Future Agenda

World Population - Quote in Guardian Article

Good to be quoted in this article in today's Guardian. "The Population Explosion" by Leo Hickman looks at the growing challenge of more people on the planet from a number of angles and includes views from the Future Agenda programme.

Global Launch

Terrific event last night in Turkey to launch the Future Agenda book and new website. Big press gathering took place beforehand with lots of TV coverage including Bloomberg, CNBC etc. Main event was held in an old power station that is now a museum and was suitability decked out with lights, banners, dry ice and huge screens. Around 200 people at the launch which included overview of the programme, talks by Vodafone CEO and input from Mike Hardy of the British Council and Peter Childs from Imperial College / RCA as well as sharing of some of the output from the RCA projects. With additional CNBC and BBC coverage taking place today as well as on-line sharing, looks like output will be across a wide audience over next few days. Thanks again to Sevil, Elif and the rest of the team in Istanbul for a great event.

 

CNBC Pre Launch Coverage

Ahead of Thursday's launch of Future Agenda book / new website, went to CNBC this morning for a chat on Squawk Box

 

 

Back in Delhi

Just done a session at the Urban Mobility India conference very well organised by Anupam Yog and the team at Mirabilis and The Institute of Urban Transport. Very good event with over 800 people here and some good speakers. My Future of Intelligent Mobility talk and discussion went down well and then took part in the panel discussion on The Future of Cities. Good insights on some of the opportunities and challenges globally and locally from other panelists including Peter Hendy - Comissioner, Transport for London; Deepak Gupta - Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in the Govt of India; Amitabh Kant - CEO of Delhi Mumbai Corridor Development Corporation; Martin Lownson - Untra PRT; SK Lohia from the Ministry of Urban Development in the Govt of India; and Kee Yeon Hwang - President of The Korea Transport Institute. Also great to bump into many of the people we met in the Future Agenda workshops in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore earlier in the year and catch up. Staying here for another couple of days to catch up then back to snowy UK.

PDF of Book now available

Book off to printers so in meantime here is pdf of whole book. This summarises the outputs of the multiple discussions from the past 12 months and hopefully provides a unique view of the next 10 years for you to use.

Istanbul Global Launch Date - 16 Dec

The global launch of the insights from the Future Agenda programme is now all scheduled. It will take place on 16th December in Istanbul. More details to follow....

Global Launch

Lots of plans developing for sharing the insights from the programme in a number of locations. Kick off will be a global launch event which looks like it will take place in Istanbul with its symbolic the East meets West / Europe meets Asia location. Subsequent launch events in NY, London, Germany and India all now being discussed with potential hosts etc so looks like December could be busy!

Website Progress

New website for sharing all the insights from the Future Agenda programme is coming on well. Will be a step change from wordpress blog with navigation through topics by images and icons a key element. Beta version will be out for testing in a couple of weeks ready for launch in November.

Turkey Media Coverage

As well as CNN and Bloomberg TV coverage etc, there has been a host of print reporting of the Future Agenda event (gelecegin gundemi) in Turkey on Monday. Most notable is in Dunya - the Turkish equivalent of the Financial Times which, as well as a piece about the programme on the front cover, also includes some of the key insights from the Turkish leaders interviewed so far on the back page. As the programme to explore the Future of Turkey expands will be interesting to see how the media continue to be part of this.

Excellent Event in Istanbul

Fantastic event tonight in Istanbul sharing some key insights from the Future Agenda with 200 business leaders. Linked to Vodafone Group board meeting and taking place in a brilliant venue (The Esma Sultan - a converted ottoman palace) overlooking the Bosporus, the evening was a great success in introducing the programme to a new audience, gaining enthusiastic input from the media and setting up the Turkish Future Agenda programme for the next few months. Many thanks to all at Vodafone Turkey from CEO down for hosting such a stimulating and memorable event.