3.17.09
Contact: Patrick Tucker
Senior Editor
THE FUTURIST
Director of Communications
World Future Society
301-656-8274
ptucker@wfs.org
Free Lessons in Futuring From the World Future Society
Beginning in March, World Future Society President Tim Mack will offer a series of ten free lessons in the use of foresight through the Web site of the World Future Society, http://www.wfs.org/fundamentals/ . The weekly lessons, e-mailed to subscribers, offer straightforward explanations of the futurist profession’s most useful “futuring” techniques, with practical examples of they are used and resources for finding more information. The lessons include:
Innovation Enhancement
Technology Trends
Trend Analysis
Scenarios
Visioning, and more.
“We’ll look at every aspect of strategic planning, from how to assemble an effective Delphi panel to the newest and most cutting edge computer modeling techniques,” says Mack. The goal is to put these valuable tools into the hands of as many people as possible.
Since its inception in 1967, the World Future Society has served as a leader in foresight and has endeavored to help its members plan for the unimaginable. Members of the Society successfully forecast the rise of the Internet, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the subprime housing meltdown.
The role of leader is not one the Society takes lightly, according to Mack. He says the current economic downturn further showcases the value of foresight in terms of spotting dark clouds on the horizon.
“The speed and scope of the global economic collapse carries two important lessons. The first is that our world is more interconnected and our systems of governance and finance are far more complex than many had realized. The second lesson is that, from an organizational standpoint, having a sense of many different possible futures is the key to adapting quickly in times of crisis. Knowing the potential opportunities and risks that will play out in the future business environment, especially ‘black swans,’ is the difference between prosperity and catastrophe.”
When the lessons of foresight are correctly put into place, the results are often--if ironically--better than the best expectations, says Mack.
Mack has edited the oldest and best respected professional journal in the foresight area, Futures Research Quarterly, since 1985. In June 2004, he also assumed the presidency of the World Future Society. He served on the board of the MIT Enterprise Forum, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based nonprofit group offering marketing, financial, and technology services to new and innovative companies.
As a change consultant, Mack assisted the U.S. General Services Agency and the U.S. Department of Defense in developing strategic planning and change management strategies for such challenges as innovation enhancement, privatization of public services, Superfund clean-up, and transportation planning. He has managed global trade issues and technology trends at the local, state, federal, and global levels, working with clients on many continents, including the Institute for Global Chinese Affairs (ranked Number One globally three years running by the Foreign Experts Bureau in Beijing). He also spent five years as a vice president at WPP Ltd., which at the time was the largest management consulting and market communications company in the world. He’s been quoted as an expert futurist in The Financial Times, The Washington Times, The Washington Diplomat, the Korean Times, and many other major world publications.
Mack has testified as an expert witness before the White House Conference on Small Business and is currently working on a book on the social and economic impacts of the Internet on modern society and the global economy.
Fundamentals of Foresight is a free series of quick briefings on how you can better prepare for a changing world. Interested individuals can sign up at http://www.wfs.org/fundamentals/
About the World Future Society
The World Future Society is an association of people interested in how social and technological developments are shaping the future. It endeavors to help individuals, organizations, and communities see, understand, and respond appropriately and effectively to change. Through media, meetings, and dialogue among its members, it raises awareness of change and encourages development of creative solutions. The Society takes no official position on what the future will or should be like. Instead it acts as a neutral forum for exploring possible, probable, and preferable futures.
Founded in 1966 as a nonprofit educational and scientific organization in Washington, D.C., the Society has members in more than eighty countries around the world. Individuals and groups from all nations are eligible to join the Society and participate in its programs and activities.
The Society holds a two-day, international conference once a year where, participants discuss foresight techniques and global trends that are influencing the future. Previous conference attendees have included future U.S. President Gerald Ford (1974), Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy (1975), behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner (1984), age-wave expert Ken Dychtwald (2005), U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker (2006), and scientist and inventor Ray Kurzweil (2006).
Membership is open to anyone who would like to know more about what the future will hold. Members come from all walks of life. They include sociologists, scientists, corporate planners, educators, students, and retirees. They are thinking people who seek a better future for themselves and society.
The World Future Society has published numerous books, including Futuring: The Exploration of the Future by Society founder Edward Cornish, as well as several print and electronic journals, including The Futurist, a bimonthly magazine focused on innovation, creative thinking, and emerging social, economic, and technological trends. The Futurist is available in newsstands coast to coast.
Among the thinkers and experts who have contributed to The Futurist are: Gene Roddenberry, Newt Gingrich, Al Gore, Alvin and Heidi Toffler, Buckminster Fuller, Frederik Pohl, Isaac Asimov, Vaclav Havel, Hazel Henderson, Margaret Mead, Robert McNamara, Betty Friedan, Nicholas Negroponte, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Lester R. Brown, Arthur C. Clarke, Douglas Rushkoff, Joel Garreau, Ray Kurzweil, former CIA Director James Woolsey, Lewis Lapham, and former U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker.
Editors: Direct questions to director of communications Patrick Tucker, 301-656-8274 (ext. 116), or ptucker@wfs.org. More information about the World Future Society may be obtained from the Society’s Web site, www.wfs.org.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Patrick Tucker
World Future Society
Email World Future Society
301-656-8274