Posts
Future Forecasting
Wild Times: In which social service nonprofits save the day.
Introduction to This Scenario A wild card scenario explores the kind of low-probability, high-impact event that can disrupt the best-laid plans. Though you shouldn’t obsess about these …
The Future is Climate
Until we perfect my AI-powered digital avatar, I rely on an informal network of correspondents to cover critical events taking place around the globe. In today’s guest post, Sarah W. Sutton …
A New Equilibrium: Making the best of a world that’s a lot like today, only more so.
Introduction to This Scenario “A New Equilibrium” describes a future that might result from existing limits and challenges as they play out in coming decades. Using mainstream projections …
A Suggestion Box is Not Going to Fix a Riot
I love a good immersive futurist exercise. One of the earliest CFM events involved recruiting museum people to create museum narratives for Superstruct, the Institute for the Future’s …
Exploring a Fragmented Future
The second installment of TrendsWatch 2018’s scenarios of 2040 is now up on the web for discussion and comment! Fragmentation is woven from some of the anxieties shared by museum people …
Fragmentation: Underground activists fight for equity, privacy, and economic reform
Introduction to This Scenario “Fragmentation” weaves together some of the anxieties shared by museum people when we asked, “What are your fears about the future?” While we hope that these …
Introducing the TrendsWatch 2018 Scenarios
Why Tell Stories About the Future? Plans based on one anticipated future are brittle: they are prone to failure if the underlying assumptions turn out to be wrong. Many a strategic plan has …
Museums In 2040 Webinar
Watch this recorded webinar, hosted by Blackbaud, exploring several potential futures for museums through scenarios published by the American Alliance of Museu…
TrendsWatch 2018: Our Bright Future
Check it out! The first sections of TrendsWatch 2018 are now up on the Alliance website. This year, in honor of CFM’s 10th anniversary, I’m putting together a Scenario Edition of the report …
Future Proofing Museum Business Plans: Creating sustainable models for natural history research collections.
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2017 issue of Museum magazine. Last December, I co-taught a workshop in the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History’s newly renovated …
Our Bright Future: Idealists and pragmatists work together to build a sustainable world.
Introduction to This Scenario “Our Bright Future” is a story based on the hopes and aspirations that museum people shared with AAM’s Center for the Future of Museums when we asked, “What is …
Futurist Friday: a World Without Books
Nothing cheers me up like a bit of distopic future fiction, so to brighten your Friday I share “The Inksect,” by Mexican filmmaker Pablo Calvillo. This short (9 min) animation …