Welcome to Futurist.com, site of futurist speaker Glen Hiemstra
What is your image of the future? What will change your business or community the most? Technology? Globalization? Energy? What are you missing? Here is an example.
Less than one year from now, the first Baby Boomer turns 65. Then, every 8 seconds someone in the U.S. will turn 65 - for 20 years. 
It's a global story. This age tsunami will change impact housing, transportation, technology, entertainment, employment, retirement, recreation, travel, social services, heath care, markets. It will change your life, whatever your age.
How do you get ready for such trends? How do you shape the future instead of just waiting for it?
Glen is a futurist speaker, futurist consultant, writer, blogger, internet video producer and host, and Founder of Futurist.com.
Glen is the author of Turning the Future Into Revenue: What Businesses and Individuals Need to Know to Shape Their Future (Wiley & Sons), and co-author of Strategic Leadership: Achieving Your Preferred Future. To arrange for a futurist keynote speech, contact us.
Sustainability 2.0
Is the sustainability trend impacting your organization? Are you being asked to be more sustainable? What does that even mean? Most people say it means producing goods and services without permanently depleting the earth's resources or polluting its environment. Is that possible? What if it is not enough? What if the real question is how we can make not just the environment sustainable, but jobs, medicine, travel, houses, whole communities, the world? How would we create that future? What advantage can you gain?
Explore Futurist.com
Futurist.com writings: Blog, Articles.
Futurist.com Online Video: short videos on a variety of topics, and audio-video archives
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Futurist.com is dedicated to disseminating information about the future. Whether you are interested in how we innovate our way to economic recovery, the future of energy, the future of health care, the future of transportation, the future of housing, future trends in technology, climate change, or any of the other compelling issues of our time, you will find answers here. Futurist.com is also dedicated to creating preferred futures, and offers expertise in long-range planning.
Long-Range Planning
How do we do long-range planning? Here is an example. A couple of years ago the Consumer & Commercial Products Division at John Deere wanted to create "pictures" of 2020. Using a series of workshops with several teams, preceded by in-depth research, we worked with advertising artists to create pictures of customers, products & services, and sales channels in 2020. This information became crucial input to the strategic planning process. In the public arena we've used similar activities to create scenarios of transportation in 2030, both for states and for the nation.
Future of Technology
The three biggest areas of technology development are well known - information technology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Have you considered this trend - the web is becoming the stream. Less attention is paid to static information, more to information that is flowing constantly. You've got to produce, and live, in the stream. Before too many years the concept of being offline and "going online," will be obsolete. It may even disappear from the language.
About Us
The future has lessons to teach us, if we listen to it. Learn more about our value proposition, what we believe, the founder of Futurist.com Glen Hiemstra, and about our projects and speeches. Many additional writers contribute.
Recent Blog Posts
The future of transportation
Tomorrow I have the privilege of doing the keynote speech for the opening of the 2010 Northwest Transportation Conference, being held on the campus of OSU in Corvallis, Oregon. I’ve been asked to offer “Reflections on Transportation Futures – Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.”
My belief is that for transportation we are at a time in [...]
A transportation vision
One of the most interesting people trying to invent the future of transportation is Dan Sturges. An original developer of the GEM electric vehicle, more recently Dan has been a leader at Intrago Mobility, which is promoting a whole-systems approach to transportation. Recently he spoke to a SMART conference, in this 10-minute overview [...]
Job outlook improving
The U.S economy lost 20,000 jobs in January 2010, compared to a colossal loss of nearly 800,000 in January 2009. This is what progress looks like.
What is Smart Growth
January was the hottest month on record (going back to 1880) in Seattle, some 7 degrees F above normal You can see the evidence in this photo of my Iris’s that I just took. Kind of messes up the notion that because it was cold on the East Coast this year that global [...]
Futurist.com Launches New-Look Website
Today marked the successful launch of the new look for Futurist.com, my home as a futurist speaker and consultant. This new Wordpress-based theme provides a cleaner and up-to-date interface, and robust options in continuing to improve the user experience.
I am particularly pleased that we’ve been able to better organize the blog and the older [...]
