MINNESOTA FUTURES DAY

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

"Strategic Thinking for the Good Life"

The Minnesota chapter of the World Future Society offers a fresh new approach to strategic thinking covering topics such as leadership, healthcare, learning, spirituality, and globalization. Some of the topics are present-oriented with future implications; others are speculative, while still others are suggestive of paths that might lead toward positive futures. Everyone has an opinion about the future, and this event is designed to establish a proposition based on insights and thoughts with ample opportunities for attendees to respond. (9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.)

Topics and Speakers:

Future of Immigration and Minorities

In 2006, non-white people made up 38% of the household population in Minneapolis, compared with 37% in 2000. These residents represent the increasing diversity of Minneapolis; many are immigrants. During the 2006-2007 school year, 30% of all Minneapolis public school students lived in homes where the primary language spoken was not English. These changing demographics highlight the imperative for us to embrace communities of color and immigrant communities in order to reduce disparities in education, home ownership, and health care and increase the competitiveness of our workforce in Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

Elizabeth Glidden, council member, Minneapolis City Council (8^th Ward), Minneapolis, Minnesota

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Back to the Future: The New Technology of Humanism

We will examine a combination of theory, practice, and technology that will allow school faculty to better care for the personal, professional and intellectual development of the their students while also enabling school administrators to supply increasingly important evidence of student learning on the institutional level. Today's faculty will effectively determine the character of the learning environment at their respective institutions. We can encourage them to choose a 21st century re-creation of the classical ideal in which teachers and students share a continuous, changing and multifarious journey of discovery. The educational content of any student’s college degree will be the co-creation of the student and the institution. Administrators will nevertheless easily generate high-level aggregated data across-the-curriculum on actual student achievement. Institutions that use the approach outlined in this session will perform significantly better than those that do not; students will choose to attend where they identify with the expectations and where their personal capabilities will be well acknowledged.

David Shupe, president, eLumen Collaborative; former system director for academic accountability, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, St. Paul, Minnesota

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Hot to Trot: What Should We Be Doing About Public Transportation?

The ongoing price increases and shortages of oil and gasoline—not to mention the Twin Cities’ obsession with light rail and streetcars—have reheated the discussion of the need for changes in transportation, which this presentation summarizes from many angles. After an overview of history’s experiments with public transportation—from horses through stagecoaches, trains, boats, airplanes, and peeking briefly into the science-fictional future—the speaker will examine the social upheavals brought about by both the automobile and the ongoing energy crises, explore the uses of and needs for public transportation, and try to pin down parameters for deciding what we should do about it. With Minnesota’s official “thinking” tending toward 200-year-old conventional rail technology (including streetcars) and expansion of roads so they cover all available land, it’s time to consider what other methods work in other parts of the country and world. Environmental impact, convenience, cost to users, reduction of our dependence on cars and oil, and even the very need for modern levels of transportation are all significant issues.

Ken Moses, technologist, Minneapolis, Minnesota

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The Hydrogen Economy and the Hydrogen Highway

This presentation describes the opportunities and challenges of a future energy economy in which hydrogen made with renewable and low-CO₂ resources joins electricity as one of society’s premier energy carriers. We will discuss how hydrogen and fuel cells may fit in the overall energy system, and how hydrogen, fuel cells, and related technologies can contribute to a cleaner, more prosperous, and more peaceful world.

Rolf Nordstrom, director, Upper Midwest Hydrogen Initiative, Great Plains Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota

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Creating a New Energy Future: One Neighborhood At A Time

The solutions to many global challenges are in the hands of individual communities where innovation among small businesses and local organizations is a major force for change. This is true of global warming and the necessary transition to new forms of energy supply. This presentation looks at the Midtown Eco-Energy (MEE) Project, a biomass-fuel combined heat and power facility in Minneapolis that is addressing demands for more renewable energy and shifting some of the power over energy decision-making back to the local level. MEE is a qualifying Community-Based Energy Development (CBED) under Minnesota law and is a case study in how to assess community resources and leverage those resources with other financing and policies. The biomass project will create local closed loops for some of the city’s wood and biomass waste while building a sustainable community asset and a tool for ongoing economic development. MEE also opens up the possibility that every municipal building in Minneapolis (libraries, schools, City Hall, etc.) and all of the University of Minnesota could run its operations entirely with green power generated within the city’s boundaries.

Michael Krause, founding partner, Kandiyohi Development Partners; former executive director, The Green Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota

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