July 27-29, 2012 • Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel

Preconference Courses: July 26-27, 2012 • Professional Members’ Forum: July 30, 2012

Sessions

Climate Engineering Technologies: Current and Future Issues

Reports of rising global temperatures have raised questions about responses to climate change, including efforts to (1) reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, (2) adapt to climate change, and (3) design and develop climate engineering technologies for deliberate, large-scale intervention in Earth's climate.

Timothy Persons is chief scientist at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), will discuss GAO's recent technology assessment (GAO-11-71) entitled “Climate Engineering: Technical Status, Future Directions and Potential Responses,” Washington, D.C., USA

Ashley Mercer is a doctoral candidate at the University of Calgary doing interdisciplinary research on risk communication and decision making related to very controversial and risky technologies in climate change, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Clouds, Crowds, and Complexipacity: How We Are Reinventing Science and Education for an Increasingly Complex World

Over the past decade, scholarly journals and the popular press have voiced growing concern that the explosion of new knowledge made possible by computers is making everything more complex, while the flood of data produced by computers threatens to overwhelm our decision-making processes.

David Pearce Snyder is a consulting futurist and principal partner of the Snyder Family Enterprise. He has been a professional forecaster for more than 40 years, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

Cobia or Barramundi? And Other Choices on Tomorrow’s Menus

Special Event

Ever wonder what food in 2035 will look and taste like? Or what yet-unseen technology will revolutionize the way people make or deliver food? Three years ago, Chicago journalist Josh Schonwald embarked on a quest to explore the frontier of food innovation.

Josh Schonwald is a journalist who has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, and Salon, Evanston, Illinois, USA

Communities of the Future

In the decade after this one, many believe that the impacts of peak oil and climate change will start to be felt. Global population growth will also have an effect, stretching our food and water resources towards their limits. We have it in our capacity to prepare for this future and to mitigate some of the possible negative effects.

Stephen Aguilar-Millan is director of research at the European Futures Observatory; member of the World Future Society Global Advisory Council; former board member of the Association of Professional Futurists; and president of the WFS Europe Chapter, Ipswich, Suffolk, United Kingdom

Crowdsourced Weak Signal Collection in Corporate Foresight

In Finpro, a Finnish nonprofit trade promotion association, foresight is used as a method in internationalization consulting. It is used as a tool for anticipating forthcoming changes in the global markets and spurring companies in exploring new business ideas or concepts.

Niko Herlin is foresight team leader, Finpro, Finland, and former project researcher at Åbo Akademi University focusing on foresight and scenario planning, Turku, Finland

Cultural Shifts Among Global Youths: Part III

For the past two years, Erica Orange and Jared Weiner have covered a wide-ranging list of trends pertaining to the future of global youth. Based on the popularity of these sessions, they are returning to do a Part III.

Erica Orange, vice president of Weiner, Edrich, Brown, Inc., identifies trends and opportunities in the areas of marketing, product development, strategic planning, investments, human resources, and public affairs, New York, New York, USA

Jared Weiner, vice president of Weiner, Edrich, Brown, has been integrally involved in the identification and understanding of emerging trends in the global marketplace and their implications, New York, New York, USA

Like us on Facebook WorldFutureSoc on Twitter The Futurist on Twitter