We can learn to identify trends, innovations and disruptors likely

to affect Northeast Wisconsin. Google's highest-rated futurist speaker, Thomas Frey, will be our guest at the KI Convention Center on March 1. You can expect a thought-provoking, well-researched and compelling presentation from IBM's most award-winning engineer. Doors open for continental breakfast at 7:30 a.m., and presentation, networking, awards and visits to exhibitors will conclude at noon. You can reserve a table for ten at a discounted rate or come all by yourself. It's an event not to be missed. Our thanks to our sponsors (below) for helping to make this event possible. Register here.

As the “future” becomes the “present,” one trend that started decades ago and continues to grow is the electrification of our lives. It seems that everything we touch today has a motor and a circuit board. And so, the question becomes: How are we going to continue to energize this growing array of electrical things? Could renewable energy be the answer? Let’s see what the signals say. Read Jeff's full article here.

In 2006 Paul Rauscher met Ann Franz. Ann had recently started as Business Liaison for Bay Area Workforce Development Board (WDB), and Paul owned EMT International, a manufacturer of large, high-speed printers in Green Bay. He saw an aging manufacturing workforce, a negative public image of manufacturing, lack of encouragement for young people to train for skilled trades, and – opportunity. He started Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance and put Ann Franz in charge, and the rest is history. Read the full story here.

"There is a zero percent likelihood you will have enough people to fill all your jobs for the next ten years!" That’s the headline takeaway from Chris Czarnik, an Appleton-based national speaker on “Talent Recruitment and Management” and author of Winning The War for Talent. In a recent presentation I attended, Czarnik warned that the data indicates a need for a 180-degree shift in how we approach recruiting. Read the full story here.

We were honored last month as one of the featured organizations in Foresight Signals, a publication of AAI, offering "roadmaps to strategic foresight." This publication is the organization's "futurist year in review 2022." You'll have to scroll down a bit to find us, but, along the way, you'll encounter stories about many fascinating futuring organizations.

Download a free copy of 15 Global Megatrends, prepared by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies.

Here's a quick introduction to the concept of "foresight" from the Houston Foresight Institute. It's a two-minute video called What is Foresight?

Additional World Futures Day sponsorship opportunities here