19 Oct 2016
Sky cities with towers soaring to 8,000 storeys, dream downloads, vacuum tube transportation and self-healing homes…
These things all sound far-fetched, but futurists tell us they are coming – and quicker than we think.
Drones are already monitoring job sites, mobile phones now control building services with a few swipes, and just last week JLL revealed its new robot receptionist. Telsa’s founder, Elon Musk, says driverless cars are less than two years away.
The pace of change is accelerating in most industries. News travels at the speed of light. The next generation of smart phones are released before we’ve smashed the screens of the last ones. Style trends are no longer connected to the seasons, but to a fast fashion cycle spinning at break-neck speed.
In some instances, the pace of change is indisputably a good thing – think the medical advances that are curing diseases that were deadly just a decade ago.
But for businesses – and for the people within them – it can be hard work just staying up-to-date, let alone getting ahead.
The only way to create a stake hold in the future is to invest in your people.
Each new year brings with it a search for fresh ideas and directions, and so it is timely that Green Cities 2017 will be held in early March in Sydney.
With a theme of ‘fast forward to the future’, Green Cities can help your people refocus, reconnect and reconsider the way forward in this fast-paced world. Early bird savings are available right now and group bookings can kick-start your year.
The line-up of speakers is already taking shape. We expect Futurist Chris Riddell to wow the audience with his analysis of the trends and technologies just over the horizon. Journalist Catherine Fox will moderate a panel exploring why a sustainable future will be built on authentic leadership. And tech trailblazer Catherine Caruana-McManus will look why we need to take a data inventory today for smarter cities tomorrow.
At its heart, Green Cities is a hub for people. It’s a once-a-year chance to listen to new ideas, test out-of-the-box concepts, bust out of your comfort zone and ask “what if?”
It’s a chance to encourage your people to become agents of change.
As George Bernard Shaw put it: “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change”.
In the future, the people we’ll need to steer our industry’s ship won’t necessarily be the ones with the deepest skill sets – they’ll be those who can change direction quickly, who can think creatively, who can work with many different mindsets, and can bring people together.
And they’ll be the people at Green Cities 2017.
Early bird discounts for members of the Green Building Council and Property Council of Australia are available now. Book online: www.greencities.org.au