Mini Trip report: Warsaw, Poland

The Polish Node of the Millennium Project organized a great visit. They brought me to Warsaw to help launch the State of the Future Indexes they created for the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia in cooperation which each of the Millennium Project Nodes of those countries. At the conference that shared the results of these SOFIs, I gave a talk on future-oriented governance. While in Warsaw I also gave a presentation about SIMAD (Single Individual Massively Destructive) and other future security issues to the National Intelligence Bureau of the Office of the President of Poland, was interviewed by the main monthly magazine, and reviewed plans for the future of the Node and gave a little training on GFIS. Next stop: Sofia, Bulgaria.

All the best,

Jerome C. Glenn, CEO

Addition from Norbert Kolos, Chair of the Polish Node:
It has been a great pleasure to host this very fruitful visit! Some quick additional points, which some of you might find interesting:

On the official website of the National Security Bureau there is a note summing up our visit (in their usual militarily succinct style) http://www.bbn.gov.pl/pl/wydarzenia/6414,Spotkanie-nt-roli-nowych-technologii-w-przewidywaniu-trendow-i-planowaniu-strate.html – only in Polish, but Google translate should give you a general idea. There is potential for projects for them, we’re working on that.
The papers describing SOFI results for V4 countries are underway and we will share them soon. The successful completion of this exercise may be a very good starting point for further work on a bigger SOFI Europe project, which could include not only a modified set of variables but also further improvements in the methodology. I know there is a big interest in that amongst other European nodes (as discussed at the recent meeting of the Foresight Europe Network). We’re looking for suitable funding sources for such a project – if anything comes to your mind, please share.
Jerry liked the “Future of Poland according to Google search results” infographic prepared by 4CF with the Polish Society for Futures Studies and inspired by this xkcd comic. Nothing serious, just a PR thing and loads of fun, but it was quickly picked up by major Polish media and as far as popularising futures studies goes, this was probably the most effective thing we’ve done so far (partly due to various info-boxes all around the timeline). So, if you would like to prepare something similar for your country – please go ahead! Lots of fun guaranteed. And if you need any hints, please let me know.
Thank you once again Jerry from the whole 4CF team and all the luck on the rest of you trip, Norbert

NORBERT KOŁOS / managing partner 4CF – Strategic Foresight / www.4CF.pl