Futures Week 2021

This session explores major areas of change and disruption in the medium to long-term, and related challenges and opportunities for Canada.

COVID-19 has disrupted national, regional, and global economies in new and unexpected ways. This session brings together a wide range of perspectives to explore how we can build back better, for a resilient, inclusive and healthy economy and society.

In this talk show-style session, speakers will explore the way in which technologies are shifting value and disrupting the economy. As emerging technologies change scarcity and the character and allocation of human labour, speakers will consider which human activities will lose, gain, or maintain their value.

COVID-19 has significantly disrupted how, where and with whom humans connect. This session will examine how connections between individuals, groups, and societies may be affected by new technologies, as well as the key implications for decision-makers.

Biological systems and digital technologies are merging in new and unexpected ways, creating a new domain called the Biodigital. This session will outline three game changers, look at what is happening in innovative industries, and explore future policy implications that may reshape society, sectors, and science.

We all “make sense” on a daily basis. It’s how we find information and turn it into decisions and actions. Join us for a game show-style session that will look at some important changes in sense-making, where they could go in the future, and what that might mean for decision makers.

Join international foresight leaders for an engaging conversation where they will share how foresight is used to inform policy and planning, drawing upon examples from their respective countries. They will demonstrate several ways in which foresight can enable decision making that is founded on future-oriented thinking and analysis.