David Zach is one of the few professionally trained futurists in the United States, with a master's degree in studies of the future from the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Through his company, Innovative Futures, Dave works with nearly 80 businesses, schools and associations each year to help them understand how to think about the future, change and continuity-­and how to make choices about them. He takes the audience on a tour of key trends and current issues in technology, business, education and society. Dave gets his information and ideas about the future from a daily study of books, magazines, discussions and on-line explorations.
 
Dave previously worked at Johnson Controls and Northwestern Mutual Life in the roles of environmental scanning and strategic planning. He has also taught future studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
 
Dave is a member of the Wisconsin Small Business Development Center Advisory Council, Future Milwaukee Advocacy Board and Milwaukee Forum, a leadership group for discussion of key community concerns. He formerly served as chairman of the Goals for Greater Milwaukee 2000 Education Committee and co-chair for Design Milwaukee.
 
 
Topics
 
Keynote: An Owner's Guide to the Future
To paraphrase Mark Twain, everybody talks about the future, but no one does anything about it. In his entertaining keynote, Futurist David Zach will take you on a humorous, down-to-earth tour of key trends and current issues in technology, business, education and society. After listening to Dave's talk, the future will seem familiar and you'll have a sense of how to take ownership. More importantly, he'll help you understand how to think about the future and change, along with thinking about today from a new angle. Favored assumptions are re-examined-as are so-called new solutions. Depending on the interests of the audience, possible topics include: the knowledge economy, the balance of change with continuity, workplace trends, social trends, interpersonal computers, demographics, and the future of education. Through it all runs a deep concern for showing how the human side of the future must prevail.
 
Workshop: The Future: A Second Look
This session serves as a follow-up to the keynote. In it, Dave will do lots of things. He'll answer questions. He'll expand on some of his comments. He'll make clever observations and tell a few jokes. Then, you'll have an opportunity to explore your reasons for resisting or adapting to change. You'll identify how recent changes and trends will alter how you live and work. You'll differentiate between long-term vs. short-term coping skills. Or, he'll help the group learn to use future problem solving techniques to gain a detailed mapping of the implications of trends for both life and work. This session is an opportunity to look at trends using the audience's expertise and point-of-view with Dave as your guide. Prerequisites for attending these workshops: a reasonable level of imagination and a desire to feel more comfortable with the future.

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