How will people in your part of the world live, work, and think in 2025? Which values, lifestyles, and structuring institutions will prevail? Will lifestyles be more complex or simpler? Which professions will be the most highly valued, and which personality types will best adapt? What culture-based hidden assumptions define the boxes in which you think and your notion of personal identity? What can we learn from other peoples and cultures of the world that can help humankind meet the challenges of the future? In what ways do different peoples view the future? What countercultures may arise in your part of the world or elsewhere? And what is the future of cultural diversity itself, including values and lifestyles? These questions are among the topics that the presentation will explore.
Who should attend: Anyone who wants more insight on the ways in which various peoples and cultures will influence how people live, work, and think tomorrow. Anyone who seeks to expand their thinking beyond boundaries that are defined by one’s culture. Futurists and other leading thinkers who want to identify and transcend hidden assumptions that limit foresight thinking.
What you’ll learn: Participants will gain insights from across the globe on which lifestyles and value systems will prevail many years from now and which ones are headed for marginalization or extinction. In addition, they will learn how cultures define the boxes in which people think. Finally, they can gain new wisdom that can be useful in meeting the challenges of the future, wisdom drawn from various nations, peoples, and cultures of the present and past.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Session participants will gain insight on which lifestyle options may or may not be readily available and on the possible alternative future value systems that may emerge. Futurists will better recognize mind-sets that can limit foresight thinking. Transnational business, and business seeking to so expand, can better understand their customers of the future. All participants can benefit from expanded thinking perspectives.
Dave Stein, former adjunct college faculty; president of the Center for Transcultural Foresight, Inc.; editor-in-chief FUTUREtakes, Las Vegas, Nevada
Tom Lombardo, founder and executive director of the Center for Future Consciousness, Scottsdale, Arizona
Shoji Mitarai,chairman, Japan Institute of Negotiation; professor, Cross-Cultural Negotiation and Mediation, Sapporo University, Sapporo, Japan
Tiffany Pressler, inventor and entrepreneur. Her work spans the multifaceted areas of engineering, physics, law, medicine, and psychology, Conway, Arkansas
Cornelia Daheim, managing partner of Z_punkt, founder and head of the Millennium Project’s German Node, Essen, Germany
key words: alternative futures, future lifestyles, future values, culture-based hidden assumptions, cultural plurality, cultural diversity, living patterns, working patterns, identity, social research, social trends, social change
issue areas: Society and Culture, Learning and Education, Business and Careers