Meetup #19: Design Thinking the Future with Improv

Design Thinking the Future with Improv – In this experiential workshop, we will use trends and improv as a way to explore the future.

The objectives of the workshop are to experience how improv can help the DT:DC community think about the future in a fun, engaging way, while also getting to know more about each other as members of the DT:DC community. Through a series of experiential activities, we will explore the field of futures and trends. Next, we will play some improv games to help us foresee our possible futures.

We will explore how a fundamental rule of improv, known as “Yes, and…,” can help us think about the future. "Yes, and…” invites actors to accept the reality created by other actors and co-create the scene together. Each actor's contribution to the scene is known as an “offer” and we are going to look at the way trends are “offers” that we can build on for a view of the future. Some questions we will answer include: How do we accept these offers and build with them collectively? Do we have certain societal, professional, and personal biases or “scripts” that affect the way we see trends and influence the future we are creating? What impact do our biases or “scripts” have on us as individuals and groups?

We will invite participants to identify trends they see as important, but also offer a number of ongoing trends to get the creative juices flowing.

Agenda

6:30 – 7:00pm - Networking with Pizza and Beverages
7:00 – Getting Started: Improv, Creativity, Futures, Fun
7:15 – Looking Backwards to Warm up to the Future
7:30 – Current Trends
7:45 – Improv Launch - The Oracle in DT:DC
8:15 – Movie clip of the Future
8:30 – Cast Party
8:50 – Closing
9:00 – Finish

Andres Marquez-Lara is a member of the DT:DC community and a skilled facilitator who integrates his background in the fields of mental health, community engagement, and theater through his consulting company Promethean Community LLC (www.prometheancommunity.com) (http://www.prometheancommunity.com). He has a graduate degree in Clinical Community Psychology, a Certificate in Human Development, and is trained in Playback Theater and Psychodrama. He works with community stakeholders to design highly experiential, individualized workshops that help them explore how they relate to one another, and discover new ways of doing so.

Jim Burke is member of the DT:DC community and the head of the TASC Futures Group, where he creates innovative studies of the future, emphasizing ways that early warning signals and trends can be exploited by individuals, business and government. He has over twenty-five years experience conducting futures and forecasting and has directed futures and change management efforts for a wide variety of government, non-profit, and commercial clients, including Fortune 500 and foreign governments. Jim is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists and is a past president of the Washington, DC, chapter of the World Future Society.

The Wait List process:

The Meetup.com Wait List function works on a first come first served basis. This means that when a seat opens up the people on the Wait List will all get an email notifying them that a space has become available. The first person to login to Meetup and claim the seat will get the space. As an FYI, when spaces become available they usually get claimed within 1-5 minutes so you must act quickly.