The Basics

Futurist.com is a company focused on the dissemination of information about the future and how to create it. The website is designed to be your free portal to the future. We provide information about many future related topics, and add to this information all the time. Here is Glen Hiemstra talking about what we do and answering typical questions.

Most of the information here at the website is at the introductory or intermediate level and provides an overview of a subject and some useful links. Our commitment is to a greater understanding of and enthusiasm about the future and future-related subjects. Our newest and most exciting features are the launch of Futurist.comTV and the free online video channel, Future Talks.

Our audience is global, one of the great features of the World Wide Web. The 21st Century has not started out in the way so many imagined, and we are dedicated to the search for ideas that can get us back on track to creating a positive future. We have a lot to do in this regard.

Futurist.com is owned by Glen Hiemstra. The website is also designed to acquaint you with our professional services including keynote speaking, long-range planning retreats and consultation, scenario planning think tanks, and programs on the Millennial Generation. All programs are focused in one way or another on the development of the preferred future. For two decades Glen and his colleages have assisted hundreds of private, public and non-profit enterprises in thinking about and planning for the long-term future. The web site offers information about programs and presentations, a speaking schedule, and the projects, interviews, books, and articles that we are currently involved with.

Some Company History

I began as a professional futurist in the 1980’s, making a final break from an academic career to do this full time in 1987. Early in the 1990’s I learned of a looming technology development called Mosaic, that would change the Internet forever. I also learned that when Mosaic and browser technology became the norm it would be critical to have a “home page”. When I checked into it, I was surprised that no other professional futurist, many of whom had more prominent names, had thought to register “futurist.com”. So I did.

In the mid-1990’s I was completing a consulting assignment with a small town in Washington state, where we had developed a community vision. A key player in that project was Brenda Cooper, the city IT manager, who it turned out was going to build a small enterprise developing web sites in her spare time. So I asked Brenda to work for me in building Futurist.com, the site launched in early 1997 and my company name changed from Hiemstra International to Futurist.com.

Having done the original web design, Brenda continued to provide content as well. Brenda blogs for Futurist.com occasionally, while she pursues her full time job as a technology manager in a different city near Seattle, and her dream of science fiction writing which has now come true. Brenda is also on the speaking circuit when time permits.

Kanna Hudson joined the Futurist.com team in Spring 2007 as a researcher and now offers consulting services on the Millennial Generation. With an interdisciplinary academic background, Kanna continues to provide research for Futurist.com and its vast range of topics and trends - from the future of synthetic fiber production to the future of college.

We have many colleagues and friends who have valuable things to say about the future and how to create it, and they contribute content on an occasional basis. Some are prominent international names, like media futurist Gerd Leonhard, with whom we have created Future Talks. while others you will not know but will find provocative. These are people who pursue a mission to develop, teach and lead intentional efforts to make our organizations and communities better in the future, more sustainable, more productive, more humane, more resilient. If you check out their articles you will also see that some offer organization consulting and programs as well and you can link to whomever interests you.