FUTURE FORUM 2023

New York City - October 20

The “FUTURE FORUM”, hosted by the German Center for Research and Innovation (DWIH) New York, brought together German and American scientists, researchers, innovators, and entrepreneurs to tell their stories, exchange ideas, present innovations, and debate.

 

Global crises and their associated effects have a profound impact on social, environmental, and economic systems and infrastructures. 

Climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and international conflicts like the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, with its far-reaching consequences in questioning global security, are all creating insecurities around the world. The accelerated speed of technical innovation, adaptation, and transformation as seen in recent advancements in artificial intelligence, as well as the experience of local, regional, and global crises over the last decades continues to affect people's everyday lives. 

Preparedness and a basic robustness in dealing with crises leads to a focus on resilience as both a process and a property; that is to anticipate and adapt to changing conditions in all areas of society. Ideally, resilience does not mean a return to the original state, but rather a continuous and transformative advancement. Insights can be made that will lead to a more resilience future. In other words, the “FUTURE FORUM: From Crisis to Resilience” asks: what is the staying power towards building resilient societies?

Resilience, as the FUTURE FORUM seeks to establish, offers an advanced entry point into these overlapping areas and questions. It provides FUTURE FORUM participants with an interdisciplinary and applied view on the importance of resilience across fields in today's world. 

The 2023 FUTURE FORUM considers these very issues and their underlying questions by bringing together experts and innovation leaders from various disciplines, industries, and policy institutions to discuss resilience alongside the following themes:  

  1. Global Security and Crisis Governance

  2. Climate Change, Biodiversity and Planetary Health

  3. Energy and Resource Resilience

  4. Tech and Cyber Security

  5. Democracy and the Individual 

Resilience thinking and future forecasting, we trust, recalibrates our approach to social and environmental change alongside a will to design and to synthesize diverse forms of knowledge as well as to develop collaborative, cross-boundary solutions to complex problems. Resilience approaches, the FUTURE FORUM will show, strive to pragmatically transform human-environment relations in ways that will produce more sustainable futures for complex political, social, ecological, and technological systems.

In providing a road map to debates over resilience that brings together researchers, innovators, and policy makers across disciplines and from various sectors the “FUTURE FORUM: From Crisis to Resilience” develops conceptual and applicable tools necessary to engage both practical and ethical dimensions of how we can and should live together in an increasingly interconnected and unpredictable world.

 

A world that asks us to be resilient, future oriented, prepared, and adaptable.

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The FUTURE FORUM.

Each year German and American thought leaders from academia, the public and private sectors convene to exchange perspectives, find collaborators and determine a collective path toward a progressive future. The first FUTURE FORUM was held in 2019 in Brooklyn on the topic of artificial intelligence. In 2020, the forum was held virtually focusing on cities and climate. In 2021, a hybrid FUTURE FORUM in Chicago centered on societies in transition and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the FUTURE FORUM took place in Manhattan and revolved around sustainable fashion.