World Future Symposium - Chicago and the Cubs

I'm catching up on one of my summer trips. Chicago and Michigan with my wingman Nathan (12 year old son). We flew to Chicago, drove to Michigan and presented a version of The Millennium Matrix to a group of about 50 with Haworth. Haworth is one of the largest office furniture manufacturers. Nathan got to watch dad in action and then we got a factory tour.

The next day we headed to Chicago and spent a day playing around and going to a Cubs game.

I was one of the kick off speakers for this year's World Future Symposium. I had an audience of over 200, my mom and dad attended and my mentor and professor from the University of Illinois acted as the moderator for my session. The presentation went very well and I'm continuing to receive feedback and questions.

The title of this blog also provides a link to a PDF of the presentation.

The Next Design Revolution

The presentation began - "Design as a subculture is going maintstream." Click on the blog title for the link to the annotated PowerPoint.

I provided a window into the future of design to an audience of about 50 designers and architects from Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

We now have the perceptual tools to deconstruct and reconstruct reality - matter, life and thought. These tools are turning more and more of us into "designers."

My seven year old just designed a race track which included landscaping and track layout - then he tested it - virtually. My twelve year old daughter has designed two web sites. The skills and mindset of design are being absorbed by the Millennial generation.

Tom Peter's - noted business consultant and proflific writer - writes extensively now about design and it's competitive edge. He says that design is the reason why we care about a product or service.

Ray Martin - professor at the University of Toronto - says we are moving out of an Information Economy into a Design Economy. Three business schools have added design to its MBA program.

We had a wonderful fast paced hour and the audience went away stimulated and challenged.