Houston Foresight Gathering2019 | Hinesight....for Foresight

We think about, practice, and experiment with how to engage people with the future. But most of that attention is piecemeal – a little here and there. So we at Houston Foresight thought it would be useful and fun to focus our next gathering on the topic — how we do introduce the future and how we might do it better? All of us have some experience in explaining what we do, perhaps persuading others to try it, or maybe have interesting case studies to share. I shared some preliminary thoughts a while back, and may even have a PhD student visit with us to explore this topic in greater depth this Spring. We need to get better at this!

This theme of “Introducing the Future” — in which will explore the various approaches, tools, and experiences for introducing the future to people and organizations not familiar with our field — will be the focus of our annual Spring Gathering on Friday April 12th and Saturday April 13^th. The weekend brings together our current students, prospective students, alums, faculty, and friends to socialize, network, and explore a futures theme together. We keep it informal amongst our extended family — our definition of friends is broad, so if you want to come, let me know(email me at ahines@uh.edu).

We will do our usual dinner and social on Friday, have meeting on Saturday, and a party on Saturday night. We have just started working on the agenda, so we’d love to hear your idea for a session. We are looking for ideas for specific topics we might cover, as well as presenters. Program your apps to find cheap flights and be ready to pounce if you’re coming in from out of town. The Hilton on campus is very convenient (link) and some folks have used AirBnB (link). — Andy Hines

About Andy Hines

Dr. Andy Hines is Program Coordinator at the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight, bringing together the experience he earned as an organizational, consulting, and academic futurist. He is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm Hinesight.

Before that, he was Managing Director of Social Technologies/Innovaro, and served as an Adjunct Professor with the university since 2004. Hines enjoyed earlier careers as a consulting and organizational futurist. He was a partner with Coates & Jarratt, Inc., a think tank and consulting firm that specialized in the study of the future. He was also Futurist & Senior Ideation Leader at Dow Chemical with a mission of using futures tools and knowledge to turn ideas into new business opportunities. Before that, Hines established and ran the Global Trends Program for the Kellogg Company.

Hines is motivated by a professional hunger to make foresight practical and useful, and he believes that foresight can help deliver the insight that is so needed in today’s organizations and the world. His goal, he says, is to infect as many change agents as possible with this message. Thus, he has honed a skill set designed to make foresight more actionable in organizations.

In this pursuit, he has authored five books: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape (No Limits Publishing, 2011); Thinking About the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight (Social Technologies, 2007); 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society (Oak Hill, 1997); and Managing Your Future as an Association (ASAE, 1994) and has another in the hands of publishers: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education. He has also authored dozens of articles, speeches, and workshops, including the 2003 Emerald Literati Awards’ Outstanding Paper accolade for best article published in Foresight for “An Audit for Organizational Futurists” and the 2008 award for “Scenarios: The State of the Art.” He has appeared on several radio and television programs, PBS Houston, KRIV-26 News, and the CBS “Early Show.” He also co-founded and is former Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists.

About Andy Hines

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