“Empowering Futures – Long-term Governance, Democracy and Futures Research” is the 23rd international Futures Conference – Futures Conference 2023 – organized by the Finland Futures Research Centre and the Finland Futures Academy, University of Turku, Finland, hosting the Helsinki Node of The Millennium Project.

There is an urgent need for long-term futures thinking in order to sustain possibilities for alternative and creative solutions to complex crises and empower futures and the conference will discuss the futures of democracy, trust, power, and sustainability, which are tightly connected to these crises.

The conference will take place in a hybrid mode in June 14-16, 2023 in Turku, Finland. Conference days Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15 of June 2023 will be held on-site in Turku and partly online. Friday 15 of June will be held exclusively in virtual mode. The program of the conference, introduced by Toni Ahlqvist from the Helsinki Node, consists of keynote lectures, parallel sessions, participatory workshops and a chaired poster session. Among the confirmed keynote speakers of the event, Rosa Alegria, Chair of the Brazil Node of The Millennium Project, will give a speech on “The transetarian Revolution: the Ageless Future” (watch the video) on June 15, and Jerome Glenn will give a keynote speech during the special session coordinated by The Millennium Project and moderated by Sirkka Heinonen, Chair of the Helsinki Node, on “How and what to regulate to help cities prepare for crises and even polycrises in our age of digitalisation and fast developing AI?” on the same day.

Many Chairs and members of The Millennium Project wil be speakers for the parallel sessions, such as:

• June 14: Simone Di Zio, Co-Chair of the Italy Node, et al. will talk about “Examining the viability and efficacy of countermeasures for misogynistic online content through Delphi-based Scenarios” for the “Futures of citizen engagement in communication and freedom of expression” session; Nicolas Balcom-Raleigh, President of FEN, et al. will take about “Futures Literacy in Collaborative Foresight Networks: Advancing Sustainable Shipbuilding” for the “Collaborative and participatory foresight fostering institutional change and business”;
• June 15: Osmo Kuusi, Helsinki Node, will talk about “Parliamentary Committees of the Future as Tools for Working Democracy” for the “Futures thinking for democratic renewal” session; Ania Sacio-Szymańska, Co-Chair of the Poland Node, et al. will give a speech on “Post-pandemic Recovery in Central and Eastern Europe on Sustainable Innovation Pathways until 2030” for the “Participatory approaches in futures research” session; Toni Ahlqvist, Helsinki Node, et al. will moderate the special session on “Post-pandemic Futures of Work and Mobility” and, with others, will give a speech on “Strategic Foresight for Sustainability” for the “Foresight and futures research for (climate) just transition” session; Simone Di Zio, Mario Bolzan, Italy Node, et al. will give a speech “Unlocking the Power of Expert Judgments with the Delphi-based scenarios: a Robust Ranking and Fuzzy Clustering Approach” and on “Delphi-based Visual Scenarios: Envisioning Futures with Artificial Intelligence” for the “Methodological Development of futures studies: Scenarios” session;
• June 16 (online): Javier Vitale, Chair of the Mendoza – Argentina Node, et al. will talk about “Power and participation in the social construction of futures” and Mara Di Berardo, Simone Di Zio, Italy Node Co-Chairs, Jerome Glenn et al. will talk the “World Futures Day 2022. A global futures agenda” analysis and results for the “Participatory approaches in futures research” session; Javier Vitale et al. will give another speech on “Foresight Evaluation As a Learning Opportunity” for the “Futures research and strategic foresight” session; Mariana Torodova, Chair of the Bulgaria Node, will give a speech on “Future of Democracy – can we reinvent it?” for the “Futures of Democracy and log-term governance” session; free and open Foresight Europe Network meeting, 17.00 to 18.30 EEST, soon after the conference conclusion.

The conference will aim to generate multidisciplinary, stimulating and critical discussions that promote networking between people interested in futures issues from different backgrounds and perspectives.

For information, visit https://futuresconference2023.com/programme/