November 7th, 9 PM (SA)

Alum Mark Niles' band, Super Pancho Combo, is having a CD release party on Saturday, November 7th to support the release of their first album, Fast Awake.
Doors open at 9PM---Dan Electro's located in the Heights at 1031 E 24th St, Houston
Cover is only $7 and their CDs will be on sale for a special introductory price.

Contact: Mark Niles [ markniles19@gmail.com ]

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Oct. 27th (T), 8:30 AM

The program "Invisible Children in North Florida" will air on FM 89.9 or http://www.wjct.org/radio (Jacksonville, FL)
Students from local high schools and colleges will talk about www.invisiblechildren.com, an amazing organization of American young people dedicated to helping African young people.

Contact: FS Alum Steven L. Stoll [ stollsociology@aol.com ]

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READ the Sep09 houstonfutures News (Attachment at bottom of page--way at the bottom!)


Waldo is now track-able!
A real-time electronic Futures Program Timeline reflecting the activities of Dr. Peter Bishop, program coordinator, and the U of Houston's futures program has been developed. Check out the Map feature to view the reach of the futures program worldwide.


Mixer Your INVITATION for the fall 09!

Date: 11 Nov 09 (W)
Time: 5:30 PM til ...
Place: Coffee Groundz http://thecoffeegroundz.com/

Presentation by J.R. Cohen, general manager of Coffee Groundz

J.R. used a counter-intuitive approach to marketing last year when he set aside the bulk of his traditional PR budget and began promoting his Houston Coffee Groundz primarily through social media. It began, probably on a lark, when JR began accepting to-go orders via Twitter. He also hosts the bulk of Houston’s social media events, offers free wi-fi, and has intentionally cultivated Houston’s “Twitterati.” He’s also, in less than a year, doubled his business. This man is every Houstonian’s friend and has a lot to teach CEOs and business owners in other industries. Follow him at http://twitter.com/CoffeeGroundz.

The coffee shop's phone number is 713.874.0082 and it is located in Midtown, at 2503 Bagby Street, 77006,
just west of Spec's Flagship store on Smith.


Contact Stephanie < szcarroll2004@yahoo.com > for detail on the gathering.


Dr. Peter Bishop to present at Santa Fe Institute 14-17 Sep 09
The Business Network theme of the Week:The_Future_is_Not_What_it_Used_to_Be

The Santa Fe Institute is devoted to creating a new kind of scientific research community, one emphasizing multi-disciplinary collaboration in pursuit of understanding the common themes that arise in natural, artificial, and social systems.

Renowned scientists and researchers come to Santa Fe Institute from universities, government agencies, research institutes, and private industry to collaborate in attempts to uncover the mechanisms that underlie the deep simplicity present in our complex world. <http://www.santafe.edu/about/>

Larry Payne & Dialogue Houston Aug 09

Dr. Peter Bishop and three UH futures graduates appeared with Larry Payne, host of Dialogue Houston on HCCTV. The discussion centered on the future and how people of Houston get the city that they want. New futures faculty member Dr. Kay Strong, freelance futurist Alexandra Montgomery, Stephanie Carroll who works with KUHT, the UH PBS affiliate comprised the panel. The hour-long show aired on Thursday, 6 Aug at 7 PM. on Saturday, 7 Aug, @ 2 PM and on Sunday, 8 Aug, @ 4 PM.

Watch the show on YouTube at

World Future Conference July 09

UH futures faculty and students from the fall 2008 course on the Futures of the US assembled material on seven key long-term issues affecting the future of the United States as a prelude to the 2008 Presidential election. New futures faculty member Kay Strong and graduate student Morgan Kauffman presented their insights on the future of the U.S. federal budget and the future of climate change and energy , respectively, at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the World Future Society on Saturday, July 18 (4:00 PM session), in Chicago IL.

Material from this class is available at http://thefuturesoftheus.wetpaint.com.
Some of the other program presentations are available at http://www.wfs.org/2009sessions.htm.


Regional Foresight in the United States 11 June 09

Dr. Bishop delivered a presentation "Regional Foresight in the United States" to the European Conference on Regional Foresight in France in June 11, 2009 at Centre International de Deauville.

Catch a glimpse of the master on YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/user/creactiveplace#play/uploads/23/Uq2ljDmIm7o


2009 Future of Houston's Children Conference 30 June

Alexandra Montgomery, Staff Futurist for Children At Risk and graduate of the UH futures program, organized a Future's Cafe at the third Future of Children Conference recently. She adapted the technique from the World Cafe that allows a meaningful discussion among the network of professionals, educators and researchers in attendance about the implications of emerging trends and the future of children.
Several program graduates, Stephanie Carroll, Jeremy Mancuso, Anne Boysen, and Verne Wheelwright served as table facilitators. Dr. Peter Bishop also presented a keynote at the event entitled, “You know you are talking about the future when…”


Singularity University June 09

Ross Shott, advanced student in futures studies at the University of Houston, was one of the 40 students accepted into the first class at Singularity University (SU). SU is an extensive (nine-week) program set up by the luminaries of the futures field, notably Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity is Near and other well-known books, and Peter Diamandis, founder of the X-Prize and the International Space University.

Ross, a businessman from Houston, specializes in Transhumanism, the enhancement of human performance using electronic and biological technologies. The list of faculty and students is truly extraordinary. And SU is making quite a splash in the futures world.

See more at http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/02/world-renowned-scientists-team-with-google-and-nasa-to-launch-singularity-university/.


UH futures program joins forces with the UScholars' College Success Program

This fall, the UH Futures program, a graduate degree program in the College of Technology, is partnering with the the UScholars' College Success Program to deliver a 10-week one credit hour course for undeclared majors. The UScholars’ College Success Program (CSP) is the formal home to some 5000 undergraduate students who are yet to decide about their college major. Approximately, 1500 undeclared undergraduate students will participate in a mandatory course identified as Core 1101. The program’s goal is to close the gap on the number of undeclared undergraduates at the University of Houston who have earned 45 credit hours. The course has been designed to integrate content across three curricular areas, college life skills and career placement with a strong futures component. The course outcomes are designed to assist participating students in declaring an undergraduate college major by strengthened personal life skills and self-management, by deepening understanding of career options and by developing a greater self-efficacy in a world of uncertainty and growing complexity. The futures faculty will help students make that declaration in light of changes in the careers in the future.


Association of Professional Futurists, Pasadena CA, March 19-21, 2009
Members of the Houston Futures community traveled to Pasadena to participate in the seventh annual gathering of the Association of Professional Futurists. The meeting was held at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena CA. The Art Center is a renowned design school (ranked first in undergraduate and graduate programs) in automotive, product and entertainment design.

The gathering was entitled Futures by Design. We learned how the design process worked, and then we practiced creativity and visualization with 2D drawing and 3D Lego construction. Lots of fun in the APF tradition of meetings that are unusual for a professional association.

The meeting was organized by Garry Golden ('04), and the program was hosted by Lloyd Walker ('91). Lloyd is a graduate of the Art Center and the UHCL futures program, and he teaches design and futures studies at the Art Center now.

Houston folks attending the meeting included Peter Bishop, Andy Hines Terry Grim, and Cindy Frewen (faculty) and Sara Robinson, Patricia Tynan, Ross Shott and Sean Daken (students) plus a number of other program graduates.

Here is a group photo, thanks to Cliff Grim, Terry's husband, and another showing Ross and Terry working diligently on their visualization drawings!


Ted Gordon at UH February 09

January '09 -- The futures program was featured in a UH Moment, a feature of KUHF, the public radio station in Houston.


January '09 -- We talked about this last semester, but just to let everyone know, Alexandra Levit is still listing Futurist as one of the 7 coolest jobs to get. These 7 are the top ones from her earlier book, How'd You Score That Gig?: A Guide to the Coolest Jobs-and How to Get Them.


January '09 -- Rachel Tubman (FS '08) was featured in a review of the 2008 annual meeting of the World Futures Society for her presentation on Waste to Energy as part of all UH panel from the course on the Future of Energy and the Environment. (Jump to Page 20)


Fall '08 -- Peter Bishop was featured in the recent issue of the University of Houston Magazine.


December '08 -- The inaugural issue of the houstonfutures news-- a new quarterly newsletter from the program.


November-December 08 -- Program graduates Joan Foltz (independent futurist), John Jackson (strategic planner with the Houston Police Department), and Amy Oberg (corporate futurist with Kimberly Clark) collaborated with Stephen Aguilar-Milan, director of the Greenways Partnership in the UK, on "The Globalization of Crime" in the current issue of The Futurist from the World Future Society. Joan and Stephen are Board members of the Association of Professional Futurists, and Amy is on the Board of Advisors for the futures program. The article is based on their presentation at the World Future Society meeting in Washington DC in July.


October 08 -- Peter Bishop published an overview of the future of energy in the Houston Chronicle on Sunday, October 26. He reviewed the various alternatives for substituting for the inevitable decline in oil production, now or in the medium-term future, along with ideas on how efficiency and ultimately human behavior would "square the circle" and maintain a form of human life if those alternatives fail to produce the same amount of energy we enjoy today. The longer version of that article is attached.


October 08 -- Students in the class on the Futures of the United States have posted material that we hope teachers will use in teaching about the long-term issues involved in this year's election. Check out the site at the Futures of the U.S. The class project is supporting the Foresight Education Project that the UH is sponsoring to introduce futures thinking throughout education.


September 08 -- Adam Gordon has just published his first book, Future Savvy, with AMACOM, the publishing arm of the American Management Association. Here's what they say about the book --

In order to succeed in their industries, decision-makers today need to anticipate the future outcomes not only in their own industry but also in society and technology as well. The better their view of the future, the better their decisions--and the bigger their profits–will be. Future Savvy is a hands-on, how-to book on evaluating the business, social, and technology forecasts that appear in everyday communications such as newspapers and business magazines, as well as in specialized sources like government and think-tank forecasts, consultant reports, and stock-market guides. Futures analyst Adam Gordon has spent his career deciphering changes and trends in a variety of industries. Now, he shows business leaders how to gain a clearer view of the future, as well as:

• Recognize potential trends and outcomes more effectively • Discount poor and biased forecasts more confidently • Anticipate relevant opportunities and potential threats earlier

September 08 -- Lue Bishop has published the lead article in this month's Instructional Leader published by the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association. The article is entitled "The Chemistry of a Collaborative Culture." It points out the difference between organizational climate (the feelings that people have about their work) and an organizational culture (the norms and values they practice at work). Lue makes the point that, while making people feel good is relatively easy, creating high performing culture is not.

Summer 08 -- The Texas Department of Transportation has just released the latest issue of Horizon, the Department's public magazine, that is completely devoted to the results of the Texas Transportation Scenario Project, which the UH futures program conducted for the Department (ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/gbe/horizon/horizon_summer2008.pdf). The study was conducted by Dr. Peter Bishop, principal investigator, and Garry Golden, project manager and program graduate, supported by a research team consisting of Jason Siko, Mark Niles, Rachel Tubman, Simeon Spearman--all students in the program when they worked on the project.

8/20/08: Aron Branam ('08) has just accepted a positiion with the Energy and Resources Team at the Rocky Mountain Institute. The Institute, as you know, is the research and consulting organization founded by Amory Lovins, noted environmentalist and efficiency expert. Aron came to the futures studies program in 2006 with a degree in aerospace engineering and a year working at Jacobs Engineering. He has just completed his internship with Austin Energy working on a project called the Utility of the Future.

Sept-Oct 2008: Andy Hines continues his series with Part 2 of "Global Trends in Culture, Infrastructure and Values" in the latest issue of n The Futurist. Copies of this and the previous article in the July-August issue are available at http://wfs.org/futurist.

8/7/98: Kudos to Lloyd Walker who received two awards for his Mobility Vision Integration Process including the scenario card deck and Flash web site. He worked on this project with Art Center College of Design. It is a deck of 109 cards that rapidly builds future scenarios for personal mobility circa 2040.

http://www.mobilityvip.com/

The school entered the project in the annual IDEA awards (International Design Excellence Awards) sponsored by Industrial Design Society of America and BusinessWeek.

The project was awarded a silver in the category of Interactive product experiences http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/07/0717_idea_winners/118.htm
and a bronze in the category of ecodesign
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/07/0717_idea_winners/63.htm


8/1/08: The Emerald LiteraiNetwork from Emerald Publishing, publishers of foresight, one of the major journals in futures studies, has selected Peter, Andy and Terry's paper ("The Current State of Scenario Development: An Overview of Techniques," Vol 9, No 1., 2007) for the 2008 Oustanding Paper Award. As those in this community know, Peter has not published much of anything although Andy is veteran. But since Peter has moved to the University of Houston, a university that takes publication very seriously, he has challenged himself to rectify that. And what a boost to begin!
Wendy Schultz, a visiting Associate Professor with the program for five years, won the same award in 2007 for her article on scanning. So Houston is even contributing to the academic literature. Who woulda thunk it?

7/27/08: The following members of the Houston Futures community appeared at the Annual Meeting of the World Futures Society in Washington DC, July 27-29 -- Peter Bishop, Terry Collins, Chris Fair, Joan Foltz, Roumiana Gotseva-Yordanova, Terry Grim, Jennifer Jarratt, Jim Mathews, Pam McConathy, Amy Oberg, Scott Reif, John Smart, Kay Strong, Rachel Tubman, Vernue Wheelwright.

7/9/08: What's Ahead by Ellen Ryan, Washingtonian.com, February 1, 2008. This article features UHCL alum, Tom Conger, who has established a very successful futures firm in Washington DC called Social Technologies.







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