Future of conferences, workshops and seminars - keynote for 4,500 people (MPI)

Outline of opening keynote to 4,500 people at MPI conference in Las Vegas by Dr Patrick Dixon.

Slides of MPI keynote and video

Future of corporate events, conferences, workshops and seminars. How the conference world will change. Impact of new technologies, increasing globalization, economic instability and growing concerns about carbon footprints / climate change.

Corporate event management is about to experience a revolution which presents exciting opportunities but also many significant dangers. Event organizers will be at the cutting edge of corporate transformation – and the faster things change, the more central your role will become. So when we look back in 2020, who turned out to be the bright stars of the future, who re-invented the industry, and why?

One of the greatest risks in any organization is institutional blindness – when we lose perspective about things which are obvious to those outside our team, corporation or industry. Risk of institutional blindness amongst professional event organizers, at a time of rapid global transformation. Correcting institutional blindness, giving a wider picture, is a vital part of every corporate gathering.

Meeting professionals and learning departments – opportunities for closer collaboration or even fusion into one-stop shops for ultimate learning experiences. How greatest opportunities in future will often come by far closer creative partnerships. Opportunties for outsourcing – but dangers also in outsourcing corporate thinking and strategy development – because so influenced by forum / event management / intellectual capital.

Why most conference formats are still stuck in a late-twentieth century time-warp. What has really changed in the last 15 years apart from Powerpoint replacing 35mm slides - and a few more videos? Corporate events can be the most powerful and time-effective drivers of business success - but can also be the greatest wasters of time and energy. So what does a third millennial corporate conferencing industry look like, in a world increasingly driven by time-pressures, online communities and networks, where attentions span is measured in seconds and multi-tasking in meetings is normal.


Why corporations are going to be far more sensitive about the “total opportunity cost” of meetings than in the past. Growing need to prove tangible value, measurable benefits to individual executives and the whole organization. Need for sharper definition of meeting purpose, clearer aims and objectives, and why organizations will be under pressure to achieve multiple objectives during the same time-frame eg client events scheduled alongside internal meetings.

Why audience experience is even more critical in an increasingly virtual world where delegates really want to breath the same air, feel, touch, engage and be changed. We should be thinking about “theatre”, while most conferences have more in common with classroom, lecture or (badly made) TV program. (More on this later).

Life’s too short to waste on things that don’t matter, that we are not passionate about. Why the future of conferencing is about emotion: engaging with issues that are of immense significance to participants, things they really care about.

Ideas can be read about, researched, Googled and the rest – but we are about changing people’s minds and how they feel – which is entirely different. Gather people together for a life-changing experience, not to force-feed their minds with data sheets and graphs.

Does it really matter to me? Simple test for every speaker and every part of every presentation. Am I really passionate about this? If not, dump the slide and move on. Don’t expect the audience to care either and why waste their time, they can get it all online.

Why tribalism is vital to business success and every event builds a tribe: every brand is a tribe, every team creates a new tribe, every customer group is a tribe and every corporation is a tribe of tribes. The reason most mergers destroy shareholder value is that the Excell spreadsheet numbers stacked up fine but the tribes did not. The stronger your tribe, the stronger your business will be – customer loyalty, staff loyalty, war for talent. Conferences are one of the most effective strategies for building tribal identity, and tribal gatherings will be vitally important in future. Five ways to turn your events into more effective tribe builders.

Using virtual teams and websites to prepare participants for an event, shape future events with participant input, and deliver stronger results.

Key question: who is making the decisions about who attends your meetings? If people were given a totally free choice, would they chose to attend at all, and if so, for how long? Are they attending entirely as a free choice or to be seen, to get on, to play their cards right?

Work-life balance impact on conference planning. How career objectives are changing and why work-life balance is now number one or two career priority. How conference organizers have often failed to keep pace with growing angst over time away from home. What it all means for program design, location, length, timing of start and weekend travel.

Third millennial clients events – new shapes and strategies for new situations. Expect growing demand for premium client events, positioning corporation as thought-leader rather than merely as a smart organization with great products or services. Ever greater search for out-of-conference client experiences – risks and opportunities. Culture – but whose culture? One person’s heavenly experience is another person’s discomfort – or even embarrassment. Challenges with after dinner speakers, comedians (big risks), and conflict with other needs – enough time to talk at dinner to other guests. Opportunities for community experiences – eg table magic, busking musicians, roving entertainers…. May be great venue but 25 minutes each way in a coach?? Beautiful setting but pity the weather was so cold for outdoors reception – backup plan?

Difference between excellent event and truly world class is the elusive 0.5%. Expect huge efforts to discover a new formula – which will be difficult since part of the secret is constant innovation, creativity, the elusive element of surprise, the ability to outshine an audience’s expectations.

Why the details really matter: eg name badges too small or too low to be read from two metres away, hotel check-in with room details already printed and keys in envelopes, enough serving points for rapid coffee breaks to actually happen, free internet high speed wireless networking for all participants in all areas including hotel rooms (life’s too short), dinner tables that are not too large and round (ever tried talking to someone other than on immediate left or right – long thin tables win every time), name boards in front of participants on tables that are large enough to be read from a long distance away, very brief pre-reading – who really bothers when faced with going to bed at 3am on last night at home for a week?

From Lecture to theatre: why performance will be everything. Lectures are about imparting data but computers do that faster at home. Theatre is about engaging in a community experience, about changing how people feel as well as how they think. Lectures can be watched at home, TV programmes on a mobile on a train, but theatre requires total presence and demands audience commitment. People don’t drift into a performance late, nor rush out to take a call, nor do e-mails at the same time.

So what does it mean to create theatre out of a lecture? Lessons from theatre are many – but almost totally ignored by event organizers and presenters.

Seating is critical. Just think how much people will pay to be 5 rows nearer the action. Round tables are great for group work but almost useless for theatre. Raised seating can work wonders, theatre in the round or why not use a real theatre rather than try to create one in an old aircraft hanger or exhibition hall. Lighting is everything. Poor lighting means a disastrous show. Brilliant lighting engages and holds attention. Lighting creates atmosphere, tension, expectation, mood and focuses where the audience looks. Most hotel ballrooms are entirely unsuited to third millennial events – lighting is just one of their drawbacks. Movement creates an irresistible force – it is almost impossible to keep looking at a performer who is motionless, if another performer is moving rapidly across the stage. Staging – just look at the trouble rock concert organizers go to with stage extensions, and creative postioning, to allow performers to move right into an audience. Intimacy is created when a performer turns to address the audience directly – seen most powerfully in solo stage performances of plays.

All of these things can be developed at relatively low cost in medium and large sized venues. Turning lectures into theatre enhances the power of every idea, increases speed of understanding, assists memory, is interesting and entertaining. It requires joint planning by event creators, event designers, the performer (presenter) and the entire technical team.

The most important thing of all: informal networking. Then there is the most important part of conferencing which is not what goes on in sessions, but in informal meetings during every unstructured moment. How do we push this kind of activity up a level? Importance of virtual or physical message boards. Opportunities to integrate with what people already use eg SMS and mobile phones. Match-making with table or seat pre-allocations – when and where to do this.

Culture, language and jet lag. Radical approaches needed to biggest unsolved challenge for global teams: daylight. Issues in video conferencing, and short conference meetings. Need for creative timing of sessions – for example starting afternoon and ending at night if fits better with most body clocks. Form of torture is sleep deprivation in a prison cell. Variation on this is sleep deprivation in an important meeting. What language are you using, English? International English or American or British or Australian English (it really matters). What speed? Who is really going to take the translation (pride issues). How many languages are we using for the slides on screen?

Virtual conferences – how to make them happen better. Despite premium for breathing same air, expect more events to have virtual audiences grouped around a physical event. How to make video work for you. The most important rule is audience engagement and

The greatest tool is….. eye contact. 20 second demo in meetings – get everyone to turn to neighbor and talk about what they usually eat for breakfast – with no eye contact – look only at hair line…. Or eyebrows. It is a disturbing and strange experience. Welcome to video conferencing – screen in one place, camera above, no true eye contact in most cases. Same in video links with corporate events – watch audience light up when the speaker for a few moments turns direct to camera and talks to a remote site directly, returning to do the same regularly. (demonstrate this in my presentation – few seconds to do)

Second rule: pay attention to audience and speaker dynamics. If a speaker would usually pace the stage, don’t videolink them in sitting at a table in front of a microphone. Even better, display behind them an identical set to the one we would see on a huge screen if they were standing in front of us in the flesh right now. (demonstrate this in my presentation – few seconds to do).

Economic and environmental worries - impact on conferencing: Impact of economic instability – more short-termism in conference cycle management. Oil prices, dollar – euro and other issues likely to impact global conference planning. Why environmental decisions about your next events will be driven by emotion rather than science (which only gives us a range of guesses about life in 50 years time). Working out carbon-impact of your next event and why it really matters. How to future-proof your events from environmental critics. How some corporations will significantly alter pattern of corporate travel with new restrictions which will impact events. Carbon trading and offsetting – how it works, why it will be increasingly controversial (because of some rogue schemes) and why despite this it will become a key part of conference planning.

Emerging markets – the next big think in conferencing – obsessions by many corporate, opportunities for interesting and exotic new conference locations. Discovery programmes – total immersion in new experiences, kinds of organization, culture as tools for new learning and insight.

And finally – winning the war for talent – attracting next generation of high-flying, radical, creative thinkers with passion for excellence and world-class ability to make great things happen. The secret is purpose and the hunger to find it at work (surveys). It is not enough to pay more. Offering a better work-life balance is also not enough (though without it the best talent will often walk away). When people see that you are making a difference, that the world changes because of what you do, that lives are touched, careers energized, life-ambitions fulfilled, that organizations are transformed for the better and that people are empowered to take hold of their own future… then you will find you have the pick of the talent.

Take hold of your future events- or the events will take hold of you.

This is an extraordinary time to be alive – and through our events we are privileged to be guides to those who attend, as they seek answers for their own futures.

Future of Packaging Industry - and paper products - ...

Future of plastics and competition with paper and cardboard in food and drink industry. Logistics, distribution, courier companies and supply chain management, packaging in manufacturing, wholseale and retail. Intelligent packaging and courier services.Video by futurist conference keynote speaker Patrick Dixon. Manufacturing demand for packaging. Alternative packaging and biodegradeable packaging. Pakcages: Resuseable cartons and recycling. Paper industry, packaging, cardboard, recycling, forests, forestry, newspapers, magazines, books, future, sustainable, sustainability, energy, paperless, intelligent, rfid, plastics

Paperless office? Future of paper newspapers magazines books

Paperless office -- reality. Advantages of paper -- resolution, contrast, convenience, able to write on it. Digital paper and scree resolution of electronic books. Future of plastics and competition with paper and cardboard in food and drink industry. Manufacturing demand for packaging. Resuseable cartons and recycling. Paperless office future trends? Why paperless offices slow in coming. Future of direct mail and future of paper directories. Biological reasons why paper reading speed faster than screens. Human eye bandwidth and brain processing speed. Electronic books and digital paper. Why books and other paper products will have longer life than people think. Future of paper and cardboard packaging in China, India, emerging markets, America and the EU. Impact of new technology on paper use. Newsprint market and newspaper readership trends -- decline in EU, growth in India. Use of paper and cardboard in Africa. Growth of middle class consumers. Future of newspapers, magazines and books. Paperless office trends -- reality. Paper consumption per person per year. Global market for paper. Exports newsprint from Russia, South America, India and China. Future of logistics, supply chain management, packaging and distribution. Energy costs in paper industry. Video on future of paper industry by Futurist Patrick Dixon, conference keynote speaker for Paper Industry conference in Sweden. Future of forestry and sustainable forestry -- link to paper industry. Verifiable forestry, reduction in energy use, chemical use, water use. Growth of online advertising revenues and fall of traditional advertising. Future of online newspapers and news sources. RFID technology in supply chain and intelligent packaging plus intelligent paper.
Paper industry, packaging, cardboard, recycling, forests, forestry, newspapers, magazines, books, future, sustainable, sustainability, energy, paperless, intelligent, rfid, plastics

Future of paper and packaging industry 1 conference ...

Future of paper and cardboard packaging in China, India, emerging markets, America and the EU. Impact of new technology on paper use. Newsprint market and newspaper readership trends -- decline in EU, growth in India. Use of paper and cardboard in Africa. Growth of middle class consumers. Future of newspapers, magazines and books. Paperless office trends -- reality. Paper consumption per person per year. Global market for paper. Exports newsprint from Russia, South America, India and China. Future of logistics, supply chain management, packaging and distribution. Energy costs in paper industry. Video on future of paper industry by Futurist Patrick Dixon, conference keynote speaker for Paper Industry conference in Sweden. Future of forestry and sustainable forestry -- link to paper industry. Verifiable forestry, reduction in energy use, chemical use, water use. Growth of online advertising revenues and fall of traditional advertising. Future of online newspapers and news sources. RFID technology in supply chain and intelligent packaging plus intelligent paper. Advantages of paper -- resolution, contrast, convenience, able to write on it. Future of plastics and competition with paper and cardboard in food and drink industry. Manufacturing demand for packaging. Resuseable cartons and recycling. Paperless office? Why paperless offices slow in coming. Future of direct mail and future of paper directories. Biological reasons why paper reading speed faster than screens. Human eye bandwidth and brain processing speed. Electronic books and digital paper. Why books and other paper products will have longer life than people think.
Paper industry, packaging, cardboard, recycling, forests, forestry, newspapers, magazines, books, future, sustainable, sustainability, energy, paperless, intelligent, rfid, plastics

Future of Dentistry - digital dentists and dental ...

Future of dentistry, dental practice and dentists. Health care trends,oral care and mouthcare products. Digital imaging and dental diagnostics. Prosthetics, milling, machining and manufacture of bridges, crowns and dental devices. Porceline and polymers with nanotechnology, nanoparticles - polishing, shaping, machining, finnishing. Dental techniques and future of cosmetic dentistry. 3M video and 3D imaging, three dimensional video imaging in real time. Digital dental patient records and future of data systems. Innovation in dental practice. Video by keynote conference speaker Patrick Dixon.
Dentists, dentistry, digital, imaging, video, 3D, dental, health, care, innovation, conference speaker

Biofuels video: run buses on old cooking oil - Stagecoach ...

Innovation using old cooking oil to drive buses or cars or lorries. Future of public transport energy efficiency and Stagecoach innovation in energy saving, reducing carbon footprint. Why biofuel industry using food is dead -- converting food into oil is stupid and immoral but converting used cooking oil is a good thing. Biodiesel, biomass, biowaste and sugar to fuel conversion. Ethanol and gasoline or petrol mix, European Union EU poliy changes on biofuel and biowaste. Policy reversal. Anti-biofuel capaigns. Food riots, hunger, food shortages, rising food prices, whet prices, food hoarding and stockpiles. Speculation in food futures. Link oil price to food price. Starvation, Africa Asia, India, China. Competition for food -- poor people cannot eat, food prices rise, burning wheat in car engines, driving vehicles, adding ethanol to petrol / gasoline. Biodiesel, soybean price rises, rise price rises, food riots, destruction of forests for agriculture. Other reasons for rising food prices: drought, crop failure, hoarding, ban on food exports, stockpiling of food, speculation on food commodities markets. Ethics of biomass fuel generation and increased use of fertilisers. Net consumption or saving of CO2 / energy. Global trade in food, oil and energy. Ethical crisis in biofuels. Federal government policy and national energy policy. EU fuel regulations for ethanol, biodiesel and biomass fuel generation. Economy, global warming, energy conservation and real estate industry. Environment, environmental change, climate change. Risks in real estate development. Operational and management risks and role of a Futurist. What is a Futurist? Market research limitations and customer expectations, client demands. Business management video comment about successful Stagecoach innovation by Dr Patrick Dixon, conference keynote speaker lecture, author of Futurewise and Building a Better Business.
Energy saving, biofuels, biowaste, public transport, bus, buses, road haulage, cars, corporate, cost, management, warming, carbon dioxide, gas emissions, biofuels, biodiesel, biomass, biowaste, fuel production, cars, vehicles, aviation, food, wheat, soya, sugar, ethanol, reduction, green roofs

Global warming and construction industry / real estate

Global Warming Threat: Construction industry in Australia is wasteful and needs to change radically

Despite efforts to be more efficient, Australia’s emissions of carbon dioxide have risen at almost twice the world average rate over the last 20 years - to more than 100 million tons a year. That’s 5 tons for every person. With only 0.32% of world population, Australia produces 1.43% of global emissions.

While huge savings can be made by generating electricity from carbon more efficiently, or by using alternative power sources, there is also urgent need to cut energy use – and to reduce peak demand.

A key target for energy saving has to be the construction industry. 40% of Australia’s energy is used to heat, light or cool buildings, build them or knock them down. Most buildings in Australia were designed for a different era where electricity, coal, oil and water were cheap, and the greatest challenge is going to be refitting them for the third millennium.

Many of the most inefficient buildings are offices and factories. The lazy option is to pull them down and start again but this is really costly for the environment. If a building only survives 30 years before demolition, up to 40% of all the energy used in its lifetime will be spent building it, destroying it and carrying away the rubble.

That’s why we can expect huge efforts to retrofit older buildings - but we need to take great care to get it right, or more refits will be needed every decade as regulations and needs change. Compliance with today’s standards is a fast way to waste billions of dollars. You’ll have to upgrade again tomorrow, and the week after.

That’s why we need bold, radical, long term vision. We need to get ready for a future where energy is twice as expensive as today when carbon taxes are added. A world where energy saving has become a global obsession.

Retrofitting old commercial buildings can be an expensive nightmare – particularly as many of them are near the end of their original design life. It is a wasteful scandal that most office blocks built in the last 30 years were only intended to be lived in for three decades.

We need a radical change in mindset of architects, planners, developers, builders and property investors. New commercial buildings should be designed with at least 50 years in mind. That will require government action: big changes in building regulations and far stricter planning standards. Without these things there will always be a temptation to cut building costs and go for the short term.

You cannot imagine such short-sightedness when building private homes. Who wants to buy a new family house that is almost guaranteed to auto-destruct by 2040? Developers who try to build such trash for the domestic market will land up in prison – but in the commercial sector they are regarded as heroes: fast build, low cost and who cares about the future.

We have a moral duty to build for the longer term. Not just to save carbon emissions. There are huge numbers of other environmental benefits in terms of reduced demand for steel, copper, wood, reduced landfill and many manufactured items that can be conserved.

This is not just about more efficient air conditioning, better insulation, saving water or making buildings more intelligent. Such steps are only a small part of the answer. Expect nothing less than a total rethink about the kind of world we want future people to live in.

We are literally building the future: of communities, neighbourhoods, working places, leisure and home environments, places of learning and of healing. Great buildings pass on a legacy for many generations, and should last hundreds of years.

Building long term means it really matters what the construction looks like. Tomorrow’s world will expect many more landmarks of quality, which endure not only in their materials, but in the affections of those who use them. The Sydney Opera House is a wonderful example of design, harmony in location, and emotional attachment. We don’t build Opera Houses to knock them down a couple of decades later – so why do we tolerate such short-termism and poor quality elsewhere?

The technologies we need are already available for next generation buildings. Take geothermal heating and cooling. These systems use up to 50% less energy than alternative systems. 45% of new homes in New Zealand have them, 70% in Sweden and 30% in Switzerland. They work like refrigerator pumps, heating or cooling pipes laid a metre below ground. Systems pay for themselves in 15 years. The global market for geothermal installations could be more than US $40bn a year.

The gold standard will be zero emission buildings: where on-site power generation from solar, wind or other sources is more than enough to meet all heat, light and cooling needs. We are already seeing demands in Europe by governments that builders create carbon-neutral homes. It’s just the beginning. We can expect zero-emission new buildings to be forced on the industry in many parts of the world over the next decade. And as that happens, the gap will grow even wider between new and old building efficiencies.

Government regulations and subsidies can set up national industries to seize these new markets. Look what’s happened in Germany where government action has resulted in the country buying 70% of all solar cells made in the world every month – and German solar cell manufacturers are dominating globally.

So we can expect aggressive and radical changes in the way buildings run. But we can also expect a major rethink about how much energy is used in actually building them in the first place.

A key target for attack will be the concrete industry which is responsible for 5-7% of all global carbon emissions. Concrete is a bulky, low value, two-thousand-year-old commodity which uses massive amounts of energy in a wasteful way. We urgently need an alternative – and there is one.

Expect widespread use in future of geoplymers such as E-crete, a product using power station waste, developed by Jannie Van Deventer, a chemical engineer at the University of Melbourne, and founder of Zeobond. If we replaced half the world’s concrete production with e-crete it would save a billion tons of carbon dioxide in the next decade alone.

E-crete is just one of thousands of examples of new innovation we can expect over the next five to ten years.... representing tens of thousands of new business opportunities, and billions of dollars of new revenues.

But the transformations we need will only happen as the construction industry pulls in a younger generation of highly talented, innovative and creative business leaders, designers, architects, engineers, surveyors and developers. It is often hard for these sectors to compete with more glamorous and well paid careers in industries such as banking, marketing, computing or telecommunications. So how will it happen?

The best talent will only be drawn into the construction industry when a younger generation see huge, exciting opportunities for new highly-profitable business innovation and creative action, and a chance quite literally to help build a better future, driven not just by commercial pressures but also a mission to help save the world.

* Dr Patrick Dixon is a leading authority on global trends, author of 12 books including Futurewise and Building a Better Business. He works with many of the world’s largest multinationals. Over 10 million different people have used his website or watched his videos on the future. www.globalchange.com

Future technology and education

Future is about emotion -- look at power of chat screens. Intense connection for students. Passion to connect with other people. Harness new technology in education sullabus. Video on future of education, high schools, colleges, universities, curriculum, trends, syllabus, exams, assessments, business schools, MBAs, degree courses - by Dr Patrick Dixon, Futurist conference keynote speaker for NAIS.

Future of Telecom Industry conference keynote at ICT Belgacom - Patrick Dixon

VIDEO: Future of Telecom Industry conference keynote at ICT Belgacom - Patrick Dixon: " "

Future of telecom industry video. Client experience. Future trends in telecommunications. Bandwidth, new technology, innovation, business use of communications. Virtual teams, virtual communications, why people often do not like videoconference. Consumer behaviour, decisions and use of technology. Conference keynote lecture by Dr Patrick Dixon. Business management. Integration of business solutions, voice over internet protocol, VOIP, servers, websites, streaming and business image. Credit card transactions, secure processing of payments, RFID and biometrics, fingerprint recognition. Mobile phone companies and remittances – payment transfers across countries / national borders. Future innovation and partnership between banks and telecom companies.Why market research often gives wrong answers about future telecom consumer trends. Mobile phone growth and market share in emerging markets, developed markets and developing markets.Importance of SMS for low-income mobile phone users. Bandwidth, video streaming, impact of web TV and mobile phone TV. Impact of YouTube. GPS and mobile advertising, direct marketing using SMS and targeting niche markets. Next generation advertising and commercial promotions.RFID integration into mobile devices. Automatic readouts of RFID and barcode product information. Replacement of credit cards and bank cards using mobile payment systems Divergence and convergence in mobile digital world. All innovation divergent. Dangers of benchmarking – converges on price, features and quality. Competitive advantage from divergence. Reliability and simplicity. Problems synchronising personal organisers, mobile phones and PCs with software such as Outlook, unreliable, over-complex technology fails to deliver as promised. Mobile devices in control systems, automatic meter reading, medical monitoring. Web 2.0 and online communities, mobile blogging, mobile video diaries. Social networks and social networking using online communities, on corporate image, brand development, product sales and recruitment. Old Advertising is dead in web 2.0 world. Call centres + customer relationship management. Atomatic answering systems can destroy client relationships. Keep close to customers: latest call centre technology.

Global warming and sustainability - carbon and energy

Impact of global warming. Facts about global warming science. Controversy and arguments against global warming. Rising sea levels. Sustainability, environment, climate change, sea levels, carbon dioxide levels. Business and corporate responsibility. Reducing carbon footprint. Carbon offsetting and carbon sequestration capture technology for energy industry. Cleaner power generation and energy saving. Solar power, wind power, wave power, geothermal power. Impact on manufacturing, chemical industry, banking, transport, travel, tourism. Conference keynote speaker and Futurist Dr Patrick Dixon.

Electric cars future - global warming impact?

Future Electric Cars
Future electric cars. Held back by battery technology innovation. Lead acid and now nickel cadmium. Charging time, capacity, miles and energy efficiency. Global warming -- where does the electricity come from? Zero emissions in cities but same emissions maybe from power generator elsewhere. Tax savings on electric cars. Manufacturers and size of market for electric cars. Electric car taxation and running costs. Efficiency and impact on environment.
Electric cars, vehicles, lorries, vans, transport, transportation, battery, capacity, market. Dr Patrick Dixon, Futurist and author of 12 books on global trends including Futurewise and Building a Better Business.

Solar panels future, energy generation and global warming

Payback period of solar cells, next generation solar panel technology. Increasing solar panel efficiency. Energy generation comparison with wind power. Better insulation. Carbon emissions impact and global warming action. Government subsidies and grants, sell back to national grid, supply prices. Germany solar cell market sales future trends. Growth of solar cell manufacturing, innovation. Future of solar cells.Video by keynote conference speaker Dr Patrick Dixon, Futurist and author of 12 books on global trends including Futurewise and Building a Better Business.

Geothermal heating -- heat pumps and global warming

Geothermal heat pumps to heat or cool homes. Impact on global warming replacing gas boilers, oil boilers and air conditioning systems. Same technology as fridge in home. Heat homes, tower blocks, factories, commercial buildings, real estate developments, schools, hospitals and government buildings. Energy savings. Heat exchange. Sweden heat pumps, Switzerland geothermal heating, New Zealand heat pumps. Growth of geothermal installation companies. Payback period. Annual savings. Undergound pipes. Power supply, electricity peak demand. Seasonal changes in demand. Science of geothermal heating systems. How geothermal heating works. How geothermal cooling works. Innovation in global warming reduction -- cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Size of geothermal market in Europe, America, Australia and Asia. Video by keynote conference speaker Dr Patrick Dixon, Futurist and author of 12 books on global trends including Futurewise and Building a Better Business. Heat pumps, geothermal, energy saving, carbon trading, caps, emissions, carbon dioxide, offset, offsetting, fraud, accounting, heat saving, global warming, science, heating, cooling, air conditioning

Managing uncertainty -- strategy and innovation -- ...

When world changes -- how long does it take to develop new business strategy? Scenario planning vital to business success, contingencies, risk management, disruption of business, disaster planning, terrorist attacks. Global trends. September 11 and impact on aviation industry / British Airways business models. Rapid response to changes, currency crisis, political crisis. Multiple plans, dynamic leadership, flat leadership structures. Banks and insurance industry planning. Innovative thinking. Keeping business options open. Innovation in Google, experiments. Oil industry risk, fixed infrastructure investment.
Strategy, leadership, management, risk, change, trends, scenarios, planning, business, leaders, managers, Patrick, Dixon

Sovereign wealth funds - what China will do next?

Sovereign wealth funds hold several trillion dollars. What will they do? Most was in long term Federal Bonds. Expect sovereign wealth fund managers to diversify into banking, technology, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, mining and oil industry as well as real estate if prices fall further. Selling dollars on large scale is unlikely since it would lower dollar value and value of their remaining dollar investments. Video by conference keynote Futurist speaker Dr Patrick Dixon, author Futurewise. Sovereign wealth, funds, management, dollar, US economy, outlook, fall, rise, investments, portfolio, economic trends, emerging markets, patrick dixon

Construction industry trends -- conference speaker

Lifetime use of carbon in buildings. Polymer concrete reduction in carbon use. Real estate development. Energy saving and construction of commercial offices, property development, factories and residential buildings. Commodity inflation. New materials, e-concrete and concrete polymers. Building techniques, architects, surveyors, planning approval and government regulations. Life expectancy of commercial buildings. Building techniques and intelligent buildings. Retro-fitting of commercial buildings. Built-in redundancy in construction industry. Patrick Dixon, conference keynote speaker and futurist.

Can you see the future? Institutional Blindness

Future trends analysis. Risk management. Institutional blindness in corporations and business strategy. Innovation and business opportunity needs out of the box thinking. Future trends methods. Methodology or system for global trends analysis. Research into future. How to understand trends. Conference keynote speaker and Futurist Dr Patrick Dixon.

Futurists and risk management

Much of futuring and the work of a futurist is about risk management: advising boards and senior teams as part of their own due diligence.  This could be helping anticipate competitor behaviour, understanding consumer trends, or preparing for possible wild cards (low probability, high impact risks).

 

Every successful organisation and business leader is deeply involved in future thinking, and every innovation is a response to it, or help shapes it.

Teenagers getting fatter in spite of health drive - Britain - Times Online

Obesity will be a major problem in future not only in wealthy nations, but also in emerging economies among the increasingly affluent.

One third of babies born today in the United States will develop diabetes during their lives as a direct result of being overweight, and obesity is estimated already to cost the US health care system many billions of dollars a year, plus lost productivity to the economy.

Expect to see many innovative approaches by pharmacuetical companies in addition to other control measures by governments such as additional regulations on marketing junk food to children.

Creative solutions could include developing new drugs which are similar to thyroxine. One such compound causes monkeys to lose a significant amount of their body weight on a normal diet in just a couple of weeks, without the normal toxic effects that one might expect on the heart.

Technology: life after convergence - what happens next?

Life after Convergence ? innovation, variety and divergence

Everyone is talking about convergence, yet few corporations fully understand the real threats and opportunities. Telecom companies become software and media houses. Food retailers become online banks. Computers become phones and video stores, while phones become TVs, and cameras become e-mail devices. However, while we will see many strange partnerships, with convergence in products and services on price, features and quality, we will also see huge new investment in diversity. The nanopod is just one example of divergent, highly specialised, low cost devices, designed to do just one simple thing really well. In comparison, convergence can be boring, destroys variety, breeds monopoly, kills invention, adds unwanted options, makes life more complicated - and robs consumers of choice.

Convergence is about co-packaging, but all real innovation is about diversity: doing things different to serve clients better. Many companies are trying hard to sell single multi-tasking, convergent (expensive) devices to solve all problems. Take the so-called digital home: convergence might mean total control with wireless TV / video / music / web in every room, all from one online PC, also used for children?s games and homework - or a fridge that is also a web browser. But who really wants web access on a fridge door, or a single remote control for every device in the house, or a single device to play the same music in every room?

Divergence means I have a nanopod for personal music, plus a tiny mobile phone (useless for serious camera use), a pocket PDA with colour screen and video, an ultra-small portable PC with 5.5 hours battery life suitable for long flights, and a giant-screened laptop for high-powered applications, suitable for car journeys where screen size prevents nausea and eye strain. I also have a data projector for a 3 metre wide home cinema with a dedicated DVD / digital TV system, and so on.

We need to keep focussed on the needs of ordinary people who want many simple, well-designed, reliable, low cost products ? to do different things. We need to encourage diversity, innovation and creative genius, to improve quality of life, solve real problems and make great things happen. Convergence is important but divergence will drive the future, and survival of every technology company will depend on it.