Jack Uldrich

In the near future, the greatest change will be the accelerating rate of change itself. In this enlightening, entertaining, and educational session, Jack Uldrich shares insights from his book, Business as Unusual: How to Future-Proof Yourself Against Tomorrow’s Transformational Trends, Today. He outlines the 10 trends that will transform the world of tomorrow and identifies concrete actions businesses can take today to future-proof themselves against “the tides of tomorrow.”

The next decade is only a handful of years away. What might the world of 2020 like look like? How will you and your business have changed? More importantly, how will you and your organization need to change? The answer, in two short words, is: a lot! Consider this: Eight years ago Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Wikipedia didn’t even exist; neither did the iPhones, iPads, apps, or Kindles. Now, fast forward eight years into the future and try to comprehend how accelerating advances in information and communication technologies, the “internet of things,” social media, robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, biotechnology, brain-neural interfaces, gaming dynamics, crowd-sourcing, and open-source sharing platforms will continue to drive seismic change and deliver paradigm-shattering transformation to nearly every facet of society. It’s not easy. In this engaging and entertaining keynote presentation based on his book (Foresight 20/20: A Futurist Explores the Trends Transforming Tomorrow), globally renowned futurist and best-selling author Jack Uldrich takes the guess-work out of understanding the near future by providing an in-depth exploration of how 10 technological trends will transform the world of 2020.

The pace of technological change is accelerating and today’s organizations are living in a world where “constant change is the only constant.” New advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information technology are bringing forth exciting and unexpected discoveries every day, while the expansive and growing power of the Internet, social networking and the open-source movement are fueling the fires which threaten to consume much of today’s existing business landscape.  Life-long learning will obviously be more essential than ever in this chaotic and churning environment; but often lost in this new emerging reality of exponential change is the fact that before an organization can seize tomorrow’s opportunities it must first unlearn old, obsolete knowledge as well as unlearn the old ways of doing business. In this fascinating, informative, entertaining, interactive, and enlightening presentation, noted global futurist and best-selling author, Jack Uldrich – who has been hailed by BusinessWeek as “America’s Chief Unlearning Officer” – not only explains why unlearning is a critical skill for a company or an organization’s employees, but also demonstrates how unlearning can help:

• Successfully navigate a future where the pace of scientific and technological knowledge is doubling every seven years;
• Prepare for competition that doesn’t yet exist; and
• Seize opportunities which are, today, only on the periphery of their imagination.

Winston Churchill once said, “The farther back one can look, the farther ahead one can see.” He was right. Global futurist and best-selling author Jack Uldrich has the unique ability to use yesterday’s history lessons as a prism for helping his clients and his audiences understand how the world of tomorrow will be transformed. He always leaves his audiences proud of their rich tradition and past accomplishments but poised to confidently create their new future. Find out how he can do the same for your organization or company.

Today, the greatest change is the rate of change itself. Put another way, society is transitioning to a period of constant transition. The net effect is that “answers” about the future are decreasing in value. This reality is, paradoxically, placing greater emphasis on the need to ask better questions. In this thought-provoking but practical presentation, global futurist and best-selling author Jack Uldrich shares with his audience how the art and science of framing and asking better questions can not only help individuals and organizations survive tomorrow’s rapidly changing environment but thrive by providing the key insights necessary for confidently creating their own future.

Based on Jack’s book by the same name released in 2008 by Adams Media, Jack explores how exponential trends in information technology, biotechnology, robotics, manufacturing, material science and nanotechnology, are all converging at this unique moment in history. Uldrich’s presentation lays out ten specific strategies that executives, businesses and industries can use to navigate and survive in this era of unparalleled change.

This topic, which is taken from his 2003 besting-selling book of the same name, can be tailored for almost any audience or industry. In the past year, Uldrich has spoken to a variety of groups in the health care, pharmaceutical, energy, educational, agricultural, food, insurance and computer industries about nanotechnology’s impending impact on their businesses.