WorldFuture 2012 logo

July 27-29, 2012 • Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel

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

Sessions

How to Turn Teenagers into Environmental Futurists!

Experiments and demonstrations enable young people to appreciate the structure of the Earth, the fragile nature of our air and water resources, and the importance of energy. Students are empowered to save Planet Earth.

Deane Hutton is a science communicator and futurist who speaks in business conferences and schools in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, Semaphore Park, South Australia

Innovative Entrepreneurs Execute Big Ideas

Special Event

Entrepreneurs play an unmatched role in our world, and they each share at least one distinguishing characteristic. Entrepreneurs don’t just recognize problems and come up with ideas to solve them—they execute those big ideas. It is a differentiating quality that merits recognition — and one that will be addressed.

Naveen Jain is a founder of World Innovation Institute for Innovation, Moon Express, Intelius, and InfoSpace. He received a “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the Red Herring Global 2011 Conference for his continued leadership in the technology industry and his support of other entrepreneurs.

Lessons from Three Decades of Futures Research

This will be a kind of summing up three decades of futures work, ranging from Stanford Research Institute to the Global Business Network and all the books and foresight clients in between, that began here in Toronto with the talk on the Emergent Paradigm that Peter Schwartz and Jay Ogilvy gave in 1980.

Jay Ogilvy, a visiting lecturer and former dean of Presidio Graduate School and the co-founder of Global Business Network, Castle Valley, Utah, USA See also

Mindseums: Neurofeedback for Virtual Museums of the Future

Current low-cast consumer neurofeedback technology, such as the MindWave EEG/EOG sensor, headset, and hardware/software technology developed by NeuroSky, will expand our awareness and skills in using and training of our own minds and brain states.

Ted M. Kahn is co-founder and CEO of DesignWorlds for Learning, Inc and DesignWorlds for College & Careers, and the founding creator of the Mindseum project. He is an advisory board member of the Lifeboat Foundation and a member of the Silicon Valley node of the global Millennium Project, San Jose, California, USA

Daniel Epstein, graduate student at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Jeremy Kriska is a high school junior at Glenbrook North High School, he has had an interest in neuroscience, Northbrook Illinois, USA

Participating online or pre-recorded:

Akane Bessho is an accomplished visual artist, musician and honors student with parallel interests in sciences, math, the humanities and technology. She attended and recently graduated from Lynbrook High School in San Jose, CA, and she will be attending Maryland Institute College of Art starting in Fall, 2012.

Xavier Cortada is a Cuban-American painter and artist, and founding director and Artist-in-Residence of the Office of Engaged Creativity, College of Architecture + The Arts at Florida International University

Tej Gokhale is an eighth grade student in Silicon Valley. He is part of the John Hopkins Talent Search (CTY), as well as the Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) program at Stanford University

Justin Jiang is a high school senior at Homestead High School, he is actively involved in a student business organization called Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), which collaborated with NeuroSky around the introduction on some of its first neurotechnology products, Cupertino, California.

Brian Lim is a recent graduate of Tufts University, double majoring in Cognitive and Brain Sciences and Biology. Brian will be teaching English on a Fulbright Scholarship in Malaysia next year.

Peter Mays is the executive Director of the Los Angeles Art Association and its premiere La Cienega exhibition space Gallery 825.

Shouvik Neogi is a senior at Lynbrook High School, his career interests include medical and health sciences and computer/information technologies, San Jose, CA

Eric Weiss is a recent graduate ot the University of California, San Diego,(UCSD), He will begin his graduate studies in neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, La Jolla, California, USA

Networked Government: The 21st Century Agency

Four futurists from the Futures Working Group will present a vision of governance in the Information Age. They will integrate insights from existing literature, experience, and independent research to describe how a future government agency can leverage the potential of net-centric organization, self-organization, and nurturing neighborhoods to provide governance in the 2020s.

John Jackson is a scholar of public policy and public administration and a practicing police supervisor in the Houston Police Department, Houston, Texas, USA

Thomas J. Cowper is a police executive with 29 years police service. His law enforcement career has included assignments conducting the planning, development and application of information age technologies to police, public safety, and government operations, Middle Grove, New York, USA

Bernard “Bud” Levin, faculty member at Blue Ridge Community College, Staff member of the Waynesboro, Virginia, Police Department, Fisherville, Virginia USA

Mary O’Dea, is a senior strategist at the Strategic Policy Division, she develops and analyses United States, Joint, military, and USSOCOM strategies as well as strategic posture initiatives and makes recommendations designed to address the future operational environment, Tampa, Florida, USA

Our Role in Shaping the Future

Futures work depends on identifying patterns of change, understanding data and systems, determining forces, and drivers shaping an organization or a society. These are important. Less often explored is the idea of human agency. Human agency is our own ability to be actors and shapers of our own future and that of others. Our decisions and actions make a difference beyond ourselves.

Jennifer Jarratt, a principal of Leading Futurists, LLC, has been working since 1984 on wide-ranging futures activities. She is a founder member of the Association of Professional Futurists, Washington, D.C., USA

John B. Mahaffie, a principal of Leading Futurists, LLC, is a speaker and consultant on the future. Since 1987 he has authored more than three dozen futures studies for corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit groups. He is a founder member of the Association of Professional Futurists. Washington, D.C., USA