GOVERNANCE AND COMMUNITIES
(Updated on a regular basis. Please check back soon!)
Is Law Enforcement Doing All They Can to Keep Us Safe in the Post-9/11 World?
Law enforcement traditionally has used after-the-fact indicators (e.g., crime, arrest, and prosecution rates) to evaluate their success. Given public demand for proactive approaches to crime-fighting (e.g., Did we stop the terrorist attack from occurring? Did we head off gang wars in the community?), how can we know if law enforcement is doing all that is necessary to protect the citizenry? Is law enforcement aware of this problem? What can the community do to assure their law enforcement agencies are doing everything possible to protect the public? In this presentation, we'll assess present and future law enforcement operations and we'll consider how to use the mechanism of assessment to improve personnel, leadership, operations, and organizations.
Who should attend: Anyone interested in law enforcement, homeland security, terrorism, crime, and the assessment of government entities.
What you’ll learn: Panelists will critique current law enforcement indicators of success, particularly in the post-9/11 world. Discussion will consider problems with assessment methods and how social and technical changes will facilitate and necessitate new ways of thinking about and conducting assessments of personnel and operations. We'll also look toward comparable career fields for possible lessons for police.
How this knowledge can be applied: This knowledge will benefit law enforcement employees, community leaders, and citizens. Understanding the existing limits, future opportunities, and emerging demands related with responses and assessment can enable communities to develop more effective and responsive law enforcement agencies.John Jackson, sergeant, Houston Police Department, Houston, Texas
Bernard H. Levin, head of psychology department, Blue Ridge Community College; commander, Policy and Planning Bureau, Waynesboro Police Department, Weyers Cave, Virginia
Deborah Osborne, crime analyst, Buffalo Police Department, Buffalo, New York
Joseph Schafer, associate professor, Center for the Study of Crime, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinoiskey words: police organizations, assessment, outcome measurement
issue areas: Governance and Communities; Technology and Science
Who Will Be Tomorrow’s Public Safety Leaders?
Have public safety leaders changed their approach to keeping us safe since 9/11, or Katrina? Are we better protected from school shootings or other crimes and disasters? Have the criteria for leadership changed, and what are public safety leaders doing in response to the safety challenges we face? This session examines the changing demands on 21st century leaders and examines what is being done in response to those challenges. In this session, we will review the findings of the first international “leadership summit” and discuss ongoing revisions in leadership identification, recruitment, education, and training in the public safety sector. How do we get proactive rather than reactive leaders?
Who should attend: Anyone concerned about their safety in the future, public safety officials, local and state elected officials, educators and trainers, planners, and futurists.
What you’ll learn: We will explore how prepared public safety officials are to keep communities safe. Attendees will also learn about how public safety leaders are currently selected, how the field is undergoing a crisis in leadership, and how leaders will be chosen and trained in the future.
How this knowledge can be applied: Participants will be able to go home and assess the preparedness of their own communities and be able to provide input on how to improve leadership and services. They will better understand the scope of safety challenges we face at the national/global level and will be able to influence policies to alleviate problems.Jim Alexander, director of Module Two, Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas; chair, History and Government, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas
Mike Crews, director of professional programs, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Tallahassee, Florida
Tom Esensten, principal, Organizational Effectiveness Consulting, Ojai, California
Gene Stephens, lead instructor of executive leadership course, South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy; distinguished professor emeritus, Criminal Justice Program, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
Spears Westbrook, manager, Instructional Standards and Research, South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy; director, Leadership Institute, Columbia, South Carolinakey words: public safety, leadership, education, training
issue areas: Governance and Communities; Social and Cultural Trends; Learning and Education
Futurism and Economic Development: Creating the Communities of the Future through Entrepreneurialism and Strategic Planning
From Manhattan, Kansas to Mozambique, from France to Papua New Guinea, people all over the world are wondering what the next generation will do for work. The turbulent economic changes of recent years have prompted both government leaders and citizens to ask, “What companies will create the jobs of tomorrow? What will our communities look like? And, do we get a say?”
Some proactive government and civilian leaders are already creating the communities of tomorrow by employing futurism in their economic development plans. These leaders are looking over the horizon to see the technologies and social trends that will create the markets of tomorrow. "Futurism and Economic Development" will explore case studies from several areas and examine how forward-looking leaders are using knowledge of the future to create tomorrow’s prosperity.Who should attend: This session is ideal for economic development professionals, entrepreneurs, government executives, or futurists looking to work on issues of building communities.
What you’ll learn: Participants will learn how some economic development groups are applying studies of the future in their strategic planning in order to more effectively support local entrepreneurs and create the communities of the future. Participants will learn how rural communities, in particular, are meeting the challenge of transitioning from an agrarian economy straight to the knowledge economy, bypassing the manufacturing-based economy altogether.
How this knowledge can be applied: This session will inform any community member or government leader of the cutting edge in economic development thinking, and give them new tools to think about how entrepreneurs will create the jobs of tomorrow that will change our lives.Vonnie Barnett, assistant director of economic intelligence, South Dakota Enterprise Institute, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Eric Garland, principal, Competitive Futures, Inc.; author, Future Inc.: How Businesses Can Anticipate and Profit from What’s Next, Washington, D.C.
Karolyn Rancourt, North America Representative, Development Economic Western Switzerland (DEWS), New York, New Yorkkey words: economic development, rural communities, knowledge economy
issue areas: Governance and Communities; Futures Methodologies, Tools, and Processes
Heralding a New World Order
Drawing upon the “America 2025” project, this session will highlight a number of trends that will impact the arena of international relations in the years to 2025. Our research looks at a number of milestones from the America 2025 project. This session will help participants distinguish various future paths. Also, we'll present a discussion of the major trends impacting our lives to 2025.
Who should attend: Those interested in the possible development of international relations in the years to 2025.
What you’ll learn: Participants will learn about a number of paths in which the future could develop.
How this knowledge can be applied: This knowledge can serve as a backdrop for more detailed and personal futures thinking. It touches upon issues such as the price of energy, international capital flows, and how the movement of people might affect our demographic futures.Stephen Aguilar-Millan, director of research, European Futures Observatory, Ipswich, Suffolk, United Kingdom
key word: foreign policy, security
issue areas: Governance and Communities; Social and Cultural Trends; Resources and Environment
SPECIAL EVENT
Megatrends and Transformation: State and National Networks as an Organizing Principle for Community TransformationA new type of society is emerging as a result of the interactions of megatrends that would fundamentally transform how we educate, how we govern, how we develop economically, how we lead, and even how we think. New approaches have developed to seed innovative capacities for community transformation. Of special importance is work with economic development and educational organizations, as well as chambers of commerce.
This session presents new strategies and methods for educational and economic transformation using core transformational nodes. As examples, the session introduces innovative approaches being used by the Kentucky Community and Technical College System and National Community Development Services, Inc.Who should attend: Local and state leaders, educators, economic developers, NGOs, elected officials, and those interested in rethinking traditional concepts for a constantly changing society.
What you’ll learn: Participants will be introduced to new ideas and methods of community transformation that will prepare citizenries, workforces, and communities for continuous innovation in order to adapt to a changing society.
How this knowledge can be applied: Local, national, and international leaders can apply these ideas and methods to their own communities to help prepare us for an ever- changing global world.Howard Benson, president and CEO, National Community Development Services, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia
Marvin Cetron, founder and president, Forecasting International; former consultant to the White House from 1961-1998; co-author, Hospitality 2010: The Future of Hospitality and Travel, Falls Church, Virginia
Mike McCall, president, Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), Versailles, Kentucky
Rick Smyre, president, Center for Communities of the Future, Gastonia, North Carolinakey words: community, trends, government, economics
issue areas: Governance and Communities; Social and Cultural Trends
A Bill of Rights for America in the 21st Century
The Bill of Rights has served the nation well over the past two centuries. However, times have changed radically in too many ways to be accommodated by the amendment process. The Bill is a product of the interactions, trade offs, hopes, and fears at play during America's colonial period. As a continental nation, a global power, a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural leader in science and technology, the United States faces a future that is immeasurably more complex than the one faced by our founding fathers. That complexity calls for a fresh look at rights, preserving the best of the past, modifying where change is called for, and adding new rights as circumstances require.
Who should attend: All citizens and others concerned with the long-term viability of democracy.
What you’ll learn: The audience will see how a dozen or more drivers of change are calling for a fundamental treatment in the Constitution to meet the new urgencies of our time.
How this knowledge can be applied: The drivers of change result in ten proposed new Amendments and a broad policy outreach to build public understanding and enthusiastic support. The proposed Amendments are not only of value to those now here, but promise, as the original Bill of Rights did, to promote and safeguard a better future for the next century.Joseph F. Coates, president, Joseph F. Coates Consulting Futurist, Inc.; co-author, 2025: Scenarios of U.S. and Global Society Reshaped by Science and Technology; author of over 500 articles and reports to clients on the future, Washington, D.C.
key words: Bill of Rights, United States, Constitution, democracy
issue area: Governance and Communities
Cutting-Edge Tool for Feedback Communication and Civic Engagement
This session will introduce and explain a cutting-edge feedback communication Internet tool for building civic engagement and partnerships with organizations such as the King County Municipal League Foundation. We'll discuss the unique and real applications of the tool for citizen participation in governments, with local intergenerational organizations, and most recently, the African Network on Creative Problem Solving at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The audience will leave with a new understanding of how to achieve more interactive dialogue and how to use that knowledge for the benefit of their organization, business, or community.
Who should attend: All organizations, government, and community servant leaders who respect, value, and want to know the opinions of their people.
What you’ll learn: Attendees will learn about a new cutting-edge, generic Internet tool that provides both businesses and organizations a symbolic process for reliable, viable, anonymous feedback communications with the people they represent or with whom they work.
How this knowledge can be applied: This collective data and wisdom provides leaders with important symbolic feedback communication information and a foundation for creating small group dialogues with deliberation and discernment.Efiong Etuk, director, African Center for Creativity and Innovation in Nigeria, Blacksburg, Virginia
Richard Kirby, executive director, Stuart C. Dodd Institute for Social Innovation; chair, World Network of Religious Futurists; co-author, The Leadership of Civilization Building: Administrative and Civilization Theory, Symbolic Dialogue, and Citizen Skills for the 21st Century, Edmonds, Washington
John Spady, executive vice president, Forum Foundation, Seattle, Washington
Richard Spady, president and co-founder, Forum Foundation; co-author, The Leadership of Civilization Building: Administrative and Civilization Theory, Symbolic Dialogue, and Citizen Skills for the 21st Century, Seattle, Washingtonkey words: symbolic dialogue, technology, feedback, communication
issue areas: Governance and Communities; Values and Spirituality; Technology and Science
EVENING KEYNOTE
Holy Terror: Thinking the UnthinkableUnfortunately, September 11th will prove to have been no more than a harbinger of future calamities as terrorist events will become more common and bloody in the years ahead. Al Qaeda, often under other names, will grow much larger and more dangerous than the band of fanatics that attacked the Pentagon and the World Trade Center almost six years ago. This growth process is well under way. The Muslim extremist movement will acquire nuclear weapons within the next ten years, if it does not possess them already. As things stand, the war on terror will drag on for decades with many tactical successes but little or no strategic benefit. In the long run, we in the civilized West will face choices even more difficult to contend with than were the attacks themselves.
Who should attend: Anyone interested in the security of mankind.
What you’ll learn: Participants will learn about efforts that have been designed to identify which possible terrorist attacks are most likely to occur and which would have the greatest impact on the target country.
How this knowledge can be applied: This information should assist the allocation of antiterrorism resources where they will have the greatest benefit. It also may reveal previously unrecognized opportunities to defend the country and its facilities abroad against terrorist events.Marvin Cetron, founder and president, Forecasting International; former consultant to the White House from 1961-1998; co-author, Hospitality 2010: The Future of Hospitality and Travel, Falls Church, Virginia
key words: terrorism, security, defense
issue areas: Governance and Communities; Social and Cultural Trends
Future Geopolitics
The pace of progress is quickening but the West isn’t really aware of it. Why? Because the West is saturated. Mankind has never ever before invested as much money and time in scientific and technological developments, especially in medical applications, intelligence research, and military technologies. An unprecedented arms race and military buildup is also occurring across the globe. The world’s financial system has started to live entirely on itself.
Status quo analyses vary considerably today, varying with the origins of their authors, as do dynamic scenarios for 2040 to 2070. Only by working in collaboration with one another, on equal footing, will futurists be truly able to craft credible scenarios that reflect the rapidly changing global landscape.Who should attend: Anyone who is interested in international and global policy and world and regional peace and development.
What you’ll learn: Attendees will learn that crises have lots of different reasons such as unfair economic/financial behavior, the reckless brutal race for raw materials, underdevelopment and discrimination, ideologies and religious differences, hate and fanaticism. Each of these reasons requires special attention and counter-actions.
How this knowledge can be applied: Participants can use this knowledge to lobby for change in current foreign policy, economic policy, environmental policy, science and technology cooperation, and security matters.Stephen Aguilar-Millan, director of research, European Futures Observatory, Ipswich, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Susantha Goonatilake, author, Anthropologizing Sri Lanka: A Eurocentric Misadventure, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Peter H. Mettler, professor of societal science and sociology of planning and technology, Wiesbaden University of Applied Sciences, Wiesbaden, Germany
Mohan Tikku, co-chair, Indian Node of the Millennium Project, Gurgaon, Indiakey words: politics, foreign policy, science
issue areas: Governance and Communities; Social and Cultural Trends
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