TFXL produced the large-scale 24th World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF) World Conference which was held as a hybrid event in Berlin Germany from 26th-29th October 2021. While the focus was on the in-person gathering at the amazing Humboldt Carré Conference Center in the heart of Berlin, there was an online program that included streaming of the key live sessions as well as special programming for online participants that extended beyond the in-person conference hours.


There were 120 sessions with over 80 speakers from over 50 countries.

Between 2006 and 2012, Plutopia Productions created, curated and produced seven Plutopia signature events in Austin, TX, which included The Future of the Home at the first ever Maker’s Faire outside of California and annual shows thereafter, originally for SXSW, who was our main sponsor for many years. From 2013 till now they have involved us in the development of their own event called SXCreate.

All of the events were predominantly experiential and met the mission of merging technology art and entertainment. They were completely future-focused and covered themes such as The Future of Play, The Future of Living Systems, The Future of Imagination, The Future of Music, etc. The shows included emerging technologies, arts, performances, installations and gathered together many of the most provocative thought-leaders around, including Bruce Sterling, Lee Ranaldo, DJ Spooky (Paul D. Miller), Douglas Rushkoff, Max More, Natasha Vita-More, Bill McKibbon, Adam Zaretsky, Stanza, Jane McConigal, EV Williams, Heather Gold and many more.

Each show reflected its core theme, included major world premieres and included in its line up some of the world’s most progressive, world-renowned artists, emerging stars and a touch of the eclectic. The performers, speakers and artists came from all over the world, including the US, UK, China, Japan, Brazil, Spain, Chile, France, etc.

In addition to the 17 staff members, Plutopia Productions engaged up to 100 volunteers for each of its big events. The shows employed environmentally progressive practices, healthy catering, and local community and business support. This included ensuring that all build materials were recyclable, and that we reduced energy, resources and waste by an average of 80%.

Each event had some 3000 early adopters visiting and up to 100 performers, artists and installations. Derek Woodgate created, themed, selected and curated the content, designed and led the team to develop each of the events, which were expertly produced under the leadership of Maggie Duval and Bon Davis.

STEAM³ was the first project we did in the post-Plutopia Productions era when it transformed into FEEL under the leadership of Maggie Duval, who still owns the STEAM³ rights. It has a proven and successful track record with large events at the University of Texas, Austin, 2014 and Georgia State University, Atlanta, in 2015. It was designed as a multifaceted “plug-and-play” Conference and Interactive Playground exploring the future of learning and education. While totally turnkey, it has also been designed to be customizable and scalable to work with and within a variety of institutions.

STEAM³ although held in collaboration with major learning institutions, it is a public event designed to provide an experiential and collaborative stage for the exploration, development and demonstration of the fast emerging learning technologies, teaching, and models that will redefine education over the next decade and beyond. It is designed to bring educators, students, parents, instructional designers, developers, business and policy makers, up to speed on new, existing and emerging educational technology and approaches as quickly as possible, while giving it all meaning and context in a thematic framework, i.e. “Make Magic”, “The Game of Learning”, “Interactive Storytelling”, and “The Living Classroom.”

The events had over 20 expert speakers from multiple universities, educational institutions and domain experts, plus nearly 30 exhibitors. We were responsible for creating the themes and selecting and curating the content and designing the structure, layout and feel.

This was a rarified event featuring some of the world’s most progressive musicians and composers. Held amongst the incredible architecture and 100 acre campus of the Festival Institute in Round Rock, Texas, The event combined full-blown concerts in the Institute’s world famous 1,100 seat Festival Concert Hall, as well as smaller performances, interactive displays and demonstrations on the Plaza and symposia and workshops.

The event combined full-blown concerts in the Institute’s world famous 1,100 seat Festival Concert Hall, as well as smaller performances, interactive displays and demonstrations on the Plaza and symposia and workshops across the Institute’s 200-acre campus.
Performers included
– Patrick Flanagan, who serves as the token human in cyborg percussion ensemble Jazari, which fuses African rhythms, algorithmic composition, sound synthesis, and electro-mechanics into beat-driven steamfunk;
– Japanese violin virtuoso, Mari Kimura, who uses a motion sensor glove to play what she terms “subsonics”;
– DJ Spooky with the Telos Ensemble performing everything from Reich to his masterpiece “Winds of Change, commissioned by the NAACP – an emotional US history lesson.

Conference presentations included The Sound of Projectors: (audio-visual narrative as spectacle), Mixology: The Art of Music cocktails, The Creative Loop: From Composition to Production, as well as subjects dealing with the future of the music and entertainment industries.

Together with Maggie Duval, who was responsible for the planning and production, we conceptualized, themed and curated the event in its entirety.

Created and curated for some of the world’s leading futurists of APF (The Association of Professional Futurists) to discuss and debate the future of learning, this event featured outstanding speakers, workshops, installations and play. The 60 or so futurists explored the major forces that are aligned to disrupt the world of formal and informal learning over the coming decade.

In addition to the great presentations and workshops, there were demonstrations of new learning approaches involving AI and gamification with Brian Magerko, Associate Professor of Digital Media, Director of the Adaptive Digital Media (ADAM) Lab, at Georgia Tech and a glimse of how future universities will be structured using learning technologies at Georgia State University.

Panels included Aperture Learning – Life is learning, Learning is life – From dynamic mentoring to micro modular learning pathways and future learning environments.

A two-year long project, which commenced with a fully-blown foresight project to determine the future conceptual platforms, scenarios and vision for the future of the construction industry for AEM (The Association of Equipment Manufacturers). The outputs from this work became the conceptual architecture for the 120,000 square ft. Tech Experience including the areas, i.e. Future of Infrastructure, Future of Intelligent Construction, Future of Workforce and The Future and The Future of Additive Manufacturing. They were bundled under the What’s Next theme. Once we had defined the possible content providers we became part of the team curate the content and design the overall look of the event.

Build on future studies research and scenarios, we created, curated and delivered “living the future’ days for Intel’s Future International Development Program. These involved comprehensive visions of the future of critical development countries such as Brazil and Indonesia and included presentations, workshops and interactive playgrounds. The “Days” were both futuristic and inventive in content and included creativity and play as well build a future world using a proprietary Edge of the Imagination Station. We essentially integrated Intel’s corporate approaches and cultural needs into our futures- based vision and enhanced the experienced through motivational, interactive sensory activities.

As part of a long-term foresight project for FIAT Automotive and later, New Holland Agricultural Group, we developed “living the future” workshops to design and experiment with the future scenarios that we had developed. Taking the detailed scenarios and working with 30 or so of FIAT’s top executives we created interactive spaces for ideation and realization of the developed future insights, platforms and scenarios.

The designed environments allowed for immersive and interactive experimentation and innovative design approaches, which included interactive videos, models and simulation. This resulted in the development of a number of new vehicles that are in play today and potential market approaches.