In February, Scott Smith was interviewed by blogger Sandrine Szabo for profession-web.ch on how companies are applying new tools to sense and detect change and how human foresight can help companies adjust to major shifts in global business such as a more socially focused capitalism discussed by global leaders this year at Davos. The interview took place prior to LIFT08 on the campus of the Université de Genève.

Culturepod.ch @ Lift08 with Scott Smith from Thierry on Vimeo.

Trying to understand the factors that will shape the future of interactive media? Scott Smith will be unfolding his view of these factors and explore what a cross-platform future looks like with fellow panelists at ICE08 in Toronto, held March 26-28.

Speakers from major media players such as the BBC, Australia's ABC and Microsoft will also address attendees, as well as new entrants such as P2P TV platform Joost and controversial online game Scrabulous. More information on the event will be announced shortly.

Excerpts of key articles from Changeism, the journal of Changeist, are now available via the Web site of Fast Company, source for leading-edge thinking on technology, innovation, management, leadership, design and more. Changeism: FC Edition joins the revamped Web site of the magazine which now features a community of authors, bloggers, journalists and thought leaders with insights to add to discussion of today's important topics. Readers can join, comment, save articles, and create custom pages featuring posts from their favorite authors available on the site.

LIFT board member, blogger, journalist and European director of TED Bruno Giussani briefly notes the key points of Scott Smith's presentation on Day 2 of LIFT08 in Geneva on his site, Lunch Over IP, along with coverage of talks by Nokia's Francesco Cara and Bill Cockayne, director of the Stanford Center for Critical Foresight and other LIFT presentations.

Other international blog coverage of the presentation:

• Internetactu.fr (France)
• David Roessli's Empty Set (Switzerland) 
• shot from the hip (Canada) 
• Critical Distance (Netherlands)
  
• T-Zine (Belgium)
• LIFTLab (Switzerland)
  

Scott Smith was selected to speak at the recent LIFT08 conference in Geneva, Switzerland for the event's module on foresight, and its relation to technology and society. Scott's 20 minute presentation introduced the idea of Human Foresight to the audience of 600-plus attendees from around the world who gathered at the CIGC near the United Nations complex in Geneva to learn and experience new insights about technology's impact on society. His talk began by describing the role of foresight, how it relates to identifying and refining a strategy, and the necessity of bringing it closer to the disciplines of design research and innovation to keep it people-centered. He also spoke briefly about Generation Y as a trip wire to the future, some emerging themes in Gen Y's use of technology, and left the audience with important words of advice to apply foresight in their work.

LIFT08 featured reknowned speakers, thinkers and creators such as anthropologists Genevieve Bell of Intel and Paul Dourish of UC Irvine, author Bruce Sterling, and robotics pioneer Kevin Warwick.  

See the video of the presentation below. If the Shockwave player doesn't load, or for other presentations from LIFT08, check out the conference Web site or the special site created by Swiss broadcaster TSR for Scott's presentation and additional videos.