Chen Qiufan  Leading Chinese writer and visionary.  AI 2041: Ten Visions for our Future. “It’s not science nor fiction, it’s something in between, the space, the tension, the punctuation between two worlds.”

Wole Talabi   Shigidi And The Brass Head Of Obalufon (best books of 2023 by The Washington Post), Incomplete Solutions and Convergence Problems. Storytelling shapes perceptions. AI for Consulting Ancestors.

Xueting C. Ni,   writer and curator of contemporary Chinese culture and literature. The anthology Sinopticon, shows the diversity and depth of Chinese science fiction.

Debbie Urbanski  Portalmania: Transitions between us and others, and between different versions of ourselves.  After World: Great transition and a new awakening? Preserve human life or earth?

Deb Chachra, professor of engineering,  She wrote How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World.

Sundeep Waslekar  A World without War. Peace policy concepts discussed at UN Security Council. Chairman of the Strategic Foresight Group, India-based think tank that has worked on 65 countries since 2002.

Michelle Manafy Editorial Director @Digital Content Next, a not-for-profit organization representing over 60 media brands.

Sohail Inayatullah. First UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies for Sustainability and Humanity, IIUM, Malaysia. Developed futures technique of Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) which examines issues at four levels.

David Weinberger Everyday Chaos, Too Big to Know, Everything Is Miscellaneous, Small Pieces Loosely Joined, and co-author of  pioneering Cluetrain Manifesto (1999).  Unanticipation is the word!

Chris Luebkeman and Jonelle Simunich  Co- founded [y]our2040: “Co-creating the world we want”. “Human condition is a series of stories…”

Pieter Franken  Fintech. Co-founded and led Safecast (Fukushima), most successful citizen science initiative in the world. (The largest open dataset of background radiation measurements ever collected.)

Nicholas Omonuk  Climate advocate from pastoral tribe in eastern Uganda. Represented Most Affected People and Areas (MAPA) at COP27. Founded End Fossil Occupy Uganda, a local climate movement for a phase-out of fossil fuels and just transition for Africa.

Vanessa Nakate  Founder of Rise Up Movement. Climate justice activist based in Uganda. UNICEF global goodwill ambassador. A Bigger Picture. Bloomberg Business Week: “One of the green ones to watch” (2024).

Nirere Sadrach  Founder of “End Plastic Pollution“, youth-led organization to end single-use plastic by corporations and Project Kollekt, model for how local communities can deal with people learning about plastic.

Godfrey Ssekiziyivu , partner and Chief Technology Officer in “End Plastic Pollution”, a waste management operation that started in Uganda. It is based on the circular economy model. It builds motivation for helping keep the environment free of waste.

Sugata Mitra physicist, educational pioneer. Preparing children for their futures, not our pasts. Creator: “Hole in the Wall”  leading to School in the Cloud and  Self-Organized Learning Environments. Winner of one million dollar TED prize in 2013.

Florence Devouard    1st President of Wikimedia Foundation after Jimmy Wales. Wikimedia in Residence (WIPO).  Wiki Loves Africa,  Wikimedia in the age of AI. ” The essential infrastructure to support the open source, the open knowledge movement.”

Sachin Joshi   Founder of the Espalier Experimental and Heritage Schools. Creator “Education on Wheels”  then AI on Wheels (2025). First Indian to speak on “Education and Democracy” at EU Council.

Mark Gröb  Building Next Gen Products for UPS Enterprise. Applications in Training, Real-Time Data Visualization and Emerging Innovation Sectors. XR Subject Matter Expert.

Agatha Rachael Akullu  Creator “Read us Africa“, literacy program in Africa.  Book publisher, copywriter, editor. Global Peace Ambassador. Millennium Fellow 2023. YALI Fellow (Young African Leaders Initiative).

Jillian Reilly  The Ten Permissions: Redefining the Rules of Adulting in the 21st Century. Old logic and new logic.  Underlying themes: activism, future-oriented thinking. “You need to design your own portfolio.”

Mandar Apte  Educator and Executive Director at Cities4Peace. Documentary “From India With Love“. Co-founder of Media Rise for the power of positive storytelling, media, art and design to make the world a better place.

Rita McGrath professor at Columbia Business School. Advisor and speaker, ranked among top 10 management thinkers in the world. Seeing Around Corners and The End of Competitive Advantage. “

Henrique Dias  Founder and CEO of NoHarm, A nonprofit startup in Brazil that develops AI-based tools to improve patient safety in the public healthcare system. A decision support system in the healthcare system.

Robin Vincent-Smith   MSF (Doctors without Borders). Front lines in Africa. Then central Learning Officer: climate and environment. “Our DisMis project—Disinformation, Misinformation—gives voice to patients and shares scientific research.”

Joyce Kimutae   Climate scientist based in Kenya. Focus on Attribution Science: quantifying the role of human influence on the climate. Helping build causation—necessary for climate litigation.

Bill Fischer MIT Senior Lecturer, IMD Professor Emeritus of Innovation Management. Co-author Reinventing Giants (Haier), The Idea Hunter and more.

Janka Krings-Klebe
The Antifragile Organization: From Hierarchies to Ecosystems. Founding member of Business Ecosystem Alliance. Co-founder and managing partner of @co-shift GmbH.

Thomas Vander Wal   Advisor and strategist for systems and software. Created concepts “folksonomy“, “personal info cloud” and “model of attraction” all focused on the person.