Future Forecasting

On the Power of Words

By Elizabeth Merritt

I’m still catching up with sessions I was unable to attend at the AAM conference in May. (Recordings are available here, and attendees were emailed a code that can be used for free downloads.) One session that received a lot of buzz was …
An Inside Look at TrendsWatch 2016 Webinar

By American Alliance of Museums

Watch this recorded webinar, hosted by Blackbaud, discussing TrendsWatch 2016, focusing on the chapters “Me/We/Here/There: museums and the matrix of place-based augmented devices” and “Happiness: You Get What Yo…
Futurist Friday: Five Years of Forecasting

By Elizabeth Merritt

About 4,000 people a year download TrendsWatch—CFM’s annual forecasting report–as a free PDF. But we print a couple thousand physical copies each year as well. Some people prefer to go off-line for their reading, enjoy …
Your Guide to the Future at the AAM Annual Meeting 2016

By Elizabeth Merritt

It’s so great to be having the annual meeting in DC this year! I look forward to showing you around my home turf and sharing some of local museum treasures during receptions, evening events and offsite programs on Saturday and Sunday …
Futurist Friday: Coming this Fall, the First Cyborg Olympics

By Elizabeth Merritt

One of the themes I explore in TrendsWatch 2016 is the blurring boundaries between ability, disability and augmented ability. We are experiencing a surge in “assistive technology” that can compensate for physical impairments …
Tools for Exploring the Future

By Elizabeth Merritt

This post is one of a series highlighting insights, recommendations and resources from TrendsWatch 2016, the latest edition of CFM’s annual forecasting report. Download your free PDF copy here. It may provoke some giggles that …
Capture the Flag: the struggle over identity and representation

By Elizabeth Merritt

#TrendsWatch 2016, artist @GynoStar @BreeNewsome #TakeDownTheFlag Follow the link in the photo caption to the associated story. You can find more glimpses of the future (and links) on CFM’s Pintere…
Introducing TrendsWatch 2016

By Elizabeth Merritt

TrendsWatch 2016 is now up on the web! You can download your free PDF copy from the Alliance website. (Print copies will be available later this spring from the AAM Bookstore.) Here are the chapters in this year’s report: Labor 3.0: new …
Stacking the Futurist Deck

By Elizabeth Merritt

I’m the first to admit it can be hard to catapult from dealing with today’s urgent problems to thinking about the long-term future. Fortunately, futurists have developed many tools to help guide organizations through the process of …
Lessons in Foresight

By Elizabeth Merritt

When I wooed the American Council of Learned Societies last year, proposing they assign CFM one of their public fellows, I promised that the Alliance would provide futurist training for the humanities post-doc that also matched our needs. …