Topics

Golden Tourism? A view from a workshop in Georgia

We just ran a 2-day event for GIZ in Kachreti, Georgia, where participants from all 3 Southern Caucuses countries developed sustainable cross-border touristic products. Gold was a theme, as we Learnt of a trove of archaeological findings showing the region as a cradle of civilisation which then gave rise to the golden fleece myth; Discussed […]

multi-stakeholder

Role-Playing Competitors

Just been helping a client to role-play a major competitor, and consequently refine their strategy.  A number of interesting insights emerged – a combination of bringing many perspectives together, and breathing life into the business intelligence already gathered. Particularly of note though, was that the existing strategy (which we already developed with the client two […]

wargames

Interesting SWP piece (in German) on causes of migration

See SWP’s publication here Whilst there is a correlation between poor countries getting richer, and higher migration (when you are dirt poor, you cannot pay for a rogue to transport you), they list multiple other factors that shape migration, e.g: demographic change with more youth, structural economic change with rural to urban drift, inequality, access […]

other

ESPAS Annual Conference: Global Trends to 2030: The Making of a New Geopolitical Order?

Thanks to Daniele Réchard and her team for organising an excellent day as part of the ESPAS ‘Global Trends to 2030: The Making of a New Geopolitical Order?’ event, and good to see so many friends there, inter alia Angela Wilkinson, Aaron Maniam, Jeanette Kwek, Norbert Reez, Jaana Tapanainen, Kristel Vanderelst, Thomas Lehr, Alun Rhydderch, […]

events, foresight

A Retreat in Georgia

Together with four of my colleagues am busy running a retreat for the 60 staff of Enterprise Georgia in Kachreti, a major wine producing region in the country.  An enjoyable mixture of role-playing stakeholders, developing strategy and fantastic countryside!

multi-stakeholder, wargames

Looking at the Catalan crisis from a European angle

Last night I was a speaker in the e-conference “Looking at the Catalan crisis from a European angle“. Listening to the arguments, it struck me that the voices we hear on both sides – Spanish and Catalan – are mainly the nationalist ones: Catalan nationalists point out that even today Catalan is not an official  […]

other

What future? Foresight and theatre

Thanks to Andres Veiel and Jutta Doberstein for the chance to have co-moderated a fascinating couple of sessions on “Welche Zukunft”at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. Turning the usual process on its head, we gathered headlines of future news from 250 participants who sacrificed their Saturday to look at how the future may change – […]

events, foresight

Half-virtual workshop: It works!

Just completed a two-day workshop which involved distance participation from Kabul. The technology worked really well on day one, and even in a highly-interactive workshop format (no powerpoints, no presentations, only joint work on pin-boards) they were really well involved (at one point, we were all standing, and so were they in front of the […]

multi-stakeholder