Mini Trip report: Ljubljana, Slovenia

Blaz Golob, The Millennium Project Chair of the Slovenian Node and South East European Node, and President of the Foresight European Network organized a very successful 6th annual Ljubljana Forum that explores the future of cities. See: http://www.ljubljanaforum.org/2016/. Both the Mayor and City Planner of Ljubljana acknowledged that these annual Forums contributed to the selection of Ljubljana as the Green Capitol of Europe for 2016 . I had the honor of keynoting the Forum for the third time. Cornelia Daheim (chair of the German Node of The Millennium Project) addressed the unique needs of increasing numbers of the elderly and disadvantaged in cities.

Petrol (the Slovenian oil company) sponsored my trip to help them explore post-oil futures at their senior management meeting. Blaz also organized several excellent meetings – we discussed implications of the work/tech 2050 global scenarios and other related global challenges with the Director of the Slovenian Government’s Strategy Group working on Vision 2050 of Slovenia, the CEO of BTC (Goods and Transport Centre – a city within a city for business development and commerce), and the head of city planning for Ljubljana. All expressed an interest in being part of a national steering committee to work with Blaz to create the national workshop on long-range strategies to address the issues in scenarios.

After the Forum, Blaz Golob convened the Foresight European Network’s Fall meeting that received reports from several MP Nodes and elected a new Vice President, Anna Sacio, from Poland. She begins as VP 1 January 2017 for 2 years. Cornelia Daheim is the current VP, who will rotate in as President 1 January 2017.