I am super excited to let you know I have joined Gerd Leonhard‘s The Futures Agency as a speaker and as a part-time researcher and curator.

Gerd is Futurist and Humanist, Keynote Speaker, Author, Film Maker. His latest book “Technology vs. Humanity” – published in 2016 – is a best-seller and has been translated in ten different languages.

I first met Gerd when curating the program for Innotribe@Sibos 2016 in Geneva, where we experimented with a new format for his keynotes, labelled “The Future Show Live”. After lots of rehearsals this resulted into a stunning presentation using the full real estate of a huge HD wall.

Gerd Leonhard speaking at Innotribe@Sibos 2016 in Geneva

Gerd has perfected his presentation style and the use of graphics on wide screen formats. Here are some best moments and memes from his 2018 keynotes:

Joining The Futures Agency is a dream coming through. Almost 10 years ago – more or less when this Petervan Blog started – I am came out of a personal discovery journey called “Leading By Being”. During the coming-out-session of that journey, I formulated the idea of creating a think-tank to reflect on technology and the impact on us as humans. Gerd clearly had a similar focus, and succeeded in professionalising the métier of futurist sensemaker.

So it made perfect sense for me to join Gerd’s team as a researcher and curator of a new digital newsletter on Digital Ethics.

DigitalEthics is the #1 technology topic in 2019, according to Gartner. And just this week – at the WEF in Davos – the GSMA launched the ‘Digital Declaration’. The declaration captures key principles that serve as a guide. This is great news: it shows Gerd’s suggestion for a Digital Ethics Council is timely.

“A new form of responsible leadership is needed to successfully navigate this era. We are on the cusp of the 5G era, which will spark exciting new possibilities for consumers and promises to transform the shape of virtually every business. In the face of this disruption, those that embrace the principles of the Digital Declaration will strive for business success in ways that seek a better future for their consumers and societies. Those that do not change can expect to suffer increasing scrutiny from shareholders, regulators and consumers” 

Our new weekly newsletter comes with our latest findings and commentary from the intersection of humanity and technology, focusing on #digitalethics – the ethics of exponential technological change. You can subscribe here. 

We are also preparing a series of focused blog posts and a podcast. Here is an example of one of our posts. And our first podcast, a conversation on chapter-1 of Gerd’s book just went live.

We will add these podcasts to our different channels: you can subscribe to these podcasts on Spotify, on iTunes or on Soundcloud.

I am also joining The Futures Agency as a speaker or should I say a “performer”?

As my presentations these days feel more like performances, with my own artwork, soundscapes and poetry.

Drum sequence from my latest performance

Topics include corporate innovation, rebellion and activism, the essence of human work, the illusion of agency, and deep change. Check out my speaker profile here. We will also experiment with more conversational duo-presentations, so I may join Gerd on some of his speaking gigs as well.

It’s a great team to be part of.

Gerd’s team includes a professional art director & producer, film makers, graphic designers, animators, etc. And the assistants take care of contracts, bookings, etc. Everything is done with lots of attention for detail. I learn for example how to make a good technical reeler for the production teams. It is also refreshing to experience how fast and easy things happen here compared to a corporate environment. A new graphic for example is made and uploaded in matter of hours (sometimes minutes) and not days or weeks.

In these early days of our collaboration, it feels like I am hanging on a firehose: so many new content to absorb, so many new tools and tricks to learn.

Happy: I am on a rollercoaster.