Here I am speaking to an audience of 4,000 at the National Recreation and Parks Association Congress in Salt Lake City – a keynote in which I challenge recreation professionals to think about the future!
This was the keynote in which I received an email thanking me for “changing lives.” It was a powerful day, a powerful talk, and I’ve got lots more video to share in the days to come!
Earlier this week, I spoke to a group of executives for a financial institution in Sydney, Australia, live via a fibre optic link — a distance of almost 10,000 miles (or 15,000 kilometres)
The client had wanted to bring me directly to Sydney, but the timing conflicted with a number of other events. Hence, the alternative method of “getting me there.”
Utilizing the services of Toronto based TV2GO, we had a direct fiber optic video and audio link into the conference at the Hotel Intercontinental in downtown Sydney. In addition, I had a live feed of the audience; not only that, but a number of “runners” had microphones available which provided for a direct, instant 2-way Q&A session at the end of my talk. In addition, I had a full Powerpoint deck running on separate screens in Sydney, transitioning to my cue from Toronto.
I’ve worked with TV2Go before, including on a live feed into CNBC for the Business of Innovation show.
If you are looking to me into your next event, you might consider this type of fiber optic or satellite link. With TV2Go, I can get myself via satellite and fiber connectivity to major conference centers or hotels in North America and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, if they are properly equipped. In the case of Sydney, the financial institution set out to find the facility with the greatest technical experience with this type of thing: hence, the Hotel Intercontinental.
The folks at TV2Go are experts in such international link-ups : their staff speaks, in addition to English, “Italian, French, Spanish, Romanian, Hungarian, German, Egyptian Arabic, Russian, Turkish, and even a little Japanese.” The organization routinely sends feeds into Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, the UK, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Romania, Russia, Israel, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, India, South Africa, Tanzania, and even the Sudan.
What we need at your end is a facility that is capable of receiving a fibre optic feed via one of their global partners; or that can ‘see’ one of the dozens of satellites to which they can uplink. These include Telesat, Intelsat, PanAmSat, SES Americom, New Skies, Hispasat, LORAL and Eutelsat satellites.
The key to making this work is having a fibre/satellite friendly AV team at the other end. In the case of my Sydney, Australia event, Stuart Haynes was a real pro. He’s with the Intercontinental Sydney, and has managed dozens of such events through the years. On short notice, he pulled together an AV team that managed the feed, provided for several cameras in the room to feed back to Toronto, and an AV team that transitioned through my slide deck on cue.
Overall, a tremendous experience, and one that you might consider for your next corporate event.
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Back in the spring, when the entire world was caught up in the midst of global economic doom, I had a long conversation with a Dubai-based journalist. He was seeking my insight for an article on what a nation, city or economic region should do to remain competitive in the global economy.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I suspect his call was related to an article that had run the day before (“Dubai turns to PR to revive its image,” The Financial Times, April 2, 2009), noting that the city state had hired a public relations firm to handle its financial communications strategy and “head off negative media coverage of its troubled economy.”
The world certainly changes fast and, as I stated in my August column, “a brand is no longer what you say it is — it’s what they say it is.” I was talking about consumer products, but we now live in a time when the perception of an entire economic region can change literally overnight.
Think about that in the context of Dubai: just a short time ago, it was one of the world’s most dazzling success stories. Then came the market meltdown, the huge challenges in the global economy — and suddenly the shine was off this burgeoning world-class city. Today, of course, it looks a bit more like a financial basketcase than a shimmering global success story.
I spoke to the fellow about a wide variety of issues, but emphasized that one of the most important things politicians, economic development officers, community leaders, boards of trade executives and others should be thinking about now is their region’s image on the global stage. Given the rapidity of the meltdown and changing circumstances, locations that were once seen as vibrant, progressive and growth-oriented are suddenly finding themselves with a different “brand.”
And who would want to rest their personal future economic success upon the brand of an economic region in decline? Who would want to relocate a business to such an area, or consider a career-based move to an area that had a damaged brand?
Clearly, success in a global economy on the rebound will go to those regions that can continue to draw growth industries, specialized skills and global attention; and to those willing to innovate in terms of how they promote their brand.
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Earlier this year, I was invited to keynote a conference of leading US higher educators and academics at the College Board Colloquium. This is one of the leading educational conferences of the year.
The group has issued their report from the conference, and there is some pretty good coverage of the essence of my talk. Here’s a key quote:
“The future of higher education is huge.” Carroll shared the following observation from Microsoft: “Probably about 50 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product will be taken up by training and knowledge activities within the decade.” Carroll then spoke about what is happening with “the knowledge economy.” The reality is, he said, that “American workers today, whether in a trade or profession, are in a situation in which the knowledge they have is continuously going out of date and needs to be continuously replenished. What is there to be concerned about when we have such massive growth potential?”
In a nutshell, my perspective on the future of education (as found within the report) is that we need to rethink the context of “how we teach” in light of the realities that:
What is this leading to?
In other words: much of the education structure that we have in place today doesn’t match the reality of what we really need to do, given the rapid change occurring in the fundamentals of knowledge.
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We live in transformative times. The sad fact is, many are unaware of that fact, and as a result, are missing out for opportunities for innovation.
Bill Gates once observed that “most people overestimate the amount of change that will occur in two years and underestimate the change that will occur over ten years.”
Certainly that’s true today. All around us, there’s a tremendous amount of creative thinking occurring as people work to solve some of the biggest challenges of our times. Ten years from now, we’ll sit back in awe at some of the fascinating ideas that came to fruition.
Much of this transformation is coming about as we enter the next phase in our often unique relationship with technology –what we might call pervasive connectivity. Quite simply, everything around us is starting to “plug in” –and there are tremendous opportunities for change as this happens. To ensure that we capture these opportunities, business and government must ensure that they’ve got a good, solid technology infrastructure that can carry them into this odd new world.
Consider the issue of energy and the environment, and the revolution that is now underway in terms of intelligent building infrastructure. In the not too distant future, most residential and commercial properties will have an HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) infrastructure that has ‘gone smart.’ Right now, major industrial players are adding intelligence to the next generation of HVAC systems. We’re seeing remote monitoring and management through Internet-linked thermostats; better analysis and insight into energy usage through remote management of energy production assets ; rapid response to out-of-norm operations. In the not too distant future –maybe by the time you read this article –you’ll use a mobile application that will utilize its GPS connection to determine when you are getting close to home –and it will turn your furnace on.
Technologies such as these allow people to more actively control overall energy usage, and reduce the environmental impact of that use. There are broad benefits to society from encouraging the more rapid adoption of such technologies.
Then there’s the revolution in thinking that is occurring in the world of long-term seniors care. Clearly, the future challenges we face are pretty stark: a massive ramp-up in demand with a shortfall in available and planned units; a funding crisis brought about by plunging investment / housing values, and a bigger tax deficit as a result of the economic challenges of today; not to forget ongoing skills and staffing issues as the very same baby boomers exit the economy in staggering numbers.
So what’s going to happen? We’re starting to see some big, transformative thinking that involves a lot more community and family care. With this, we’ll witness the emergence of the concept of the “virtual retirement home.” By 2020, most seniors will live in their own homes, and their health conditions will be actively monitored by medical professionals through a network of intelligent bio-connectivity and other devices. We won’t have a lot of senior citizen homes — we’ll have virtual seniors networks.
Research is already well underway into the concept; at the University of Missouri, they’re actively working with technology that allows for the use of sensors and other technologies to monitor seniors living at home. Behavioral changes involving sleeping patterns, a reduction in physical activity or other changes can trigger contact; and remote medical devices will allow for routine blood pressure and other medical test.
Then there’s the transformation that is occurring throughout many industries as they learn to rethink the basic business models by which they operate. Think of efforts towards ‘Car 2.0′, which involves a fundamental reinvention of current transportation mindsets. There is a strong belief that we will see a reinvention of the auto industry as the restructuring occurs; particularly as Silicon Valley begins to laser-aim its focus at the next generation of business model. Contrast the thinking of Ford versus Honda. The former retools their plant annually, building several hundred thousand models of a particular vehicle, hoping it will sell. The latter can change things up on a dime, shifting production to meet changing consumer demand in as little as ten days. It’s that type of fundamental transformation that will help to encourage the economic recovery, because business organizations will be operating with far more agility and flexibility.
There are thousands of similar, low-key trends that put together, will have a huge impact on our future.
And here’s a key point: all of these trends involve connectivity and technology; intelligent infrastructure and the intelligent deployment of computing horsepower. We are already in the midst of the next phase of our march to the world of pervasive connectivity. Society is only to become more reliant upon sophisticated, reliable computer infrastructure. We won’t be able to get by with some of the creaky, tired, slow-to-scale systems that many of us have in place.
Here’s the conundrum: one impact of the slowing economy is that leaders have stopped “thinking big” when it comes to the transformative opportunities for innovation through technology. And yet, it is clear that the world of transformative thinking and the solution to our big problems is increasingly occurring at the pace of Silicon Valley.
That means, to keep up with innovation, you have to keep up with that pace of change.
The CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce recently caught the essence of the state of our “new normal“, when he observed that we’re in the midst of “this move from a really bad economy, to the next economy.”
What is the shape of that next economy? While we can’t be certain as to the specifics, we do know that it is going to involve a lot more high velocity business change. If that’s the case, then the ability of an organization to respond to rapid, relentless, continuous change that will increasingly define its future success.
And so as we climb our way out of a global recession, it’s perhaps a good time for business organizations to ask themselves if they’re well positioned for what comes next – whatever that might be!
Are they? I’m not so sure. In the last decade, as a futurist and innovation consultant speaking at countless numbers of global conferences, I’ve had the remarkable opportunity to spend time with the senior leadership of some of the worlds most innovative, world-class organizations, ranging from Rockwell Collins and General Dynamics, to the Walt Disney Corporation, Lincoln Financial and Ingersoll Rand, among others.
In doing so, I’ve witnessed first hand what innovation leaders are doing to ensure that they can survive and thrive in a period of rapid economic change.
What are they focused on?
No matter what type of high velocity change organizations are dealing with, in many cases it comes down to their adaptability and capability to share ideas, collaborate, and form ‘fast teams’ to tackle new opportunities and challenges.
It’s not just these areas that they are focused upon. They also know that their ability to compete on the global stage requires that they operate with a startling degree of efficiency. They ensure that they have a cost structure that permits them to operate in a world of razor tight margins. They know that their success increasingly comes from the existence of an intelligent, up to date network and technology infrastructure that provides the foundation for their innovation engine.
That’s the new world of business, and we’d do well to pay attention to it. The reality for many organizations going forward is that they must learn to act and operate at the same high degree of razor-sharp clarity of action as any other global competitors. That means squeezing out every drop of potential efficiency as operating margins become thinner. Managing with continued ongoing cost input volatility, particularly as a result of the wild gyrations in global currency markets. Learning to collaborate and generate innovative insight at blinding speed.
In a nutshell, many companies must operate more efficiently, and learn to contend like global competitors. They need to learn to scale, act fast, innovate fast, and compete fast.
To do that, they’ve got to make sure that they’ve got the necessary foundation in place that allows us to do what the global competition does.
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