Live Futures 2020
Vision
Live Futures 2020 aspires to be the world’s leading Futures Festival being held annually in major cities around the world as a celebration of achievements and a call to action through collaboration between different industries, exchanging and building knowledge to co-create positive futures.
Mission
Live Futures 2020 collaborates deeply with organisations, communities and individuals to build long term mutually beneficial partnerships which are the basis for Live Futures 2020 to grow and to be self-sustainable. Live Futures works within the community to impact the future by drawing on what is already established and enabling collaboration to bring a stronger sense of the future into their work.
The festival is a platform for cross-professional, cross-community and cross-disciplinary
co-creation of positive futures because we believe that Innovation occurs in the accidental meeting space between different expertise and focus. Live Futures 2020 inspires innovation and future co-creation through interactive presentations, exhibitions & displays, competitions and awards.
Overview
The Live Futures 2020 festival provides a platform for people of all backgrounds and ages to experience and create a positive future, a future everyone wants to live into. The festival offers opportunities to explore technology, entrepreneurship, design, art, science, the environment and social fields and to understand how each of them impacts the world today but also to experience how collaboration between those different fields opens up possibilities to create OUR future. Participation in discussions, exploration of interactive spaces, displays and exhibitions, presentations from experts, dynamic activities will inspire participants to co-create the future.
History
The Live Futures 2020 festival was created in 2007 by Global Youth Futures and Future Journeys as a free festival to enable people to understand the future and start co-creating it. Futurist Janine Cahill, CEO Future Journeys and Live Futures 2020 Festival Director initiated the idea in 2007 and since then themed each year’s festival according to current trends in society. After “A World Without Borders” in 2007, “A World of Possibility” in 2008, “A World of Convergence” in 2009, we celebrate “A World of Transformation” in 2010.
Since 2009 our Sydney based festival has partnered with the College of Fine Arts (UNSW), Paddington campus who now provides a permanent space to stage Live Futures 2020.
Concept
Specific focus of the festival is to engage our communities and the individuals within to think about the future and what implications this has for how we are living today – in other words, what kind of future we are creating. Will we be connected to each other within our communities and/ or between diverse communities, will we be global citizens sharing our knowledge and respecting other cultures and will we be sustainable?
Individuals learn best from experience and something they experienced enables them to create something and own it. The community participation and social inclusion is therefore crucial to the success of the festival. As a consequence Live Futures 2020’s main focus is on community engagement and creating experiences.
Organisations and community groups are invited to be part of Live Futures 2020 in form of a partnership. These partnerships are the basis of co-creating the festival.
Organisations and community groups get involved in the festival in form of providing workshops, presentations, performances, interactive installations etc. Through their involvement these organisations and community groups are exposed to a wide range of organisations from different fields and expertise and through the interaction at the festival opportunities often arise for new partnerships that wouldn’t have been possible within their field but which have immense mutual benefits.
Furthermore organisations and community groups have an opportunity to engage with our audience and show what projects they are undertaking within their communities which offers exchange and awareness as well as potential for improvements.
The content of Live Futures 2020 is created by the communities through the support of Live Futures 2020. However, instead of each community group having a market stall giving out brochures, there is a need for a deeper form of engagement with the audience.
Live Futures 2020’s engages communities, general public and experts deeply with the festival in the month leading up to it. This period of public engagement, community collaboration and interaction creates the content for Live Futures 2020 which will be showcased at the festival on an annual basis.
Therefore the excellence which is in the communities will be brought out and showcased at Live Futures 2020. This includes interactive displays, innovation spaces, presentations and exhibitions, outcomes from collaboration projects, which will show the creativity within the communities and inspire innovation.
Due to the complexity required to think systemically about the future, Live Futures 2020 has developed a diverse range of engagement strategies to interact with the communities in order to reach their goal of engaging people to think about the future:
- Encourage collaboration projects between art students and scientists with the aim to display results in an interactive art installation at Live Futures 2020
- Engage people in thinking about the Millennium Development Goals as this results in a better understanding of the future
- Engage experts to think about the future and collect their stories to display and stimulate others
- Engage disadvantaged youth to think about positive futures and let them tell their stories via digital storytelling and let other be inspired by a public display
- Engage the public with interactive media in public spaces and offer opportunities to respond to the content shown
- Display in an interactive way at Live Futures 2020 and give the audience an opportunity to experience and respond
- Encourage exhibitions and displays of work from the arts, technology, science but specifically results from collaborations. These are thought and/ or conversation starters for the audience and inspires positive future thinking
- Engage families in the festival’s activities via tools and technologies that encourage children to be creative
- Partnerships with indigenous communities. Indigenous communities have a deep understanding of community cohesion and a deep connection to the environment which impact their actions towards a more sustainable future. Involving these communities in Live Futures 2020 enables them to share their knowledge with the wider community. This way they impact on future thinking.
- Partnerships with universities create possibilities for engaging international students who are able to inspire the wider community with stories of their future influenced by a different environment and cultural background. This enhances cultural understanding and a better understanding of global futures, developing connected global citizens.
- Workshops in the lead up to or during Live Futures 2020 can be offered to specific community groups or the general public to develop a deeper understanding of the future, through scenario development, which results in a deeper engagement of participants with the content of Live Futures 2020
- Involvement of the Performing Arts in Live Futures 2020 adds an entertainment and fun factor which inspires participation and therefore engagement. Performing Arts also offer a different and playful way of engaging people deeply with thinking about the future.
- Serious Games have the capability of engaging participants with the festival content in an easy playful and much deeper way which is based on deep learning principles. Serious Games therefore develop a sense of community and engagement. It is a useful feature of Live Futures as a promotional strategy or during the festival itself.
Why staging Live Futures 2020?
The aim of Live Futures 2020 is to involve as many different community groups as possible to collaborate on projects or be involved in co-creating positive futures. There is a need for a shift in economy and society today that calls for a different thinking. Our goal is to enhance future thinking to enable more sustainable businesses and a more sustainable society.
Community engagement and cohesion are required to enable change and Live Futures 2020 engagement strategies lead to a stronger sense of community which lead to a better connected, globally conscious and sustainable society.
Live Futures 2020 is based on community engagement and therefore builds community cohesion. The festival supports existing communities and cultural resources and enhances their services through collaboration which enables them to be more effective and sustainable.
The aspect of collaboration within Live Futures 2020 opens new possibilities for the communities. The exchange of knowledge and the contribution of skills to collaboration projects inspire new ideas, new connections and ultimately new skills. This enhances the services of the community as well as connecting the community.
Innovation occurs in the accidental meeting space between different expertise and focus. Therefore, collaboration enhances creativity and innovation.
The world needs more community engagement to enhance change towards a more sustainable future.
Spread the word and stage YOUR Live Futures 2020 festival in your city or region and
co-create the future with us.
An initiative of Global Youth Futures Festival Association Inc and Future Journeys
