The Millennium Project had an informal Planning Committee meeting on the 10th of October, from 1,30 PM to 3,00 PM at the Emirates Towers – 1st Floor Auditorium in Dubai, as a pre- activity of the Dubai Future Forum.

Short report of the meeting

by Jerome Glenn

Dubai Future Foundation
The five-year agreement with the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) and The Millennium Project includes:

• being a founding board member of the Global Future Society;
• conducting one study per year in collaboration with DFF (the first is likely to be the Dubai SOFI or the initial phase of the AGI study);
• potentially conduct addition futures research in collaboration with DFF;
• participate in GFS conferences;
• have two of our MPPC meetings in Dubai during the five-year period;
• contribute to DFF’s futures activities as mutually agreed.

UN Foresight Study
Our UN Foresight study was very well received. I briefed several of the UNSG’s staff working on implement and heard several times that our report was very useful for their implementation plans. The UN Summit will be 2024; the UN Futures Lab will be created and issue global foresight and threats reports, but the Envoy for Future Generations and the repurposed UN Trusteeship Council as a multi-stakeholder foresight body are on hold. Node Chairs should contact their Ministry of Foreign Affairs support these initiatives and participate in their national preparation for the UN Summit. We should define synergies among the ongoing foresight initiatives by the UN Secretary-General, the Committees of the Futures, the Global Future Society, and the OECD.

Discussion about Nodes initiatives
The meeting welcomed members of two recent nodes, Zimbabwe and Denmark. Activities to be run and supported by groups of Nodes were discussed, particularly in relation to the following areas and initiatives: Communication, World Futures Day, Education, Artificial General Intelligence , Potential New Regional Networks, upcoming Futures: Encyclopedic Dictionary 2.0 and Futures Research Methodology 4.0, the new Future Business Council, relationship between Politicians and the MP, and long-term financial investments.

List of participants

Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, Sri Lanka
Veronica Agreda, Bolivia
Rosa Algeria, Brazil
Muhammad Almheiri, Dubai
Puruesh Chaudhary, Pakistan
Epaminondas Christophilopoulos, Greece
Shermon Cruz, Philippines
Mara Di Berardo, Italy
Paul Epping, Netherlands
Karl Fridriksson, Iceland
Nadezhda Gaponenko, Russia
Lydia Garrido, Uruguay
Jerome Glenn, USA
Blaz Golob, Slovenia and SEE
Tanja Hichert, South Africa
Brock Hinzmann, Silicon Valley
Reyhan Huseynova, Azerbaijan
Norbert Kołos, Poland
Martin Kruse, Denmark
Milan Maric, Montenegro
Arthur Muliro, Kenya and EA
Leopold Mureithi, Kenya and EA
Eric Noel, Canada
Concepción Olavarrieta, Mexico
Youngsook Park, South Korea
Adrian Pop, Romania
Mila Popovich, Montenegro
Nhokovedzo Simbarashe, Zimbabwe
Rohit Talwar, UK
Ufuk Tarhan, Turkey
Mariana Todorova, Bulgaria
Roey Tzezana, Isreal
Selin Vural, Turkey
David Wood, UK
Ibon Zugasti, Spain, RIBER