Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
From 2020 to 2030 we want to highlight, celebrate and connect the most promising startups, innovators, corporates and cities that have taken the 17 SDGs into their core operations and are leading the way for future generations. Over the next decade, we plan to increase our global audience by expanding our local satellite events worldwide. By the end of this decade, we aim to engage one million people, one thousand businesses and one hundred cities worldwide.
We believe that impact is created at the intersection between the major societal pillars: academia, government, business and civil society. Therefore we intend to create a platform where everyone can join the conversation. Young and old, CEOs and students, politicians, artists, investors, scientists and entrepreneurs. Whoever you are, you're a part of making change.
Together, we can break the consensus that has governed businesses and societies for two generations and together offer a new model for capitalism that uses the SDGs as the framework and includes our guiding core principles: purpose, inclusion and sustainability.
Our long-term vision will be steered by a purpose-driven, diverse and global advisory board that has been selected from across borders, genders, sectors, ages, ethnicities and views. This board will ensure that we will foster the most critical discussions and work toward cutting-edge solutions while remaining true to our dogma: Open source, connectivity, broadcast-ability and inclusive knowledge sharing.
A lot of people are already taking action to ensure a more sustainable future. They are taking a stand on which products and services to buy and they demand transparency from both companies and manufacturers. But the fact is that every human on this planet has to act much more than we do today. Like global climate activist Greta Thunberg says, “I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic... and act as if the house was on fire. Because it is.”
So how should businesses and other institutions foster this potential among citizens and awake activism?
Leaders have to be at the forefront of the transition and work actively with the UN's SDGs as fundamental principles. They have to incorporate gender and racial equality, fight inequality and pave a new road of true innovation by doing better with less. This cannot and will not be an easy task.
The conference track "People" is focused on human potential. Within this track, we will showcase the individuals taking on necessary challenges, altering the status quo and creating value for the many, not the few.
Talks, delegate involvement and impactful sessions will pave the way for knowledge sharing, creation of blueprints and development of real solutions. We aim to harness the human powers of survival, resiliency and adaptation to be innovative in the face of the major world challenges we are experiencing.
In the past two centuries, fossil-fuel based capitalism has made us wealthier, healthier, safer and more informed than ever. Now, however, this driver for progress has begun to cause our demise, making us feel cynical or powerless. Yet there is always room for hope — that is the nature of humankind. How can a new take on sustainable capitalism be the transformative power we need? How do we go from a bunch of inspirational cases to a united global propeller for sustainable growth?
Business resilience is not about surviving, but about thriving. So how can new business innovation create prosperity and societal growth while building a new world order based around the UN Sustainable Development Goals?
When answering these questions, there is an inherent belief that business has the opportunity and responsibility to propel our world forward. But businesses can never achieve their goals without closely collaborating with governments, educational institutions and civil society. Thus, we seek out those innovative business giants and impactors that are embracing collaboration and making impact today, not somewhere down the road. At the 2020 Economic World Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland, numerous business leaders blatantly stated the obvious: “Capitalism as we know it is dead, make way for a broader stakeholder approach.”
Don’t bring a speech, bring a plan. If you are not in it for the global leaps and open-source working paradigms, you will not be a part of the solution. Ideas are out and real life activation, implementation and impact are in. We will present the industry leaders who are changing the world and business landscape. Through inspirational talks, collaborative sessions and key networking opportunities, we can create new lasting relationships and make an impact together.
We need to fuse new technologies together with a wider array of contributors and collaborators to rearrange and reinvent cities as we know them.
We know that by 2050, the world’s population is expected to reach 9.8 billion people. Nearly 70% — 6.7 billion people — are predicted to live in urban areas or the so-called megacities. We know that this will create multiple challenges for the environment and the people within these spaces. To ensure prosperous growth, we need to view these challenges as sustainability opportunities that can be solved through innovative and impactful solutions.
As we speak, many cities are re-scoping their remit while dealing with inherited structures, population growth and pollution increases. That is not an easy balance. The challenge is how to create a future full of opportunities in our cities. What happens with the inherited structures? Do we regenerate, or is it wiser to start over completely?
At Impact the Future, we facilitate the meeting of like-minded people to find answers to these challenges. Architects, city planners, activists, urbanists and citizens will come together to think big and implement impactful solutions for the broader scope.
