It’s the season of school athletic days here in Aotearoa New Zealand. Already some school have postponed these due to weather – rain, cold, hail. That’s part of the El Niño cycle with some wild weather and some glorious days, with Christchurch potentially being hotter and drier. It got me thinking about how school sports days might change in the future so I decided to have some fun! What would a primary school athletics day look like in 5 years time?
Futures thinking is often mentioned but rarely understood. It demands mental flossing and the ability to think both critically and creatively. Our increasingly polarised and complex world needs new approaches. Join Dr. Cheryl Doig, futurist at Think Beyond, for enriching collaborative conversations that will ground you in futures approaches.
The Dubai Future Forum Key Insights Report 2025 reminds us that the future is not only something to prepare for, but something we can design for and shape with care. At our recent What if Wednesday we focused on Key Insight #7 The Future is Long Lives Lived Well. This insight might have lead to conversations about gene editing, predictive analytics, lab grown organs, personal health data and genomic literacy. We didn’t look at these in depth but our conversations were grounded in purpose, meaning, connection and dignity. What is a long life well lived?
What if your city could pick itself up and move? What if your community wasn’t tied to a street, a suburb, or even a country? What does it mean to belong somewhere, and does that somewhere need to be fixed? How might climate events change impact and what does this mean for the way we plan, scan and act today? These were some of the questions we explored at this month’s What if Wednesday.
Following the Aotearoa Futures Forum 2026 fourteen practitioners, leaders, and activators from across Oceania gathered to explore what makes Oceania futures practice distinctive.
Our conversation moved from “What future do we want?” to “What are we being called to care for?” This question guided us as we continued to explore the future of our region. We recognised that some callings are global but we also considered the specific characteristics related to our contexts – personally, nationally and across Oceania.
When the future seems grim it is time to add some hopefulness into our thinking, Hopepunk pushes back against the idea that cynicism is the smarter or more sophisticated position. Staying optimistic in the face of despair is treated as a conscious political act — essentially a weapon against hopelessness itself.
Meanjin Brisbane, venue for the second Oceania Futures and Foresight Symposium – an important gathering of futures practitioners from across the region. This Symposium is part of intentional work to grow futures practices that are uniquely from ‘down under’, reflecting our histories, time flows and world views. We are voyagers of the blue Pacific, connecting earth, sea and sky and coming together to navigate the future together.
Each month I host an informal gathering of people who want to grow their futures muscles! It is a way of meeting others interested in exploring ideas, and being curious. I like it to the idea of ‘future flossing’, where people intentionally dig into the dark corners of the brain to seek out plaque that might be building up or cementing ideas in place. ‘What if Wednesdays’ challenge us to remain open, to explore weak signals and to connect dots.
How do we make the value of foresight visible without flattening it into yet another KPI? Our first online gathering of the Oceania Futures Network considered this critical question at its first meet up. Guest presenter Sabrina Sullivan sharing her vast experience and research findings. Sabrina is a Canadian foresight, researcher, and founder of by+by foresight, based in Calgary, Canada. She is one of the co-authors of the Foresight Spectrum, a global research project exploring the roles and “enablers” that shape foresight practice.
Futures and foresight recommended reading for 2026. Enjoy this incomplete compilation of our favorites and share your own with us. This comprehensive list is for those who want to learn more about futures thinking, extend understanding or challenge assumptions and worldviews.