Global Futures Forum 2016

Guests were welcomed with an energy-packed breakfast by food design duo Blanch & Shock, after which they were introduced to the day with a keynote presentation on The Dislocated World delivered by The Future Laboratory co-founders Martin Raymond and Chris Sanderson. Alongside David Rowan revealing what brands can learn from start-ups and The Future Laboratory’s rules of innovation, presented as the Innovators’ Toolkit.

After a brief Brain Break with cold brew coffee from Sandows, Baroness Susan Greenfield introduced her talk on Disrupting the Brain – The Sunshine and Shadows of the Innovative Mind. She discussed the importance of harnessing the entirety of our brains, both ‘light and dark’, in order to pioneer new thought processes.

In the afternoon guests were invited to explore the Disruptors’ Labyrinth, which featured exhibits from FaceGym, a muscle-stimulating facial workout designed to provide a non-invasive face-lift, and Pamm Hong, who held a digital clinic to visualise people’s browsing history as coloured ‘organisms’.

During the Disruptors’ Labyrinth a series of talks and panel discussions ran concurrently on the Main Stage and in the Insight Theatre.

Steve Tidball from sportswear company Vollebak talked about the future of gym clothing, telling our audience: ‘Clothing soon will know you’re about to sweat and will work against that before you even do sweat.’

Ben Evans, director of the London Design Festival, Ross Bailey, founder of retail renting platform Appear Here, and energy-efficient floor tile brand Pavegen discussed the future of design and retail disruption. Pavegen discussed the shift in emphasis in the consumer-retailer relationship. ‘We are shifting from a supply and demand economy to a demand and supply economy,’ said Pavegen founder Laurence Kemball-Cook.