Making probable futures discernible through scientific facts (forecasts, simulations, and models).
How can data help us get a sense of the future, and how does that data need to be prepared?
Sharing Desired Futures
The conference days are divided into two basic blocks:
On the one hand, representatives from business, politics and society will report on their experiences with sharing visions of desired futures. Leading companies such as AIRBUS, ARUP, MERCEDES etc. will be represented as well as public institutions such as the Policylab of the EU, the World Energy Council or UNESCO among others.
On the other hand, we will also hear what researchers tell us about how best to share imaginations of the future. Starting with conversations about how people make sense of speculative futures in society, politics, and economics, we will discuss practices of futurecasting at three operational levels: Data, Fiction, and Matter:
data
FICTION
Making desirable futures perceptible through cognitive experience (text, images, and film).
How can fiction offer a space for imagination and provide indications for directions for innovation and change?
MATTER
Making desirable futures tangible through direct experiences (bodies, objects, and space) or role-playing (games)
What conditions are necessary to render tangible future scenarios plausible so that they lead to enactment?
We place a special emphasis on making the contributions and insights accessible to a broad audience. Therefore, we refrain from long speeches but have asked our speakers to present their insights in short impulses and to deepen them in common conversations for learning.
Tabakfabrik
Completed in 1935, the tobacco factory is one of the most consistent industrial buildings in Central Europe. Built according to the plans of Peter Behrens and Alexander Popp, the listed industrial plant is considered Austria's first steel skeleton buildings in the style of Neue Sachlichkeit. The building is also of international significance from an architectural perspective. The Lösehalle — once the heart of tobacco production, today a spectacular, ultra-modern venue — becomes the center, meeting place and event space for our Desired Futures event.
Grundlsee
UNESCO World Heritage Site Salzkammergut is one of the most beautiful natural areas in Austria. Shaped by its location in the impressive landscape of the eastern Alps, the region is characterized by rugged rock faces, narrow valleys, and many lakes. The most important economic and export commodity of this cultural landscape, salt, has been mined since prehistoric times. Embedded in the wonderful mountain massif of the Tote Gebirge, Grundlsee serves as an inspiring backdrop for our retreat, which is all about the exchange of ideas.
Travel partners
The Lufthansa Group airlines offer optimal connection and combination options, so you will benefit from quick and direct flights to our event.
You will reach the booking platform via this link and with the event code ATAUDKX. The reduced fares are automatically displayed.
NB: Please enable pop-ups permanently in your browser while booking, otherwise the window in the booking platform will not open.
Several hotels in Linz have a limited contingent of rooms at reduced rates. Bookings must be made by April 1, 2023 at the latest:
All prices incl. breakfast or otherwise stated; information is supplied without guarantee.
| Hotel Schillerpark | €100 |
|---|---|
| Hotel am Domplatz | €129 exkl. breakfast |
| Park Inn | €115-125 |
| Hotel Schwarzer Bär | €105-115 |
| Arcotel | €149 |
When booking a room, please mention the event code „UNESCO Conference“.
Sharing Desired Futures
Turbulent times demand imagination to break new ground and the ability to build credibility for the new among all stakeholders. How can we make a future plausible that does not yet exist? This is the question we are exploring in this year's conference with some 50 internationally renowned thought leaders. Join a series of conversations with the best from science, politics, art, and business and learn how they share their visions of a future that may not be obvious to others.
See detailed perspective
Speakers
Confirmed speakers include both practitioners and researchers from top companies and elite universities such as Stanford, Oxford, Beijing, etc. Steven Spielberg's award-winning creative director Alex McDowell will show us how futurecasting can be used to address complex challenges, Futurist and Chief Data Officer Sarah DaVanzo will share her experience with Pierre Fabre, a multinational Pharmaceutical and Dermo-Cosmetics company, Winner of the Laurel Prize for Best Futurist of All Time, Sohail Inayatullah, will outline the need for transformative foresight, Mercedes-Benz futurologist Alexander Mankowsky will share his experiences from industry, as will colleagues from Airbus, ARUP, etc., and last but not least, David A. Kirby will address the beneficial collaboration between industry and science fiction.
View the full lineup
Locations
The Tabakfabrik Linz, where once 8,000 cigarettes churned out per minute and machine, will become the home for this year’s Desired Futures Conference. Today, this landmark industrial facility designed by famous architect Peter Behrens is a center for modern technologies and creative industries in Linz, a city known for high-tech and media arts combined with a lush natural landscape.
The retreat will take place in the lake region of the Salzkammergut, which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Exclusively housed in a hotel at Grundlsee, the uniquely magical scenery of the place will provide us with an incomparable setting for an exchange of ideas at eye level.
Flashback
Selected impressions from previous Desired Futures conferences.
Program
DF6 is divided into two parts:
The conference will take place in Linz from May 10-12 and is open to a broad audience from business, politics, arts, and science. In a series of stage conversation and individual presentations we will discuss possible approaches to making visions of possible futures plausible to others. The goal here is to make the knowledge and experience of our speakers accessible to our audience of diverse professional backgrounds.
The retreat will take place in the Salzkammergut from May 12-14 and is open only to our speakers and a select group of invited guests (contact us if you are interested). In a private setting, we want to encourage the exchange of ideas at eye level.
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Tickets
Standard (Early Bird, ends Feb 28, 2023)
access to conference, all materials, three days
390 €Standard
all access to conference, all materials, three days
590 €Business
all access to conference, all materials, three days Plus: exclusive access to speakers’ lounge incl. food and beverage
1,250 €Premium (incl. Retreat)
all access to conference, all materials, three days Plus: exclusive access to the retreat, speaker‘s lounge and evening events, all accommodations and excursions, personal consultation (half day) and logo presentation the ticket is valid for 2 persons from one organization
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