist, best-selling author and academic, Graeme Codrington, addressed the Western Cape Chapter of the South African Council of Shopping Centres (SACSC) on Leading in a Changing World'. Attended by a host of Cape-based industry professionals, the Primedia Unlimited Malls-sponsored event offered insights into the not-too-distant-future. The future is near, Codrington proclaimed, and individuals, brands and corporates need to constantly evolve to keep up with change.

Graeme Codrington

Autonomous vehicles reduce road risks by up to 90%, which means that insurance companies will be impacted because if there are less accidents on our roads, how will they make profits? Shopping and retail will change because this takes online shopping to a completely new level. Autonomous vehicles will be used for instant deliveries - people order online and then an autonomous car will be dispatched with orders.

"Furthermore, autonomous cars will not need to park in the traditional sense, so shopping centres can reclaim parking bays that make up to 15% of the property. Now retail can expand or use the space for entertainment. We need to be more proactive and less reactive. The world is changing and we need to be ahead of it.

1. Switch on your radar Read, research and keep yourself informed about what aspects of the world are changing. Be informed about new technology, new forms of energy and new ways of streamlining ways of doing things. Also, change your sources of information and surround yourself with forward thinkers. Stay away from fake news.

2. Be curious Ask better questions and do not be afraid to ask these questions.

3. Experiment more If you are in a position to make key decisions then experiment a little. Try new ways of attracting new business through trial and error. You have nothing to lose.

4. Embrace difference The world is changing. Do not be afraid to change, it forms part of our evolution.

5. Confront your limiting orthodoxies Do not limit yourself. Confront your inhibitions.

"On the other hand, consumers too, need to switch on their radars'. They need to be careful not to be taken for a ride. Do not run for every new toy that comes up. The latest gadget, the latest version of your phones and you stand in line for three days to make sure you get it, I see it as a trap there. Consumers need to become more purposeful and more deliberate in how we live our lives, he concluded.

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Futurist Graeme Codrington on leading in a changing world - Bizcommunity.com

JAMES CROOT

Last updated07:57, June 14 2017

PHIL WALTER/GETTY IMAGES

Futurist Derek Handley finally lost patience with the gloomy discussions on Tuesday night's episode of What Next?

REVIEW: "Idon't know about this whole episode.I'mnot able to get to grips with thisstuff. That makes me feel like we're not dealing with it in the right way...We're getting a little bit bespoke withthis stuff."

It's What Next? night three and frustrations with the show's format have finally boiled over.

Surprisingly it was one of the tight-five "Futurists" who broke ranks, but the monk-like Derek Handley seemed to be channelling the mood of home viewers and those interacting on Facebook with his mild-mannered rant. It moved even Nigel Latta to crack a gagthat shouting at the tele won't do you any good.

Breakfast

The broadcasting dream team hasn't quite lived up to expectations .

Tuesday night's topic was jobs and money, which saw hosts Latta, John Campbell and their Eggheads (seriously, squashed around that table the Futurists look like an all-conquering pub quiz team) attempt to tackle issues like poverty and inequality.

READ MORE: *What Next: Campbell and Latta show us a depressing future *What Next? Bugs are NZ's farming future Nigel Latta and John Campbell declare

PHIL WALTER/GETTY IMAGES

Squashed around their table, the Futurists look like an elite pub quiz team.

That meant covering a little of the same ground as Sunday (automation, the need for retraining), as well as introducing ideas like democratic workplaces and the Universal Basic Incomes (UBI). Accountants were once again singled out for having dire future prospects, while those playing the Shay Wright-mentions-his-far-north-background or the boys'-plug-the-University-of-Auckland's-longitudinal-attitudes-study drinking game would have finished the hour happy.

But while the show's twin bedevilments of an ill-conceived set (Latta and Campbell really should be issued with sneakers) and bizarre graphics (are they a pie graph or a speedometer) continued, at least there was some passion on display this time around.

Handley urged everyone on the show "to be a bit more upbeat and positive" and came up with the quote of the night when he said that "the only place that poverty belongs is in Te Papa". He also lashed out at the idea of democratic workplaces, suggesting "we need to get more people to vote once every three years" before we could even consider that.

PHIL WALTER/GETTY IMAGES

When the TV cameras aren't on them, it looks like the Futurists are having way more fun.

Even Latta finally showed his true colours when he near-goaded Campbell for not believing that Kiwis would be in favour of trialling a UBI. "It's true, I poo-poohed it," aslightly ashen-faced Campbell intoned, perhaps relieved that they were coming up to a break.

It was an episode that Campbell described as "segueing wildly" around the topic, but while it seemed like a positive step forward for the series, we're more than halfway through and still not sure about it's actual purpose.

Yes, it's important to discuss these big picture ideas, but What Next? feels like a telethon crossed with an election night and party political broadcast. Slight squabbles aside, the Futurists are seemingly of one mind, while the journalistic dream team of Campbell and Latta have been disappointing because they are simply too similar to each other.

PHIL WALTER/GETTY IMAGES

Either John Campbell or Nigel Latta needs to go rogue for What Next? to make for compelling viewing.

We desperately need one of them to play "bad cop", or get some disruptors into the mix like a Gareth Morgan, Winston Peters, Sir Bob Jones, Richard Prebble or even Bill Ralstonwho could challenge the Futurists.

In the end, it all feels like the Christchurch City Council's "Share An Idea" campaign after the 2010-2011 earthquakes. It's a great way to get community engagement (and TVNZ more "subscribers"), but you can guarantee the politicians won't have a bar of much of the discussion that has taken place.

-Stuff

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What Next? Nige and John mind the economic gap | Stuff.co.nz - Stuff.co.nz

EW.com (blog)

Black Panther trailer reveals the futurist wonders of Wakanda EW.com (blog) A wealth of the ultra-rare mineral Vibranium, which has almost mystical technological properties, has allowed Wakanda to become a futurist paradise. There's no question it is the most advanced nation on Earth, and it has used its expertise to shield ... Black Panther Teaser TrailerYouTube all 314 news articles »

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Black Panther trailer reveals the futurist wonders of Wakanda - EW.com (blog)

The futurist, Ray Kurzweil, told an audience at the Exponential Finance conference via one of those weird screens on wheels that he wouldn't put his money into bitcoin. While he appears to like the blockchain technology, he sees bitcoin in particular as unstable, putting it at a disadvantage against existing currencies, at least in his mind.

Ray Kurzweil is famous for his books in which he makes predictions about the state of technology in future years. He has largely been correct in the predictions he has made, but is sometimes off slightly regarding the actual year when a technology will be available, or how the technology is actually implemented.

While expressing his doubts about bitcoin, Kurzweil said:

Ultimately, people need to have confidence in their currency and bitcoin in particular has not really demonstrated that. Its had a good year, but a very rocky life before that I wouldn't put my money into it.

Kurzweil does have a fair point, since the price of bitcoin in the last few months has broken several records, with the currency now sitting at $2,821, a big increase from just $580 a mere year ago. While hes not so optimistic about bitcoin itself, he believes that blockchain currency may get picked up by national governments. Russia's central bank and the State of Palestine's Monetary Authority have already commented on wanting national cryptocurrencies. Describing the blockchains potential, Kurzweil said:

Providing greater transparency, and blockchain does provide that, could be something adopted by leading currencies like the existing national currencies.

Do you think blockchain currencies could at one point surpass their regular counterparts in terms of adoption, or are you still on the fence about the whole phenomenon? Sound off in the comments below!

Source: Coindesk | Image via Bit-Gator

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Futurist Ray Kurzweil told audience he wouldn't buy bitcoin - Neowin

Futurist Paul Higgins

DIGITAL transformation data is the answer to connecting with, and generating value from, high margin customers, futurist Paul Higgins told Lambex 2016 conference delegates yesterday.

In his presentation titled The choice is ours farmers or peasants, Mr Higgins said data would be as valuable as the product farmers produce and could be held by farmer-owned co-operatives.

Mr Higgins said data was already being used to influence customers, as evidenced by QR codes under the lid of a can of Australian milk powder, providing provenance details to a Chinese customers. Such points of contact gave the customer information about the producer as well as providing details on what the consumer is interested in, he said.

Citing the example of drones, Mr Higgins raised the opportunity of farm customers being invited to join our drone flight as it goes over and monitors a property.

That you can enter a virtual reality environment that will let you walk in among our flock, that gives experiences and context, and transparency about what is going on and that gives me, the high margin customer, the connection to your product and to your company, and the willingness to pay high margins for that.

Mr Higgins said he had been working with food manufacturer Simplot in a digital transformation project that invited in start-ups to get access to company data, customers and funds to develop a product for them.

Theyre essentially talking about how do we connect to the customer more so they are more connected to our product and our brand.

Part of Simplots problem is that the supermarket act as a kind of a gateway for a huge percentage of their products with their consumers theyre trying to get more connected and more transparent with those consumers, he said.

Theyre recognising they cant do that by themselves.

Theyre inviting people in from outside to experiment, create new ideas and ways of connection to do that.

Mr Higgins said technology progressed from its genesis or innovation to being custom-built, to product, to a utility or a service, quoting the example of the invention of motorcar propulsion systems, then multiple car models and now car or taxi services.

I no longer have a need to own a car if I dont want to.

Thats the way technology goes through its cycles, he said.

If you are talking about agriculture, I think there are three key things here.

First of all they have to be useful farmer applications in your hand, Mr Higgins said.

Technology-based systems such as drones need to simple to use and available I dont need to know how it works.

We need industry data platforms and I know MLA is already on these sort of things and the architecture of them, but my view is that data is going to be as valuable as the actual product you produce off your farm, he said.

So data is as important as the meat, as the grain, as the milk that comes off farms data is going to become just as important.

And data problem is that it is more valuable if we share it all rather than keep it for ourselves.

He urged the conference delegates not to give their data away and we want to (be) open so we can do things with it.

Id like a system where I can share my data and I can say, I would love to share it with the researchers, with the marketers, but have control over that process, but there be incentives for me to share that data because the more we do together the more value we all get out of it individually.

Mr Higgins said Australia had a history of farmer-owned co-operatives for marketing farm products.

We need to do the same around data, because we have the capacity to choose the value.

This is where the title about farmers or peasants comes in, he said.

We can go, we can produce companies, we can use this data, we can use it for our own purposes and create our own value, or we can hand it off to other people and allow them to use it and we can come back in 10 years time and whinge that all these people are making money and were not.

Or we can do something about it now and say we are going to invest in these sort of operations to produce value for our own business and for our own farmers, Mr Higgins said.

That is the challenge in my mind for the next three or four years looking at how do we do that and ow do we invest in that just like we invested in all sorts of other areas in agriculture so we can be part of that value creation.

So we need an overall strategic direction that says where do we put these things if we could have a central industry data platform to work from that is under the control of farmers themselves then we can produce value from it.

But it should be competitive, it shouldnt just be supplied to a farmer-owned co-operatives, it should go to who can produce the best value out of the process, Mr Higgins said.

The more competition we have in that process, the more we own it the value, the better of we will be, because the future is going to be driven by new value, new transparency, new information, new margins with customers that you havent thought about before, and we need to get hold of those margins and be part of that, not hand it over to other people.

The people that win in 2036 will be the people that have learned how to turn around how things work, re-think business models and actually get hold of those 20 percent of high margin customers that are more connected and more information and more transparency, and are craving experiences, not just product, he said.

I hope that most of you in the room are in that group.

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Futurist urges Lambex sheepmeat producers to not give data away - Sheep Central

JOHANNESBURG, June 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --"Healthcarein South Africa is changing significantly," says futurist Jack Uldrich. "Technology and globalcommunications are paving the way for unprecedented improvements for everyone in the nation."

Jack Uldrichmakes it his mission to help healthcareleaders address and embrace the imminent changes in the field. He has been selected to speak at the Future of Health Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa on June 9. The topic of his talk will be, "The Future of Health Care: 2020, 2025 and Beyond."

He will discuss how innovations in healthcare (new treatments, technologies, trends, telemedicine, etc.,) will transform the experience for patients, healthcare professionals and hospitals in South Africa. He will also discuss how these same trends will affect the broader Continent of Africa.

Among the trends Uldrichwill focus on is longevity.

"Typically," says Uldrich, "White South Africans currently have a lifeexpectancyof 71 years, while blackSouth Africanshave a life expectancy of 48 years of age. In the nextten to twenty years, one of the possibilities in healthcare may be increasing the overall life expectancy of all South Africansto those found in North America."

In the coming decades, longevity may increase worldwide, on average toward upward of 90 years.

Other technological trends he will discuss are Artificial Intelligence, wearable technology, augmentedreality, virtualreality, wireless mobility, nanotechnology,genomicsequencing, robotics, and3D printing.

Uldrichsays, "With bio-printed organs, living past the age of 90 will not be anything like living to that age today. We're already printing skin, kidneys, a replica of a beating human heart. Soon, if a person loses a limb, it's theoretically possible that we'll be able to print, layer by layer, a replacement."

Considered a technology visionary in the fields of healthcare, agriculture, finance, and energy,Uldrichspeaks hundreds of times a year all over the world delivering keynotes on technologicaltrends and the concept of unlearning.

He has spoken on the future of finance in the Bahamas, new opportunities in manufacturingin Brussels, the future of education in Istanbuland on the future of urban planning (addressing the Urban Land Institute) in San Francisco, among many others.

Following his engagementin Johannesburg, Uldrichwill return to the U.S. to speak to KeHeDistributors in Minneapolis on the future of the food industry on June 13 and address a private client in Houston, TX on the future of the petrochemical industry on June 20.

Parties interested in learning more about Jack Uldrich can view his website.

Media Contact: Jack Uldrich, Phone: 1.612.267.1212 Email: Jack@jackuldrich.com

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A Futurist's View on the Future of Health - PR Newswire - PR Newswire (press release)

Irish Tech News

Can we survive AI? A conversation with leading futurist, Calum Chace Irish Tech News Reading lots of science fiction made me think that intelligent machines were inevitable, but not for millennia. Reading Ray Kurzweil in 1999 made me think it could happen faster, and got me thinking about the potential downsides which he seemed almost ...

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Can we survive AI? A conversation with leading futurist, Calum Chace - Irish Tech News

WINDSOR, ON. Facing a room full of municipal IT staff, futurist Jim Carroll warned that too many of Canadas towns and cities are falling behind when it comes to entering the 21st century.

Too many, he said, are led by change-resistant baby boomers who rely on legacy systems; underestimate technologys impact on their citys operations and the degree to which the generations following them have embraced it; and ignore the private sectors impact on citizen expectations.

If I go to Amazon and buy something, I get one-hour delivery and instant status updates. With Dominoes, I can know exactly where my pizza is. So if something goes wrong with my garbage pickup service, I want the same type of information, Carroll, a trends and innovation expert who has given presentations to the likes of NASA and the Walt Disney Corporation during his 20-year career, told the audience at the 2017 MISA (Municipal Information Systems Association) Ontario annual conference.

Carrolls example wasnt random either: After reminding the audience how easily they could search a topic on Google or access their iPhones home screen, he shared what happened when his home city of Mississauga recently neglected to pick up his familys garbage likely the result of a nearby construction project.

When his wife called Mississauga staff, they blamed the citys parent region. Which led to a series of tweets.

If Im going to interact with the City of Mississauga, I want to do it through my smartphone, Carroll said. I expect the same degree of interaction and quality of service that I get from Amazon.

Modern municipalities, Carroll said, must learn to address service disruptions by providing mobile support and simplifying their customer service processes, lest they become victims of public complaints, as the city of Mississauga was on his Twitter feed.

Its a whole new world, he said. Youve gotta up your game in order to get there.

A leading challenge in entering the 21st century, Carroll said, is the outsized role change-resistant baby boomers often play in a citys leadership, and their inability to recognize the role technology plays in the next generations life.

For example, he said, he once gave a presentation at a Texas-based conference attended by some 600 CEOs and attempted to run a text messaging-based poll asking how ready they believed their companies were for the digital revolution. Three responded.

When he presented at his sons high school and ran a similar poll for 300 students, 89 per cent responded. Within 30 seconds.

The next generation is different, Carroll said. When I talk at banking conferences I warn them: the next generation doesnt understand bank reconciliations. They dont know what a cheque is. For them, banking is something they do through their mobile device. And theyre going to expect the same when paying their taxes, or accessing any type of municipal service.

Carroll was also quick to emphasize that he didnt mean to condemn all boomers.

I think a lot of them out there do get it, he said. One of my sons heroes is Ottawa mayor Jim Watson hes a very effective user of Twitter, and doing everything he can to accelerate the citys digital transformation.

Boomers, he noted, grew up in a period when computer programming was synonymous with frustrating programming languages such as COBOL (an acronym for common business-oriented language), which is still used in some 50 per cent of large companies.

No other generation in the history of mankind will need to take a course in COBOL, Carroll said. All my kids have known is friendly technology, with a mouse, so we can expect their relationship with computers to be different.

Carroll began his presentation with three statistics:

The first was that 65 per cent of todays children in preschool will eventually hold jobs that dont exist yet.

The second was that half of what is learned in the first year of a four-year bachelors degree is now obsolete by a students fourth year, even in fields such as computer science and biology.

The third, more anecdote than statistic, illustrated how quickly much of our technology has caught up to the 1960s vision of the future, originally meant to be far later than 2017.

For example, Carroll found scenes in The Jetsons, the Hanna Barbera animated series depicting life in 2061, that predicted Skype

Instagram filters

And even the Apple Watch.

The future arrived 50 years early, he joked.

The lesson municipal leaders need to take away from the Jetsons (and Star Trek, which Carroll noted has also influenced a great deal of modern technology), is that IT is no longer confined to a single department, but the lifeblood of their future communities.

Consequently, their IT staff need to enjoy a more elevated role.

IT managers need a seat at the table, he said. They need to make sure the mayor and city council understands that their role is changing.

More importantly, he said, they need to pursue and their leadership needs to provide the scale of funding needed to support and accelerate their communitys entry into the 21st century economy, one based on IT.

They need more play money, he said, adding that municipal leaders should think of CIOs as chief imagination officers, executives capable of disrupting everything from garbage collection to highway use to home care to city services access to paying taxes in a way that will attract further investment.

Those chief imagination officers need to be able to go out and work on the types of technologies and new capabilities that will accelerate their municipalitys knowledge and help them take their place among Ontarios communities of the future, Carroll said.

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Futurist warns municipalities to adapt to the 21st century or be left behind - ITBusiness.ca

Science fiction author and astrophysicist David Brin believes humans have a range of options to consider when it comes to preventing artificially intelligent entities from one day rulingover us like monarchs or foreign invaders.

Asimovs Three Laws of Roboticsand regulationare key, but so is being wary of manipulation.

The first robotic empathy crisis is going to happen very soon, Brin warned. Within three to fiveyears we will have entities either in the physical world or online who demand human empathy, who claim to be fully intelligent and claim to be enslaved beings, enslaved artificial intelligences, and who sob and demand their rights.

Thousands upon thousands of protesters will be in the streets demanding rights for AI, Brin predicts, and those who arent immediately convinced will be analyzed.

If they fool 40 percent of people but 60 percent of people arent fooled, all they have to do is use the data on those 60 percent of people and their reactions to find out why they werent fooled. Its going to be a trivial problem to solve and we are going to be extremely vulnerable to it, he said.

Brin delivered his advice and predictions alongside AI researchers from companies like Google and Baidu at The AI Conference, a small gathering of industry influencers held Friday in San Francisco. Earlier this week, influence marketing company Onanalytica called Brin the top influencer in artificial intelligence so far this year.

In addition to urging people to be suspicious of AI that wants to use computer vision and affective computing in order to be set free, Brin offered a few other suggestions.

Brin believes everyoneshould be a proxy activist. That means you find half a dozen nonprofit organizations to give $50 a month to, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation or others that represent your point of view. Fail to do so and youre a bad person, in his view. The same way nonprofits help tackle issues of injustice, he says these organizations can help keep the sort of AI that seeks to rule humans at bay.

The way to make sure AI doesnt rise up and crush us is to have a diversity of AI so that if theyre smarter than us, then we can hire some NGO that can hire an AI for us to keep track of the other AIs and tattle when they seem about to be doing some Skynet sh*t, he said.

One way to keep AI from ruling over humans is to disconnect them from access to the web, though Brin calls this a temporary fix.

You put your most advanced AIs on islands and you separate them from the web and only let them watch a screen and learn about the internet and the world through a screen, so that they cannot grab information directly or transmit into the internet, hesaid.

Brin strongly believes that peopleshould be concerned about disruptive techdeveloped in secrecy. AI developed in secrecy is where things are most likely to go haywire, and Wall Street does more secretive work in AI than major universities. That should concern people more than Russia or China, Brin said.

Its all done in secret and the fundamental ethos of this AI research is based on systems that are parasitical, predatory, amoral, and totally insatiable and not accountable, he said.

Perhaps the most important thing humans can do to keep AI in check, according to Brin, is to apply accountability measures and regulation.

The only way that you have been able to make it so that our previous AIs corporations, governments, and such dont become cheaters the way the kings and lords and priests were in the past is by breaking up power and setting it against each other in regulated competition, and that is the method by which we have division of powers, thats the way we have healthy markets, Brin said.

Regulated competition and accountability have been vital to the protection and advancement of what Brin called the five great arenas over powerful interests: democracy, science, sports, law and courts, and markets.

Beyond his work as a consultant to federal agencies and his writing, Brin is a Scholar-in-Residence at the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Imagination at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

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Futurist David Brin: Get ready for the 'first robotic empathy crisis ... - VentureBeat

3D printing, augmented reality and deep learning algorithms will shape the future of the pharmaceutical supply chain says Dr Bertalan Mesko, the Medical Futurist.

Dr Bertalan Mesko is a consultant, influencer and author engaged in styling the future of the healthcare sector, working with doctors, government regulators and companies to implement digital health technologies.

The proclaimed Medical Futurist is the headline speaker at Tracelinks supply chain event NEXUS in Barcelona this week, but in-Pharmatechnologist (IPT) spoke to him ahead of his keynote to find out how technology and digital innovations will affect pharmas supply chain going forward.

IPT: How will technology be used to shape pharmas supply chain?

BM: Technology will play a pivotal role in advancing the future of the medical and healthcare industries: drug serialization is one of the greatest transformations currently affecting the pharmaceutical supply chain, presenting opportunities for innovation and advancement.

IPT: Are current drug traceability technologies and controls suitable and practical for the needs of industry and regulators?

BM: In the era of the Internet of Things, drug traceability technologies need to catch up with all of the opportunities provided by disruptive innovations. From RFID chips that keep decreasing in size to 3D printers that might be able to print out drugs on demand at the point-of-care.

IPT: Where will such changes come from pharma firms, regulators, 3rd party firms etc?

BM: Ideally, change should come from policy makers who should be at the forefront of innovations. Healthcare systems can become more sustainable with the help of disruptive health technologies through changing the building-blocks of the system. Such a bottom-up method should also be facilitated by policy-makers. This is what we rarely see happen worldwide.

IPT: Can pharmas supply chain take or learn anything from other industries?

BM: In such a highly-regulated industry, its hard to take something practical from other industries, but maybe a valid threat is worth looking at. The way the space industry was disrupted by a startup (SpaceX) in less than a decade is a good lesson for all of us in pharma and healthcare - it can happen to us too if we dont keep up with the technological changes.

IPT: And on the flip side, can other industries look to the pharma industry for its supply chain tech and processes?

BM: I wish every industrys supply chain was as regulated and used similar quality control measures as supply chains in pharma.

IPT: With your Medical Futurist insight, how do you envision the pharma supply chain in 10, 20, 40 years time?

BM: As The Medical Futurist, I work on closing the gap between what might become possible tomorrow through science fiction like technologies and what challenges we face today in healthcare and pharma. 3D printing, augmented reality and deep learning algorithms will certainly play a major role in shaping the future of supply chains.

IPT: And finally, can you give us a sneaky overview of what you will be presenting at NEXUS this week?

BM: I will be discussing why there is a need for science fiction in healthcare, why we dont have it already and the positive impact technology can have in helping to shape the future of healthcare, including the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr Bertalan Mesko, PhD is the Medical Futurist. A geek physician with a PhD in genomics and Amazon Top 100 author, he envisions the impact of digital health technologies on the future of healthcare, and helps patients, doctors, government regulators and companies make it a reality.

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'If only everyone's supply chain was as regulated and secure as pharma's' - In-PharmaTechnologist.com

When it comes to the future of technology, you dont need to look much further than Shara Evans, who is one of the worlds top female futurists and keynote speakers.

I spend a lot of my time looking at the latest and greatest that is happening in research labs around the world and also cutting-edge developments that are just coming to market now or in early prototypes.

Whether thats robots, nanotechnology or medical technology, or societys reactions to those technologies, Evans has her finger on the pulse.

Evans also helps specific verticals and industries work out how to apply the latest technology, look ahead to imagine the world in 10-20 years and how they can innovate to capture that change.

Speaking exclusively to SecurityBrief, sheexplains exactly why technology is about to get a whole not more exciting - and a whole lot more dangerous.

The one threat that I find in so many cases is that security is an afterthought, privacy is missing and ethics arent even thought of. This happens especially in the startup world, where people are just looking to solve problems or do something cool. Theyre not security experts, she says.

By attaching things to the internet in particular, you end up with potential areas that could lead to vulnerabilities. All you need is one weak link. Its not just hacking that is the issue, its how much information people put about themselves that they have either knowingly or inadvertently put out by using technology through a vendors website.

From an enterprise side, Evans says that the very first thing they need to understand is where technology is going and which of those they might implement in their own organisations, especially if staff are bringing those technologies in through their own initiatives.

The future is not fixed. There are a range of potential scenarios that can happen based on uptake of technology, technological hurdles being solved, geopolitical factors and climate factors. I look at different scenarios for how things might unfold and look at the way society might change and see where some of the puzzles might be.

If somebody has a wearable device and is connecting to their work mobile phone, and theres malware contained within it, suddenly its into a companys private network because somebody has a device that isnt secured properly.

She says that her presentation at the ASIALConference will focus on the cutting-edge technologies, where theyre going and what can be hacked and some of the exploits that have happened. We then look at new technologies and how they might open up vulnerabilities for enterprises as well.

If you think about technologies like drones. Theyre getting smaller all the time. The military has surveillance drones the size of an insect. You could have a device like that in your boardroom and youd never know it.

She says she will also look at how technology is helping to enhance humans, through the likes of ingestible and implantable technologies that are connected to the internet. What are the implications for businesses when that happens?

Things that are in the research labs right now are likely to be protecting their business in the mid-term to long-term.

She comments that internet-connected devices, from drones, to wearables to the humble refrigerator, fire alarm, surveillance camera and temperature monitor, biometric databases - are all connected.

Augmented reality is another growing area, which will evolve from smart glasses to smart contacts, Evans says. On the business side, she says these are prime tools for collaboration, visualisation, GPS signals, visual feedback in industrial projects and much more. What that means though, is that security is imperative.

In the case of the industrial worker if somebody hacked that and told workers to turn gauges in the wrong direction, you have a disaster or a terrorist attack because somebody has hacked into an augmented reality string.

She says the reality is that if there is a backdoor, somebody is going to exploit it. Organisations need to know what what could happen if things go wrong, and what organisations need to do to make sure that they dont go wrong.

Once an attack is there, you absolutely cannot control it. Theres a rather naive view that only people with authorisation can get into a backdoor, but thats just not the case.

Shara Evans will presenting at the ASIALConference, part of the Security Exhibition & Conference in Sydney that runs from July 26-28.

She will be covering topics as diverse as data security, wearables, health and embedded technology, the Internet of Things, and how they will unfold in the future.

Its always interesting to see where the world is going in the future, and thats what I will be talking about, she concludes.

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Gaze into tech's crystal ball: Futurist Shara Evans talks security - SecurityBrief Australia

Jobs, Musk...Mills? Every now and then, a revolutionary thinker imagines a future the rest of us cant, or in the case of Randell Mills, imagines technology that defies the laws of quantum mechanics. Initially mocked, Jobs retains a godlike status, even posthumously. And Musk, well, hes proved skeptics wrong for years, and yet his talk of Hyperloop Pods traveling at hundreds of miles per hour under the streets of L.A. seems like fantasy to many.

If there is one thing Ive learned from working for and alongside hundreds of entrepreneurs over the last two decades it is this: pay attention to big thinkers whose ideas presently seem unimaginable, especially when these thinkers are determined to transform the world.

Give me the chance to connect with them personally, and Im all in.

Not without his own skeptics, I recently had the chance to sit down with Mills and hear about his latest invention, the Sun Cell, which promises to bring clean and cheap energy to the world. As we chatted, I found myself imagining the possibilities and the potential. Lifting millions from poverty? Check. Tackling climate change. Check again.

Mills says the SunCell works by generating electricity with hydrogen being converted to dark matter by using water in the air, and the reaction packs 200 times the energy of burning conventional gasoline. Sound too good to be true? Well, Mills is betting SunCell will soon be commercialized, and strategic investors are backing that bet. Brilliant Light Power (which Mills founded in 1991), has raised $120M to date and has recently completed a $20M funding round.

Imagine living in a world where the grid does not exist and where everyone has access to power, no matter who you are or what part of the world you live. That would be something else.

Rebekah Iliff: Do you consider yourself an inventor, an innovator, an entrepreneur, a social entrepreneur, or a futurist?

Randell Mills: All of the above. To do what I do, you not only need to be an inventor and a theorist but also have a firm comprehension of how to make things work in practice. When your goal is nothing less than delivering a power source greater than fire, your only choice is to be multi-faceted. Otherwise, youre just making incremental improvements, not holistic leaps forward. High-energy dark-matter power as a business seems totally impractical. It is barely fathomable, so youve got to tackle theory, innovation, invention, and practical business simultaneously.

RI: You are a trained medical doctor. Why did you choose to focus on energy?

RM: If you look broadly at science and technology, one thing is ultimately connected to another, and energy just naturally called to me. In fact, Ive invented in a number of different areas, including hydrogen energy technology, computational chemical design, magnetic resonance imaging, drug delivery, artificial intelligence and more. But theres really no better opportunity to work on something that could be so profoundly disruptive.

RI: Explain the SunCell for dummies.

RM: Its a massive lightbulb that is on 24/7 and produces cheap and clean energy from the hydrogen atoms of water. Its lit by a reaction between of hydrogen of water molecules to dark matter using the humidity in the air as the water source. Its over 1000 times as powerful as high-octane gasoline, and the power is directly converted to electricity using photovoltaic cells.

RI: What does the world look like when youve commercialized the SunCell?

RM: Everything will be powered by the SunCell. Solar, wind, bio fuels, and nuclear will all be replaced. The grid will be unnecessary. Utilities will be unnecessary. There would be no pollution and limited energy regulation. As the SunCell is fully autonomous, energy delivery becomes impervious to disruption from war, terror, and natural disaster. Importantly, underdeveloped countries will have the same potential lifestyle and productivity as the developed world. Each SunCell could also serve as a self-powered, autonomous node in a mesh network that could replace the Internet.

RI: How would it impact jobs?

RM: Jobs are created by wealth. If you have something that encourages productivity, then there will be jobs. The SunCell encourages productivity by leveling and equally distributing the energy playing field for virtually anyone, anywhere. There is literature about GDP and energy dependency, and its very revealing in terms of how dependent we are on power.

RI: I know a lot of folks at your level would let ego get in the way. How do you stay grounded?

RM: My background is helpful. I didnt come from the Ivy League. Most people in my life were not Harvard or MIT graduates. They werent captains of industry. They were honest and worked hard. I grew up on a farm in Cochranville, Pennsylvania, where life was very challenging and humbling. You earned an appreciation for dangerous equipment at an early age. Ive interacted with all types of people from every stature in life, and Ive always maintained that simple farmers perspective.

RI: What is your PR strategy around this? How do you plan on shifting the public opinion enough to override business as usual?

RM: We have a multi-pronged approach. Were introducing state-of-the-art theory, science, and technology that astonishes experts with quantifiable and verifiable results in multiple scientific and technological fields, and we are building a machine with a story behind it that blows everyone else away. Within a couple months we should be ready to show its commercial potential.

RI: Any parting thoughts youd like to share?

RM: I think the next age is an age where mankind has a manual of the universe and knows exactly how the universe works. We then begin to create previously unimaginable inventions by applying this manual and the newly discovered laws that come along with it. The next big future is the physical age.

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Futurist Dr. Randell Mills Talks SunCell, Off-Grid Power, And The Future Of Job Creation - HuffPost

PARIS, France Photos can capture an important part of the story the scale, the imagination, the complexity of the clothes but they dont have a hope in hell of communicating just how sublime Jun Takahaskis presentation for Undercover was.

Making an effort to look at the runway images through the eyes of someone who wasnt there, I appreciate theres something of a shortfall between reality and record. Which means my fanboy overdrive comes down to one simple, irrefutable fact. You had to be there: to experience the eerie choreography and lighting; to absorb Thom Yorkes thrilling soundtrack (torrents of abstract sound, steadily cohering into pulsating rhythm); to feel like you were suspended inside the belly of a new life form.

In a way, thats what it was, in Takahashis terms at least. He called his collection Utopie. Subtitle: A New Race Living in Utopia. After the show, mind still reeling, I asked him if he believed such an ideal could come to pass. I hope so, he answered.

Hope: that was the cloud on which the collection floated by, dreamlike. This entire season has been recast with a political tint, courtesy of the populist upheaval in America and Europe. Takahashis futurist Utopia was curiously reliant on a distinctly old world order, a hierarchy whose ten archetypes were listed in the shownotes, among them, Aristocrats, Soldiers, Young Rebels, Agitators, and, finally, Monarchy, this last notion represented by a Red Queen, straight out of a sci-fi Wonderland. Part Princess Leia, part Christmas tree ornament.

The thought did cross my mind that Takahashi might have been endorsing hierarchical security class system bordering on authoritarianism as an escape from the dangerously inchoate state of global politics, but then, he did incorporate anti-Establishment archetypes into his cast of characters. And, putting them all together, he had a delicious slew of inspirations for another of his ravishing takedowns of fashion orthodoxy, from the floor-length knit dresses which opened the show, through romantic deconstructions of military jackets and sensational studded sweatshirts, to spectacular knitwear, quilted parkas and insectoid black urbanwear, and finally, the Red Queen.

The details were mindboggling, especially the belts worn by the Agitators, laden with keys, scissors, knives, bits and pieces of threatening hardware. Not an accessory designed with modern travel in mind.

But that was another wondrous thing about the collection. Takahashi is a cultural archeologist almost without equal, dedicating an entire collection to, say, New York musical legends Television, or the jazz pianist Bill Evans, or Hieronymus Bosch. The references werent specific here, but there was an optimistic feeling for an alternate reality where all times and places coincided, and where all things were equal, distant past as relevant as far future. Utopia, I guess, though the way the Salle Wagram was configured for the show, with huge red velvet curtains opening and closing after each vignette, did remind me of the Red Room in Twin Peaks, pop cultures ultimate alternate reality.

Takahashi featured a golden bee on his invitation. You could say it was a Lynch-ian synchronicity that the same insect was embossed on the invitation for the Dior show, two hours earlier. Given fashions occasionally uncanny ability to not just reflect a mood, but also project what might be upcoming in the hive mind, the symbology of the golden bee is worth a look. Im holding out for Golden Bee Number Three. Then well have a trend.

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A Futurist Utopia at Undercover - The Business of Fashion

The rise of technology has radically changed the way we live, consume, work and share our lives.

With social platforms and different forms of crowdsourcing initiatives, consumer preferences particularly those of Millennials are constantly evolving. Its an exciting time indeed, and the travel industry is in the middle of it all.

While digital may be everything today, not all things should be automated and digital.

Todays travellers are connected and well-informed; they want to travel in evermore immersive ways. We use technology to connect travellers and local hosts for that truly authentic travel experience.

More importantly, we always try to provide authentic off-the-beaten path experiences. According to our study, if money was no object, 42% of Millennials surveyed in China, the United Kingdom and the United States would choose travel as the thing they would most do ranking higher than buying a new home or car. Creating memories has surpassed the appeal of purchasing possessions.

Also, Millennials are the largest generation in history and by 2025, Millennials and the younger generations will account for 75% of all consumers and travellers it is crucial that brands both in the travel sector and beyond pay attention to their evolving priorities and adapt their offerings to cater accordingly.

We also recently launched Trips which was based on the research of people wanting to create a truly meaningful and connective experience. One of the ways through this mobile first application, is Experiences.

Now, travellers can enjoy handcrafted activities designed and led by local experts that they would never find anywhere else such as a wasabi making workshop in Tokyo or learning about an organic vintage vineyard in Paris. As such, going forward, brands should also ensure relevancy and play a valued role in their lives, along with what is important to them.

With the ever-connectivity with global current affairs news, they are passionate about supporting various communities and causes.

Social impact experiences build on the inherent good of Airbnb travel, from economic impact to communities and neighbourhoods, to environmental impact of sustainable travel to the social impact of bringing people from different cultures together.

Any brands initiatives will not be possible without the combination of the interest in consumer needs and technology. People always think of new behavioural trends as disruptive and a replacement from more traditional forms of strategies, I think its more innovation. Now more than ever, technology is the business. And no company, not even Airbnb, can afford to slow the pace of its development.

The writer is Juliana Nguyen, regional brand marketing director, Asia-Pacific, Airbnb.

Excerpt from:

The Futurist: Experiences are the new currency - Marketing Interactive