Outly

Dr Peter Scoblic- | -Tues 25 November

Time: 9 - 10am AEST (followed by a light morning tea)

Venue: QUT Gardens Point Campus | Z Block, Lvl 7, Room No. Z730 (2 George St, Brisbane)

Note: As Peter is overseas, this session will be held online, with the link accessible exclusively to attendees in the room.

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Join us for an engaging session with Peter Scoblic as he explores how leaders and organisations can better anticipate the future by combining the imaginative breadth of scenario planning with the qualitative rigor of probabilistic forecasting. Drawing on lessons from his work with Philip Tetlock, Peter will explore why traditional expert judgment often fails and how structured forecasting methods can improve decision-making under uncertainty.

Dr Peter Scoblic is the Sam Nunn Distinguished Fellow at the Nuclear Threat Initiative and a co-founder and principal of Event Horizon Strategies. He is also a senior fellow with the Future Security Program at New America; a senior associate at CSIS’s Hess Center for New Frontiers; and an adjunct professor at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, where he teaches foresight and forecasting. Peter has published widely on strategic foresight, including in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Science, Harvard Business Review, and Foreign Affairs. He is the author of the forthcoming American Psychohistory (Simon & Schuster), an intellectual history of the quest to quantify decision-making and the effort to preserve a role for human judgment, from early attempts to optimise strategy under uncertainty to recent advances in artificial intelligence.

Dr Colin Russo- | -Tues 24 February 2026

Dr Colin Russo is an Australian futurist, strategist, and CEO of Engaging Futures, based in Brisbane. He is the developer of the Inclusive Futures Method (IFM), a five-phase foresight framework for creating inclusive, intergenerational futures. Colin has held senior roles in the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Mines and Energy, and later served in the CEO’s Office at the City of Gold Coast. He led the community consultation for the award-winning Our Bold Future initiative, coordinating 20 public workshops to shape the city’s long-term vision. He has presented futures work for the Australian War College, Victoria Police Legacy, the AIS 2032 Futures Outlook, and major Queensland water strategy projects. His expertise spans the futures of cities, health, environment, and public policy.

Virginia Robin- | -Tues 24 March 2026

Virginia Robin is a Legal Futurist with 30 years in the legal field, including as a lawyer and law firm partner. Now focused on innovation, she integrates systems theory, quantum physics, and Indigenous wisdom to reshape legal practice and conflict resolution. She equips law firms with emotional intelligence tools and created the Robin Method, a three-step decision-making model developed over 13 years and taught to nearly 10,000 global students. A qualified mediator, she also developed Reflective Mediation, blending yoga and consciousness studies to support embodied decision-making. Her TEDx talk, Lawyers Are Trained to Break the Law, highlights the emotional disconnect in legal practice. Virginia has authored three books: Let’s Kiss All the Lawyers! …said no-one, ever, Not Guilty: Finding Peace in Three Simple Steps, and introduces emotional intelligence to children through The Many Meeeees of Miniki.

Shermon Cruz- | -Tues 28 April 2026

Shermon Cruz is the Founder and Chief Futurist of the Center for Engaged Foresight and holds the UNESCO Chair on Anticipatory Governance at Northwestern University, Philippines. He chairs The Millennium Project Philippines Node and formerly led the Association of Professional Futurists. Shermon co-founded the Asia Pacific Futures Network and the Global South Futures Community. He is a global thought leader in futures literacy and strategic foresight, contributing to global initiatives in governance, policy, and disaster risk reduction. He speaks internationally, facilitates futures workshops, and serves as editor and reviewer for leading foresight journals. His professional background includes roles at PwC, EY, and Accenture, and he teaches at leading institutions including the Asian Institute of Management and the Philippine Public Safety College. He is also the creator of the award-winning Dreams and Disruptions foresight game, used globally to explore alternative futures and transformative change.

Dr Stefan Hajkowicz- | - 21 Oct

In this engaging fireside chat, Dr Stefan Hajkowicz – chief research consultant at CSIRO working at the interface between science and technology and policy and strategy – joined CFE Director Professor Michael Rosemann to explore the megatrends that have been reshaping our world and the strategies organisations have used to respond. Drawing on over 15 years of strategic foresight experience at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, Stefan shared real-world examples and decision-making frameworks that helped organisations anticipate change and uncover hidden opportunities. The session offered practical insights into how leading organisations built resilience and adapted in an era of uncertainty, and how these approaches could be applied in your own context.

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Mariagrazia Berardi- | 30 Sept

For over 20 years, Mariagrazia Berardi has supported the internationalization and innovation of SMEs, with a strong focus on sustainability in the textile and fashion sectors. She has lived and worked across Europe and the Far East, gaining deep experience in global production, particularly in China, Mauritius, and Madagascar. Since 2016, she has been the project manager for the Enterprise Europe Network at CNA Lombardia, helping SMEs grow internationally. She also teaches sustainability in fashion through the Connecting Cultures Foundation’s Out of Fashion course and has collaborated with SDA Bocconi on EU projects like Small But Perfect. Since 2021, she has incorporated Futures Thinking and Foresight into her work with businesses and organizations.

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Prof Dirk Hovorka | -26 Aug

In this thought-provoking session, Prof Dirk Hovorka explored how Information Systems (IS) research engages with the concept of The Future - not as a distant, digital extension of the present, but as a richly inhabited and contested space. He challenged the dominant narratives that treat the future with instrumental optimism, often overlooking its complexity and potential for critique. Prof Hovorka argued for positioning futures as a site of inquiry—one that enables the creation of novel concepts, tests boundaries, and reflects on evolving values and morals. By working with imaginaries of technological, social, and cultural possibilities, participants were invited to consider how both the world and our science could be reimagined beyond mere projections of the present.

A recording for this session is not available

Dr Elissa Farrow- | -29 July

In this session, Dr Elissa Farrow explores how participatory foresight can empower change leaders to navigate uncertainty and shape preferred futures. Drawing from her academic research and real-world experience, Dr Farrow introduces practical tools like scenario co-creation, futures wheels, and speculative artefact design to foster inclusive and adaptive transformation. A key highlight of the session is the introduction of the Six Pillars Foresight Framework, developed by Prof Sohail Inayatullah. Dr Farrow walks participants through how to apply this powerful framework to any futures thinking process, helping individuals and organisations map, anticipate, and transform their futures with confidence. Whether you're a change leader, strategist, or simply curious about the future, this session offers valuable insights and tools to begin your own foresight-inspired journey. Watch now to learn how to shape change through futures thinking.

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Dr Joseph Voros- | -24 June

Renowned futurist and foresight expert Dr Joseph Voros delivered a one-hour presentation in June. Drawing on decades of experience in strategic foresight, Dr Voros introduced key foundational concepts and explored what it truly means to study the future in a structured, actionable way. In this recording, Dr Voros emphasises that engaging with the future requires cultivating a mindset attuned to change. To support this, he presents a suite of powerful foresight tools and frameworks - including the Future Cone, which distinguishes between different types of futures, the Futures Triangle, and the Three Horizons Framework, which link past, present, and future dynamics. These tools, Dr Voros explains, not only help us anticipate and respond to change but also empower us to shape preferred futures. Through real-world examples, he demonstrates the practical application of foresight while also addressing the challenges organisations face in embedding future-oriented thinking and communicating compelling visions of what lies ahead.

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