Design Thinking and Futures methods have increasingly aligned. How can you leverage proven foresight practices to inspire present-day design for future people, communities, and ecologies?

Design strategist Robb Ziegler (Curiate) and futurist Christopher Kent (Foresight Alliance) will present their prescient Brands 2030 project, which melded foresight with design to open new innovation spaces.

They’ll then lead a hands-on workshop for you to explore emergent trends and design questions; use foresight and design thinking methods; and generate approaches to critical questions we’re facing. Participants can choose from social (eg. diversity, inclusion), commercial (products, experiences), or systems design (eg. transportation, security) topics.

• SPEAKER
• Robb Ziegler, Founding Partner, Curiate
• Robb Ziegler loves creating new value Between Products and People.® Whether via strategy, marketing insights, or industrial design, Robb has helped global companies envision the future of brand innovation and design for the past 25 years. As the founder of an award-winning consultancy, Robb has helped clients generate billions of dollars of new revenue through applied design thinking. He is a named inventor on over twenty patents for product, software and process innovations. Robb has also served as a guest lecturer and faculty at leading universities around the world, including Carnegie Mellon, Parsons The New School, and Tsinghua University. He explores the intersection of design, value, and human values and how these relate to creative leadership. Robb holds a Strategic Design MBA, a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design and a Professional Certificate in Strategic Foresight.

• SPEAKER
• Christopher Kent, Futurist / Partner, Foresight Alliance
• Christopher Kent is a futurist, writer, researcher, and consultant with 20+ years’ experience in global consumer insights. He has advised clients on emerging generational trends and their impact; future consumer technology usage trends; new media challenges in the 21st century; and emerging needs of tourists and travelers. As a futurist with Social Technologies (now Innovaro), Christopher wrote more than 80 briefs on global consumer and technology trends. Previous gigs include Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor), where Christopher directed a team of public policy and geopolitical analysts in analyzing and explicating consumer, government, and social organizations’ behavior. He further advised the company’s Fortune 100 clients on how best to take advantage of these shifting social dynamics. Christopher has a degree in history and English from Marquette University and an MA in medieval and Renaissance history from the University of Toronto.