Open Scan on March 21st: Futures of Water
Join Creative Futures on March 21st to explore changes impacting the futures of water, and what that could mean for cities.
What might water scarcity and contamination mean for city planning, services, or public health in 2040?
In Canada, freshwater is one of our greatest assets, with 20% of the world’s freshwater reserves located here. While taken for granted by many of us, access to safe drinking water remains a challenge for some (notably 618 First Nations communities) and may become a growing concern in future due to rising levels of contamination from microplastics, road salt, forest fire ash, and more. Meanwhile, global water scarcity is projected to be a major issue due to climate crisis-related droughts, impacting food production, sanitation, and potentially future geopolitical conflicts.
Join us to explore these changes and more, followed by a discussion of potential implications for cities in 2040.
Please note: This session is highly interactive and not a webinar.
What is Open Scan?
Open Scan is a virtual gathering of Canadian municipal* innovators who are interested in applying their strategic foresight knowledge and learning with peers.
At each session, Creative Futures shares the latest emerging trends, and facilitates a series of foresight activities to explore long-term implications.
This is a highly participatory session, not a webinar. At each session expect to:
Learn about the latest emerging changes that may impact the municipal context;
Discuss implications of emerging changes with fellow foresight practitioners; and,
Join a broader group of municipal innovators and foresight practitioners to learn from each other and support your work.
*Open Scan is designed for municipal innovators, from government, government agencies and not-for-profit organizations, who have some knowledge of strategic foresight. However, it is open to everyone.
About Creative Futures
Creative Futures helps municipal, post-secondary, health care, nonprofit, and socially-minded leaders plan and prepare for their futures. Using applied futures research, we help organizations navigate complexity and embrace uncertainty, arming them with the tools to think beyond present-day issues and imagine, plan, and prepare for multiple potential futures.
ICYMI: The latest from Creative Futures
PODCAST | Imagine Canada 2080
Creative Futures had the absolute pleasure of designing and hosting Imagining 2080: A forum on Canada’s futures in 2023. Over three days we explored a range of hopeful ideas about possible futures for the place we call Canada. For those who were unable to attend, this new podcast series produced by The Walrus and Future of Canada project team highlights some of these conversations. Check out the first episode, available now.
REPORT | Data & Trends behind the Region of Waterloo’s 2023 - 2027 Strategic Plan
Learn how the Region of Waterloo used strategic foresight tools to inform their 2023 - 2027 Corporate Strategic Plan. This final report prepared by Creative Futues outlines key trends, scenarios, and the process used to identify their strategic priority areas. This approach resulted in an integrated strategic plan, designed to facilitate collaborative action towards a shared vision for the region’s future. Read now.
PROJECT LOOK BACK | More than Four Walls: Personal Perspectives on the Futures of Housing
As Canada’s housing crisis continues to intensify, we are always thinking about what we heard through our work with Evergreen and Harbingers on My Future Home Forum in 2022. This project brought together youth, newcomers, and older adults to share their perspectives on what they wanted for their future homes. In many cases, responses were surprising, and remind us that engaging those who are impacted most by policy decisions are too often overlooked or misunderstood. Learn what people had to say.