Gerd was a keynote speaker at our recent Spark2020 Leadership Conference and was central to setting up the discussion about what the future might look like and importantly what that means for our industry, our business and the people in it. Gerd's opening session was a great outside in view of the future and what that means for us. His perspectives were excellent and thought provoking and it set the day up well.
Gerd Leonhard
Futurist & Humanist, CEO The Futures Agency and Author
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Gerd Leonhard
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THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION
A POST-CORONA FUTURE
Our world has been dramatically rebooted by the covid19 crisis – and
there is no ‘going back to normal’, anytime soon. This crisis feels
devastating to many of us yet I think it also creates a unique opening for
what I like to call The Great Transformation. This keynote can be held
virtually, as a digital keynote, or in-person. This keynote (remotely or in-person) will address topics such as:
• Impact of future of jobs, work, commerce and trade
• The geopolitical impact: Europe, the U.S. and China
• The future of capitalism: finally, sustainable?
• The environmental impact and climate-change
• The impact on medical & healthcare
• The impact on technological domination
• The personal impact: solidarity vs loneliness
• The impact on investing: divestment in fossil fuels?
Why and how SUSTAINABLE will be the new PROFITABLE
We must now face the fact that wide-ranging and disruptive carbon taxes are inevitable. Yet after the initial shock waves – and if done right – carbon taxes might not only inject Trillions of $/€ into climate change adaptation and mitigation measures (a huge opportunity in itself), but may also fund up to 100 Million new jobs in all sectors related to sustainability. In addition, the much debated shift to shareholder- (not just shareholder-) value is likely to reboot stock-markets around the world in the next 5-7 years, as we transition from the quickly outmoding, single bottom-line of PROFIT to what I call the quadruple bottom-line: People, Planet, Purpose and Prosperity (sustainable capitalism). Lastly, I think 2020 marks the beginning of a New Renaissance as responsible investing – and rapid divestment from fossil fuels, in particular – is quickly becoming a #1 topic with every fund and every family office, around the globe. In this talk, I often venture beyond climate and energy issues to also address related topics such as the humanly sustainable use of technology (if desired).
A NEW RENAISSANCE
The first Renaissance was a European movement away from feudal dogma to human artistry and independent thought, led by polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci. Today, the new dogmas – Technology, Data and Connectivity – are endangering human agency, threatening to literally reprogram us. Something must and can be done. Based on almost two decades of global experiences and insights as a Futurist, Gerd now outlines his vision of a new human renaissance – essentially an embrace of human sovereignty over medieval dogma – and how we can reassert the human being over its artificial substitution and replacement. For this bold new talk, Gerd rediscovers the spirit of the Renaissance to offer you a new vision based on human genius and human values. Instead of a tech-dominated dystopia full of bots and ‘thinking machines’, Gerd suggests that the future can be one of liberated expression and human mastery.
HAPPINESS IN THE DIGITAL AGE
I have spoken a lot about happiness in my talks since 2015, and it’s an important chapter in my book Technology vs Humanity.
Trust isn’t digital. Machines don’t do relationships. Happiness is not a download, and it can’t be automated or digitized. Yes, technology is great at giving us more or less hedonic pleasures such as free phone calls, access to unlimited music, TV Shows & films, networking opportunities for business or shopping online. Yet at the same time, unhappiness appears to be rising around the world (as are mental health issues and opioid addiction), and the power-users of social networks are said to the highest suicide rate of any population segment. Is technology, done wrong, ‘bicycles for the mind but bullets for the soul’?
Does ‘too much technology’ (#toomuchmagictech) lead to unhappiness? Does too-much-tech prevent us from being open to true happiness? If so, how will we balance technology and our need for real happiness? As big tech offers its hedonistic pleasure traps, how can we protect and pursue those deeper forms of happiness (eudaemonia) that involve what I all the ANDRORITHMS such as empathy, compassion, and consciousness ? And what about digital well-being?
Technology is very good at giving us what we want but very bad at giving us what we need. Technology is not what we seek but how we seek. We will not find real happiness on a screen or in VR, or in the cloud.