Thirty-six diverse young people between the ages of 18 and 25 came together in Wellington from Wednesday, 27 April to Friday, 29 April 2016 to take part in the ForesightNZ workshop. The workshop was held at the New Zealand Treasury and sought to develop a way to deal with the increasing complexity and uncertainty in the world around us, and also to ensure that Treasury officials hear a youth perspective on New Zealand’s long-term future. A video of the finale presentation is now available on the McGuinness Institute’s YouTube channel, which you can view below.
One of the workshop’s aims was to create a robust foresight tool in the form of a card game. Participants developed cards based on the events and trends that they believe could significantly shape New Zealand’s long-term future, and with these designed three card games – ‘I Reckon’, ‘Quarrel’ and ‘Cards for Humanity’ – in order to develop a deeper understanding of the possible futures that might occur if a small number of those cards played out in real life.
After a busy three days, the finale presentation allowed participants to showcase and explain the cards and games they had created. They found it challenging to bring 300 ideas into a standard deck that represented the group’s integrity; however, the diversity of the ideas and solutions put forward deepened the discussion on what the future of New Zealand might look like.
We will be producing the packs of cards and game instructions later this year. Keep an eye on the ForesightNZ website for updates, or you can order a deck by contacting foresightnz@mcguinnessinstitute.org. To watch more videos from the ForesightNZ workshop, head to the McGuinness Institute’s YouTube Channel.
The 2016 ForesightNZ workshop was a huge success and the Institute wants to thank all the sponsors, speakers, participants and the wider support team for making this workshop possible.
About the ForesightNZ workshop
Project: ForesightNZ aims to build public policy capability in New Zealand by encouraging long-term, agile thinking around our uncertain future. Initiated in 2008, ForesightNZ is about conceptualising the broad range of possible futures for New Zealand through up-to-date tools and conceptual approaches used in the field of futures studies. The primary focus of the ForesightNZ workshop was to develop a way to deal with the increasing complexity and uncertainty in the world around us. After careful consideration of how best to achieve this, we decided to use this opportunity to create a robust foresight tool in the form of a card game. Participants developed cards based on the events and trends that they believe could significantly shape New Zealand’s long-term future, and with these designed a number of games to develop a deeper understanding of the possible futures that might occur if a small number of those cards played out in real life.