Transcript for episode 82 - Upcoming 2024 Events in the Futurists and Foresight World
Hey everyone. Welcome back. Or welcome to an episode of how to write the future. I'm your host, Beth Barany. I am a writing teacher and award-winning novelist and podcaster. And movie producer. So today in this week's episode, I'm going to share with you about some upcoming events in the foresight and future space coming up in the next few months and I'm going to talk about a bunch of things.
And one thing that already happened, because I want to give this person a shout-out. Because it's cool.
All right. So, I'm gonna leave that shout-out toward the end. Stay tuned. Today I'm going to talk about Institute for the Future, the Association of Professional Futurists, the School of International Futures, something the UN is doing later this year. And then I'm also going to talk about Amy Webb and her work.
All right, let's get to it.
Oh, and stay tuned to the end for a special gift for all of you science fiction and fantasy writers.
I created this podcast for science fiction and fantasy writers. I am one too. And also this podcast is for anyone who cares about the future. How to write the future is to really encourage the evolution of humanity. We need to exercise our imaginations so that we can create better futures for all of us because I believe that when we create and vision, what is possible and write those stories down, we actually help make it so. Our stories are so, so important. All right. On to the show.
The first association or group that I want to share with you. And some of their upcoming events is Institute for the Future.
The Institute for the Future is the world's leading futures organization. Their mission is to prepare the world to create better, more equitable futures by disrupting short-term thinking with visions of transformative possibilities. I'm going to highlight their podcast.
One of their podcast episodes. And also, one of their ongoing courses, as well as a free course that you can take. And I'm going to show these to you with some onscreen visuals.
All right. Highlighting Institute for the future dot O R G.
I F T F dot O R G. The future is wide open.
They have a podcast called Future Now. Here's the main page. Podcast is called Future Now. They have a ton. I have, they have a lot of episodes. So not a ton. They have 12 episodes. I want to call out this one episode here. on how AI will shape work and creativity. I F T F emerging media lab director, Toshi Ho speaks with Jules Terpak a Gen Z content creator known for her work, unpacking technology and culture trends on platforms like TikTok, and YouTube. The conversation centers around the implications of recent breakthroughs in generative AI, particularly in how these advances may shape the future of work. And creativity.
I think that's important for all of us who care about the future of work and creativity.
The Institute for the Future also runs a class on Coursera.
"Ready set, future introduction to futures thinking." It's a free course. And you can join at any time. I believe you do have to pay if you want to get their certification. And I started their course, so you can get a little peak into it. Lots of great modules. Are you ready to learn how to think like a futurist? So I encourage you to do that. If you want to get their certification, then you need to pay.
And lastly, the Institute for the Future has a Three Horizons of AI coming up that looks like they're repeating this class a few times. So if you're interested In getting training with AI chat, GPT, generative AI, then check out their class. They have a course starting February 13th, 2024.
Next up, I want to share with you about the Association of Professional Futurists. They put out a quarterly magazine called Compass. I have an article in their December issue called AI and Futures.
Compass magazine represents the diverse voices of professional futurists from around the world. And Compass Magazine is a global voice of professional futurists. It's a quarterly magazine, as I mentioned. Edited and designed by a voluntary team of association of professional futurist members.
Their intent is to share diverse voices of professional futurist from around the world and also to create opportunities for futurists at any stage in their career to share insights.
So, this is my, I believe my second article in their magazine. And, I wrote an article on how to plan a story.
So here's my article. It's on page 139. "Nine steps to plan and write your novel." You can go to the Association for Professional Futurists website. I'll have the link in the description below where you can go to the Compass page and check out the magazine. Here's the latest issue. And then you can download it.
There's a little arrow here. Click download. You can download it right onto your hard drive. Lots of goodies in there. Enjoy.
Next, I want to highlight the School of International Futures. I did a week-long summer retreat training with them in a, I believe. Gosh, a year and a half ago in 2022. Pretty sure.
And they had run it every summer. So, you can join them for a week-long exploration of strategic foresight. And how to bring that into your organization, community, or sector. I really enjoyed my time with them.
It was a week-long retreat and England. It was so wonderful.
So, if you're curious to learn more about their retreat, just go to their website. the link is in the show notes, and you can check out everything about their summer retreat. the dates for 2024 will be July 29th through August 2nd. I encourage you to check it out.
Next, I want to share with you something that really got me excited, and that is the Summit of the Future, sponsored by the United Nations. This is happening, the 22nd and 23rd of September, 2024. they call it " multilateral solutions for a better tomorrow. " The summit is a high-level event, bringing world leaders together to forge a new international consensus on how we deliver a better present and safeguard the future.
They say that this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity that serves as a moment to mend eroded trust and demonstrate that international cooperation can effectively tackle\. Current challenges as well as those that have emerged in recent years, or may yet be over the horizon.
So, if you're interested in learning more about the summit of the future, that the UN is putting on, go ahead and check out their website. un.org Okay, next up. I want to talk about a futurist. A quantitative futurist, Amy Webb. Every year she launches a tech trends report at the South by Southwest event in March. And this year's no different. She'll be releasing her 2024 tech trends report March 2024 at South by Southwest. I really can't wait to hear what she has for this year. and if you're curious to learn more about what Amy Webb is up to,
you can go check out her
material I'll have the link in the show notes.
If you want to attend South by Southwest, which I have not yet done, You can go to there. website and sign up. The dates for that are March 8th through 16th, 2024. This whole incredible event. it's a convergence of tech, film and television, and the music industry. It has all kinds of things, including Amy Webb's tech trends presentation, which she usually also broadcasts on YouTube.
And I just want to call attention to. Amy Webb's newsletter.
It's called Future Today.
Or her her organization is called future today. Institute. And she just came out with her annual letter on 2024 macro themes and 2023 signals review, highly recommended. It is so meaty, so much amazing things in there.
All right. One more thing. I promised you that one more thing. This is a shout-out to a fellow. Uh, cool person- if I may put myself in his camp. Joe Scott, he has a wonderful, channel on YouTube and he has a great video that he recently put out called "How different will life be in the year 2100?"
And I wanted to give him a shout-out because I really admire the work he does, the humor he brings to his work, and just his big heart. And then also I'm calling out this particular video because my fiction this next book I'm working on, that will be due out later in 2024 is, set in the year 2133.
So I'm always so fascinated to see other people's visions of the future. And so I highly recommend you check out Joe Scott. And the link to this video that I'm referring to "How different will life be in the year 2100" that link will be in the description.
Thank you, everyone, for listening to How to Write The Future Podcast. So glad that you're here. So glad that you're learning, expanding, being curious, having fun. I want to offer you a gift if you don't already have it. And that is my World Building Workbook for Fiction writers. Let me show you how to find it.
So just head on over to how to write the future. Dot com. And that will jump you to this podcast page. And you can scroll down, check out everything the podcast has to offer. And go ahead and click on this banner, and that will jump you to. This World Building workbook for Fiction writers. Go ahead and scroll a little bit.
You just put in your name, your email, click subscribe now, and that workbook will be delivered directly to your inbox. Or just go ahead and use the direct link that's in the show description. And that will take you right to this page.
All right. And that is my thank you gift to you for fiction writers, primarily science fiction and fantasy writers, but actually. Every writer needs to build a world for their story to make it feel real. So enjoy.
That's it for this week, everyone. Thank you so much for listening, like, subscribe, share with your friends. Your referrals mean the world to me. All right, everyone write long and prosper.