Paul Higgins is an experienced foresight consultant whose business is geared towards identifying those organisations that want to get on with doing things that will accelerate our path to our 100 year future.

Paul speaks about the fast moving and fluid environment we all are existing in, and offers COVID-19 scenarios for organisational strategy, and talks through this offering he has made to whoever would like to refer to these. He also speaks about some of the impacts and potential changes for working visa’s to Australia, from skilled migrants, to partner visas to permanent residency.

Bridgette speaks about her intellectual interest in the unintended consequences of the pandemic, including to her pet projects such as the ‘future of work’, and her day to day existence as a Senior Lecturer at a University who has moved completely online. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is moving rapidly around the world. Extinguishing our expected futures and opening up the possibilities of different ones.

At FuturePod we have decided to speak to our previous guests, to ask them what this particular moment in time means to them, and more importantly, to us all.

Peter Bishop speaks about how a new era is possible, though not guaranteed; this historical moment breaks the frame, opening up the possibility for innovation, or we might snap back to how we were before. The disruption is already causing a great deal of risk and suffering and the financial debts will burden future generations. There is potential for radical change in education with a recognition of the importance of public health and planning for a world of increased frequency and depth of disruption.

John reminds us that futures are still plural, and the importance of holding the space for possibilities. One of the most immediate things each of us can do, is pay careful attention to the language we use to navigate this time.

Peter and John also discuss going beyond a technocrat (the technically elite) response by having good conversations to support values-led futures, and help clarify what we want to keep from the past.

Riel provides us with positive perspectives during this time of shock. Discussing how this pandemic is a powerful opportunity to make a fundamental change in how humans make choices, and the immense power of a capability we all hold, imagination.

Richard speaks about COVID-19 as not just being a threat, it is also a gift. He explains there is an opportunity to understand more deeply what are we doing that works in our favour and what in fact works against us in society. It is also an opportunity for nature to re-establish itself.

Jorge Camacho is both an educator and practitioner who works with Design and Strategic Foresight but he did not train as a Designer or Futurist. His is a practice of evolution and movement, of change and hope, Jorge explains how culture and system thinking are foundational to his work. How he is excited and honoured to be part of the next generation of practitioners taking this work forward. For him the capacity to design your future should be universal.

Clem Bezold had a remarkable start to his Futures career. Being mentored by Jim Dator and Alvin Toffler and then establishing the Institute for Alternative Futures (IAF) that for over forty years encouraged Anticipatory Democracy. In this podcast Clem explains the IAF's approach to scenarios and the centrality of the vision to any successful futures work.

Andy Hines is an experienced corporate and consultant futurist, who has moved his performance space into the classroom as Program Coordinator at the University of Houston's Graduate Program in Foresight. His wealth of experience in what creates successful work with clients has led Andy to argue for the slow journey, not the fast cycle time of the consultant on the 3 month brief. For Andy, sustainable success come from taking the time to develop deep subject knowledge.

Pupul Bisht is a multi-disciplinary designer and futurist. In 2018, she won the Joesph Jaworski Next Generation Foresight Practitioner award. She is pioneering the use of a folk story telling tradition, Kaavad, to uncover narratives of alternative futures and marginalised futures that lie unexplored in our everyday world.