It’s that time of the year again…when the summer heat hits, you know the World Future Society conference is approaching.  This morning, Edie, Arnold, Erica and Jared packed up the car and headed to Boston for the 3-day conference.

More than 1,000 futurists from around the world will gather to address what tools and strategies we’ll need to envision—and build—desirable futures that are truly sustainable.

On Friday evening, Edie and Arnold will be presenting on the “Unemployment Conundrum“:

The current global economic transformation involves worrisome concerns about both short- and long-term employment, unemployment, and underemployment. It is an enormously complex subject. Issues range from stubbornly persistent unemployment in many developed countries to labor shortages in others to lack of training and education for a new economic reality tolack of economic development to profound transformations in how and where work is done. It has become apparent that traditional economic thinking and policies are increasingly ineffective. There is an urgent need for new thinking in order to make economies everywhere in the world more sustainable and provide rewarding work for a still growing population.This session will provide an overview of the global employment/unemployment situation. It will also present suggestions for new ways of seeing it. The presenters have worked on and spoken on these subjects for decades.

On Saturday morning, Erica and Jared will be presenting on “Cultural Shifts Among Global Youths“:

We are currently in a period of transformation. Our current systems, our current ways of living, our societal norms and our social groups are all being redefined.  This time of profound change is creating a host of cultural shifts among our global youth, and is causing ripples which can be felt in the workplace, in our homes, in our institutions and in our own lives.  A new generation of young people, combined with advancing technologies, will profoundly alter the landscape of the workforce and emerge with different skills, jobs, careers and ways of organizing work and life. New subcultures of technologically-adept young people have not only evolved across the globe, but also represent a new, robust and powerful market.  Witness, for instance, the impact immersive online communities and virtual worlds have had on the developed, and to some extent the developing, world.  This panel will explore and help shed light on the social, demographic and technological shifts occurring in both today’s global youth, and future generations.

We are looking forward to another good conference!