Here’s a very positive review of Designing 2050 on a site called The Leadership Hub:
Excerpt:
The more I read of Peter Ellyard’s fabulous book Designing 2050 the more inspired I am and the greater the clarity for me in understanding the differences between leaders and managers and how we combine to move to the future.
Peter Ellyard is now conducting events entitled Designing 2050 Narratives, based on the tile of his most recent book Designing 2050: Pathways to sustainable prosperity on Spaceship Earth which was launched by the Governor of Victoria Professor David de Krester in February 2009 This is a collaborative long term planning game similar in nature to the hypothetical as devised by Geoffrey Robertson. These can be conducted on an audience wide basis or with a small number (up to 12) on a stage in front of an audience with or without an additional audience participation process which involves the audience briefing an individual as their representative ahead of the game beginning.
This game is based on the recognition that the world should all be on the same side and must cooperate if it is to uplift the world out of the global financial crisis, meet the challenge of global warming, and mutually benefit from world trade ( the Doha Round) . A global dialogue is now taking place about the year 2050. This dialogue focuses on by how much and by what means humanity should collectively reduce global carbon emissions and global atmospheric carbon concentrations to maintain the planet is a state where it will be possible to thrive on it forever. Never in human history has the world’s people ever held a discussion about what all of us should seek to collectively achieve in two generations time. That this is taking place at all is should be something humanity should collectively celebrate. The next question then is what other goals and targets should the planet achieve by the year 2050- to ensure we are to create a prosperous, sustainable, harmonious and just future for all-and how can we achieve these targets. This is the question which first the book and now the game seeks to answer. More than 70% of the products and services, which will be present in world markets in a generation’s time have yet to be invented. It is possible to envision what these products and services will be for many of them will help to create such a future for all. This will in turn enable people to glimpse the emerging 21st century global economy.
Many Designing 2050 Narratives are set in the year 2025 and will simultaneously look forward to the year 2050 and backward to the present and will utilise insight, foresight and hindsight – and forecasting and backcasting. The game will usually last between 90 minutes and three hours.
Peter conducts these with or without collaborative cybertechnologies which are used to collect and organise contributions for subsequent inclusion into visions of the future and strategic plans to realise these envisioned futures
The aim of Designing 2050 Narratives is to encourage the development of long term envisioning and strategic planning and thinking skills, to encourage the development of a sense of responsibility for the future of our planetary home, be future makers rather than future takers, and to prosper from doing so. If warranted some individuals will be given a brief to represent particular vested interests in order to create a more dramatic atmosphere and remind the audience that at times finding a successful outcome will require ‘mutual coercion mutually agreed upon’.
For more information about the Designing 2050 Narratives, please contact please contact Sandra Rogerson from Saxtons Speakers Bureau at srogerson@saxton. com.au.
Designing 2050 by Peter Ellyard 