LaFutura 2019 – From Quality of Life to Quality of the Future
Lisbon, once the place where pioneering sailors like Vasco da Gama began their spectacular journeys of discovery, has played host to the LaFutura 2019 event some 500 years later. On the tenth anniversary of the LaFutura series of events, international trend spotters, trend researchers and many others interested in topics related to the future and innovation got together in the Portuguese capital on the banks of the Tagus. Rather than discovering and exploring new trade routes, the main topic for exploration at this year’s LaFutura was “Quality of Life”.
Day 1: From Overtourism to Balanced Tourism
Whereas the earlier explorers set sail to far-off lands from here, today a total of up to 4.5 million tourists now come to Lisbon every year to check out the city and its sights, which represents a tourist to resident ratio of 8:1. This and other fascinating facts on the status of modern tourism was presented by Doug Lansky in his keynote “How Tourism Impacts Urban Cities”.
The keynote – one of the highlights of the first La Futura day – also suggested a solution for how “Quality of Life” is possible even in today’s tourism world: through the radical transparency and connection of all points of interest and available resources at a travel destination (= Balanced Tourism). The corresponding digital management of resources leads to a win-win situation for both residents and tourists, and avoids so-called “Overtourism”.
Many Aspects to Quality of Life
At the architecturally impressive headquarters of the Portuguese electric utilities company EDP, the main location of LaFutura 2019, the topic “Quality of Life” was also analyzed from the perspective of the older generation. In his report on the “Longevity Economy”, Eduardo Garcia showed which values and beliefs companies should bear in mind to be able to target the Generation 65+, too.
The fact that trend researchers and other futurists also have a significant impact on the future of “Quality of Life” through their daily work was highlighted by Devon Powers, whose presentation entitled “Democratizing the Future” showed how today’s values in the field of trend research also have a massive influence on society and the economy.
On a Cool Hunting Tour in Lisbon
An absolute highlight awaited the participants after the first keynotes in the form of a “Cool Hunting Tour” through various parts of Lisbon, organized by J2C. Nine thematically different tours led by local trend researchers allowed small groups of participants to catch a three-hour insight into how the city’s people live their lives.
Each tour had a different focus with several specially chosen stops on the way. The “Start-Up Lisboa” tour gave participants a glimpse into Lisbon’s aspiring start-up scene, taking in start-up incubators and the “Hub Criativo” complex where Europe’s biggest start-up park will emerge in the next few years.
At the end of the first day, all the groups converged on the new Volkswagen SDC Center to discuss and share their experiences and observations from the various Cool Hunting Tours. In addition, VW provided an insight into its vision of “Future Work” and “Quality of Life” at the workplace, and explained why Lisbon makes an ideal location for modern software development.
Day 2: Planet Centric Design = Quality Life for all
The interaction and mutual influence of humans and technology represented the starting point for day two of LaFutura. Cecile Cremer, President of the LaFutura network, and Randall von Poelvoorde headed a group discussion with all participants on the topic of “Humanized Technology”.
After lively participation and discussions among the visitors to the spectacular location of a decommissioned power station right on the Tagus, the “Quality of Life” topic was raised again and added to by the “Planet Centric Design” approach. In a panel led by Kwame Ferreira, CEO Impossible, and me, we presented the concept of “Planet Centric Design” and discussed it on stage with the participants. The central element of Planet Centric Design is to see the environment and our planet as absolute stakeholders for all a company’s processes and to integrate them into product and strategy development from the very beginning. To put it briefly, “Without Planet Centricity, there will be no Customer Centricity”.
The second day’s sessions were rounded off with contributions from the self-proclaimed Creative Chef Jasper Udink ten Cate, who demonstrated how we can upgrade food as a central element of the “Quality of Life” approach by giving it a new context for the future, and the presentation by Antonio Vidigal who illustrated the “Future of Energy” from the perspective of the host EDP.
The Future is Ours – Let’s shape it
After returning to the location of the previous day, back to the EDP headquarters (all participants were transported by tuk-tuk), everyone got the chance to combine their impressions and learnings of the past day and-a-half with their own expertise in a series of parallel workshop modules on the topics “Shaping the 21st Century”, “Quality of Life” and “Zero Emissions”.
For the final item on the agenda of the second and last day of the La Futura conference, Paulo Carvalho, CEO & Founder IF Foresight, provided an insight and outlook on the methods of future strategic foresight planning with the help of macro-trends, databases and machine learning approaches.
Two exciting and inspiring conference days of LaFutura 2019 slowly came to a close after a wrap-up of the events and some special praise for everyone involved in the organization, before the “Quality of Life” theme was celebrated into the small hours during the closing party held at the striking “Villa Largo Do Chiado”.