Industry creation and future strategy — the path and the role of the Dubai Future Forum
What was discussed
The session discussed a mechanism for connecting foresight not merely to prediction but to experimentation and industry creation. It introduced how the Dubai Future Foundation built up its functions step by step, from detecting signs of the future to investment and scaling. Using as an example a mechanism that tests unregulated technologies in real environments and forms markets while also nurturing regulation, it discussed the possibility of combining Japan's accumulated knowledge and manufacturing technology with Dubai's experimental environment. It also proposed that international cooperation should begin with small experiments rather than declarations.
About this session
“A startup nation.” This phrase, which came up while preparing this session with Patrick, captures precisely what there is to learn from Dubai. By tying future strategy and industrial strategy together, Dubai hosts the world's largest future-strategy forum while at the same time creating a venue in which national industrial strategy is built. Patrick, who leads that largest of Dubai's forums, joins us in Japan to speak — specially for this forum — about how Dubai approaches future strategy and industrial strategy. [Simultaneous interpretation into Japanese is provided for this session.]
Speakers
Patrick Noack
Dubai Future Foundation Executive Director, Future, Foresight and Imagination
Executive Director of Future, Foresight and Imagination at the Dubai Future Foundation. Previously senior policy adviser at the Royal Society, responsible for emerging technologies and foresight, where he worked on a report examining the scientific possibilities and the social and policy questions raised by neural interface technologies. Before that he worked on scenarios and foresight for complex problems in United Nations agencies and the private sector. He holds an MSc in social policy from the LSE and a PhD in zoology from the University of Aberdeen.
Watch the recording
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