Apr 28, 2022 | Community Spotlight
Lynn Gerlach, Envision Communication Consultant
February 28, 2022
When you bring in a future-focused trend analyst from Europe, you want to take her to the most exciting places in town, right? Show her that we too have a sharp, creative eye on the future, right? So that’s exactly what we did when Vicki Loomes of TrendWatching flew in from London to guide our first celebration of World Futures Day. And where did we take her? TitletownTech, an incubator of innovation right in the shadow of Lambeau Field.
(Click here for entire article.)
Apr 28, 2022 | Envision Success Stories
Brendan Bruss, President PMI Entertainment Group
graduate of Envision’s Strategic Foresight Workshop 2021
Consider the future of entertainment. In an industry that gained a lot of attention during the pandemic as the “first to shut down and last to open,” (If I never hear that again, I’ll be okay!) live entertainment has gone through extensive scenario planning just to come back to what we once knew it to be. Long ago, in 2019, live events were flourishing. Music tours were selling better than ever. Premium experiences and packages to the biggest sporting events were selling at prices never seen before. And then, an NBA player walked off the court with a virus in March of 2020, and we had to pivot.
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Mar 31, 2022 | Signals to Watch
Nan Nelson, Board member
In 2018 the Government Accountability Office established the Center for Strategic Foresight to identify major issues, challenges and opportunities. The latest report on trends affecting government and society provides a strategic plan for lawmakers, including key trends in a dozen areas:
- National security threats include a rise in violent extremism tied to conspiracy theories and misinformation.
- Federal debt – increasing federal debt makes a fiscal crisis more likely.
- Catastrophic biological incidents indicate the need for a more resilient medical chain.
- Racial and ethnic disparities in society are evident in housing, health and access to voting.
- Science and technology research and development – public investment is declining.
- Security issues arise from our increasing reliance on digital technology, and they include vulnerability to cybercrime and other threats.
- New technologies are changing the U.S. workforce.
- The Global Supply Chain is suffering disruptions due to the pandemic, trade wars and other global crises.
- Online learning and technology, increasing in use, present both opportunities and challenges.
- Evolving health technologies, such as artificial intelligence, yield efficiencies but raise privacy concerns.
- Critical natural resources – their availability is threatened in an increasingly stressed environment.
- Space is seeing increased use for national security, commercial and human exploration.
You can watch a short introductory video here or read the full report here.
Mar 18, 2022 | Signals to Watch
Tom Schumacher, Board member
Wisconsin, like every other state in the US, became more diverse between 2010 and 2020. In our state, diversity rose from 7.2% to 37% by the latest census measure. Throughout the nation, the non-Hispanic white population’s share of the population decreased while the number of Hispanic and Asian people grew. Hawaii is the most diverse state, and the least diverse county in the nation is along the Mexican border in Texas where 98% of the population is Hispanic.
The diversity measure used by the Census Bureau is based on the probability that two randomly chosen people from a given geographic area belong to different racial and ethnic groups, which ignores concentrations of ethnic populations within states. Individual counties in Wisconsin generally increased in diversity by 5% to 10%, with diversity in our home Brown County up by 9.4%.
Source: US Census Bureau as reported by USAFacts
Mar 3, 2022 | Horizons Newsletter by Envision
Click March 2022 Horizons for the full text of the March Envision newsletter. Read about the success of Envision’s first ever World Futures Day celebration enjoyed by over 100 community leaders. Meet Christopher Smith, Green Bay’s new police chief, and other winter 2022 Strategic Foresight Workshop participants; Rashad Cobb, Greater Green Bay Community Foundation’s strategic looking Community Engagement Program Officer; and Envision’s training consultant, Garry Golden, an internationally regarded futurist. Discover research on trends highlighted by Envision Board members.
Mar 2, 2022 | Envision Success Stories
Lynn Gerlach, Tamarack Communication
Envision Communications Director
Good news: You can now purchase Ralph Lauren fashions for your digital avatar and then exercise your soccer “muscles” in the Metaverse with your buddies — and never even break a sweat. On a more practical level, you can buy a pair of actual, real-world sneakers and, when they get shabby, plant them in your backyard and anticipate their new growth as a pair of apple trees! Seriously….
Click here for entire article.
Feb 26, 2022 | Other Publications
Nan Nelson, Board Member
INTRODUCTION
Garry Golden has been a partner of Envision for about 5 years and has worked with both our board and five cohorts of strategic foresight workshop attendees. He is an academically trained Futurist who consults on issues shaping business and society in the 21st century. Garry has worked across a wide range of clients including: Accenture Operations, Allscripts, CVS, Aetna, Dell, Fidelity, and the Walt Disney Company. Garry received his Masters degree from the University of Houston Futures Studies program (M.S.), and is a past member on the Board of Directors of the Association of Professional Futurists (APF). He lives in an old tilted row home in Brooklyn NY with his wife and two boys. We sat down with Garry to take a look at where we’ve been together and what’s next.
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Feb 26, 2022 | Envision Success Stories
Chris Davis, Green Bay’s new police chief, was among 16 participants in Envision’s most recent Strategic Foresight workshop. He explained that “a big part of my job in twenty-first-century policing is anticipating trends and being ready when the future arrives.” Invited to enroll in the course by Mayor Eric Genrich, Davis said he’s interested in following the trend away from “de-fund the police” and toward placing higher value on policing as gun crime increases. “The trick,” he says, “will be to effectively address violence while moving forward on police reform efforts.” (Click here for the for the entire article)
Feb 26, 2022 | Community Spotlight
by Devon Christianson, Board Member
The “future” is the very bread and butter of the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation (GGBCF). Recently GGBCF’s Community Engagement Program Officer, Rashad Cobb, shared with us his vision for a Community Foundation determined to invest in a better Green Bay community. “We have an opportunity to shape what a leader looks like in our community,” he said. “We’ve launched a task force on diverse and inclusive leadership. First, we have to help diverse individuals see themselves as leaders. Then we help agencies connect with those prospective leaders.” He explained that it doesn’t always work that way. “Right now, you have to be in the right circles before someone asks you to be on a board or committee – that’s what we need to change.”
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Feb 12, 2022 | Signals to Watch
by Judy Nagel, Envision board
What if an issue endemic to northeast Wisconsin turned out to be a substantial contributor to global warming – and then someone turned it on its head and converted the problem into a whole new industry? Our area has done it before – all it needs is an altruistic entrepreneur.
The issue is about cows and burping. Yes, 30% of global warming is due to methane release, and one-third of that methane comes from livestock. In a single year one cow emits as much methane as a small car, and the reason is simple: Cows are gassy due to the roughage they eat, which results in lots of burping. The burping emits methane. Worldwide, 1.5 billion cows are eating, burping and creating methane – and a good portion of cows live in our area.
Researchers have found, however, that asparagopsis, a type of seaweed, can allow those cows to chow down without burping, nearly eliminating livestock methane emissions. Even better, if a mere two-tenths of one percent of a cow’s daily ration included such seaweed, maximum benefit could be achieved! Read interesting details from Salon: Can we grow enough seaweed to help cows fight climate change?
Using the environmental research resources of the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay, access to the bay, carbon tax credits, and investment capital from Titletown Tech, could we develop a local suitable seaweed to harvest? We might create, at the same time, a new sustainable industry for the agricultural base of our economy!
