Scott Smith

As founder and managing partner of Changeist since 2007, Scott points the way for the team's research, and manages partnerships and strategic direction for the group. His work focuses on guiding large organisations toward better futures by blending foresight, narrative design, and strategic thinking to uncover critical trends and insights, create future roadmaps, bring new visions to life, and align strategy with action in complex environments. Scott has worked with global institutions, including SWIFT, UNICEF, The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the European Commission, The Royal Society, and the Dubai Future Foundation. Scott has also led engagements with some of the largest and most respected global financial, retail, telecoms, technology and media brands, such as the BBC, The New York Times, ASOS, and Comcast. He has designed and delivered futures projects, talks and workshops in over a dozen countries and facilitated projects and workshops multiple languages. Scott also heads the Strategic Foresight programme for Dubai Future Academy, and lectures in the Innovation & Future Thinking programme at IED Barcelona, a course he helped create. He has written for The Atlantic, Quartz, The Next Web, WIRED UK, How We Get to Next, Medium, The Long View, and HOLO 2, and spoken at major events as diverse as The Next Web, Lift, Helsinki's Flow Festival, South Australia's Open State, EPIC, SxSW, Sibos, FutureEverything, PRIMER EU, NEXT14, 15 and 19, and me Convention. He has more than 25 years’ experience in forecasting, and has lived in three countries over that time. He is currently based in Amsterdam, where his spare time is currently devoted to developing several fiction and documentary projects. He is currently writing a book about the practice of futuring to be published in 2020, and co-hosts the Underfutures podcast.