Insights from Multiple Expert Discussions Around the World
Overview
Cities are where innovation happens, where ideas form and where economic growth largely stems. They are where most of us live and are also where significant problems can emerge as well as where challenges can be magnified. Cities around the world are now wrestling with reducing air pollution, congestion and inequality, but they are also becoming test-beds for innovation that is then shared globally. Building on previous research, the Future Agenda team focused in depth on the Future of Cities via 12 discussions in 9 key cities between November 2014 and March 2017.
Download the report
This report shares the findings from this Future of Cities Open Foresight research project. It identifies and discusses some common challenges found in most urban areas today, and also explores several shared ambitions to create more healthy, accessible and intelligent cities. In addition, it highlights several important emerging concerns such as improving safety, resilience and collaboration. Some of the issues addressed are specific to key locations but most are universal and therefore of relevance to most cities.
Cities grow because they are centres of opportunity. Leaders are seeking to better understand the salient issues for the future and so improving planning and action.
This is an accompanying presentation used for public conferences and to kick off briefings within organisations. It provides a summary of the research and highlights some of the key insights. It is available to download both as a PDF and also to view on SlideShare.
In parallel with the Future of Cities project, over the past two years we have also been researching which are the most innovative cities in the past, the present and potentially in the future. Exploring multiple criteria, we have identified what we believe to be the key global catalysts for change. This presentation shares the insights. It profiles the 10 most innovative cities of the past, the 10 having greatest impact today, the key elements that contribute to a city being so innovative and, lastly, suggests candidates for future global leadership.
A keynote at EmTech Asia Singapore exploring how cities will cope with the challenge of increasing migration and urbanisation. Linking together insights from the Future of Cities projects and additional Future Agenda research to share some of the key issues around providing enough energy, food and water in the right places.
Smart Cities – Smarter Citizens?
A keynote given at the “Zero Emission Cities” event in Vienna in 2014 focused on shifts in the focus of smart cities. Contrast is made between what is being embedded in city infrastructures to make them more intelligent and efficient and how people in cities can use, share and interpret data to make more intelligent decisions.
Data is now a key raw material of business, government, and society. It is cheap, widely available, and relatively easy to access, and its use influences almost all aspects of how our society works.
Topics include the growing power of data; the rising impact of urbanisation on health; increasing patient centricity; the need for more flexible organisations and the move of innovation activity eastwards.
Collaboration is Key: Insights on the Future of Autonomous Vehicles from LA
The need for deeper cross-sector collaboration is seen to be more critical than further technology development to deliver the ambition for autonomous vehicles.
Future Agenda runs the world’s largest open foresight programme and provides strategic advice to leading organisations globally. In 2010 and 2015 we undertook major worldwide research leading hundreds of expert workshops across over 20 topics. The insights from these discussions have been shared online and in two major publications – 'The World in 2020' and 'The World in 2025'.
Each year, the Future Agenda team undertakes in-depth global open foresight research projects on key themes of interest. In 2016 the focus was the Future of Cities. In 2017 it was the Future of Philanthropy and the Future of Patient Data. For 2018 the focus was the Future Value of Data and the Future of Digital Identity. Alongside Autonomous Vehicles, other topics for 2019 are the Future of Digital Education and the Future of Land Use. All our research is openly shared under the Creative Commons Non-Commercial license.