Popular Keynote Topics for Futurist Thomas Frey – Architect of the Future

Predicting the future has little value without understanding the driving forces behind the trends, subtle nuances that can be leveraged, and implications for both the people directly affected in the industry as well as others farther down the technological food chain.

Each year his talks touch the lives of tens of thousands of people with his unique brand of customized presentations designed specifically around the needs of each and every audience.

With that in mind, here are some of his most popular topics. But don’t feel restricted by this list as he loves to tackle unusual topics.

The Coming Metaverse – “How the Metaverse will Rewrite the Rules for Business and Industry”

While many people think of the metaverse as some version of the dystopian movie, Ready Player One, the bulk of the metaverse will have far more utilitarian value, and it will be entering our future, with or without our permission. We’ve taken far too many steps in this direction to stop it. In addition to sports and entertainment, there will be few if any aspects of society – including government, business, churches, entertainment, dating, politics, and even war – that will remain unchanged with the evolving Metaverse. It will have an especially profound effect on the way we educate ourselves and our children in the years ahead.

Smart Cities – “How smart cities are changing our jobs, businesses and our children”

If we think of cities as living breathing organisms, where every facet of the city is expanding-contracting, flowing-trickling, inputting-outputting, and inhaling-exhaling, we begin to understand the dynamic nature of this kind of community. There are lots of attributes that we’ll add to our wish list for the smart city of the future, but first and foremost, they will need to be “aware.” They’ll need to be aware of everything happening inside their borders. Awareness breeds responsibility and sets the stage for what comes next. It’s all about flow. Smart cities will simultaneously aspire to be easy to live in, easy to work in, easy to travel in, and create easy ways to meet and connect with others. At the same time, we’ll judge them by their liveliness, enthusiasm, vibrancy, spontaneity, impulsiveness, and their overarching aptitude for serendipity.

Post Covid – “How the Coronavirus has altered the course of human history, and that’s a good thing!”

There is no incentive quite like no alternative. For people all over the planet, the Covid-19 crisis has been a deeply personal experience. Some are watching every newscast waiting for the next update. Others are scrambling to reengineer their own career path to take advantage of emerging opportunities. Many are living in a state of fear, not knowing where their next meal will come from or who will take care of their children. However, we are entering the golden age of opportunity. This will become a turning point in virtually everyone’s lives. The pandemic is accelerating our digital lives, so we should think in terms of unlimited possibilities. It’s offering us time to seriously reinvent every aspect of modern living.

Future Education – “Understanding the world they will inherit”

The human race has an unwritten mandate to pass our rapidly growing base of knowledge and information on from one generation to the next. However, the tools we have today are not up for the task. In their present forms, libraries are not good enough, schools are not fast enough, and technology still has a poor interface for the human mind. But rather than focusing on how to prepare for the future, this talk comes at the problem from a vastly different perspective. For all of our children, it’s imperative that we understand what kind of world they will inherit. If we understand the world they’re entering into, we can better prepare them with the skills they’ll need for the future. By 2030 the largest company on the Internet will be an education-based company that we haven’t heard of yet.

“Future Entertainment – “The fine art of post covid storytelling”

We are the first generation in human history to agonize over the implications of children personifying robots and talking to machines. What if your child’s best friend is a robot? What if your kid and their robot buddy plan devious pranks together? What if they get into fights with other kids and their robots? We are only months away from the first case of robots bullying other kids and their robots. This type of interaction may even become a super popular YouTube channel. If you find this line of thinking alarming, you’re not alone. As we find ourselves immersed in a world of change, our most ingenious innovators will be using AI and its seemingly unlimited toolsets to develop a new generation of entertainment. Our present forms of entertainment will pale in comparison. At the same time, AI will not only infiltrate the entertainment industry, but also rewrite the rules for fame, engagement, accomplishment, and most importantly, our way of thinking about success.

Future of Healthcare – “How do we build a better human?”

The year is 2042. You have just celebrated your 80th birthday and you have some tough decisions ahead. You can either keep repairing your current body or move into a new one. The growing of “blank” bodies has become all the rage, and by using your own genetic material, body farmers can even recreate your own face at an earlier age. In just 20 years, this is an industry that has moved from the equivalent of Frankenstein’s laboratory to the new celebrity craze, with controversy following it every step of the way. People in the future will view themselves as being in a constant state of improvement. This means that over the coming decades we will become exponentially more fixable – trainable, repairable, improvable, and even reinventable. It will no longer be about who we are today, but who we have the potential to become.

Future of Food and Agriculture – “Soon to become the coolest profession on earth”

Can better food create better people? Will a better food supply lead to healthier, stronger, better thinking people? These are the questions that are driving many of the advances in agriculture today. As we add sensors to the human body, we begin to transition from our current fad-based diets to something more science-based. Food scientists are continually developing better sensors for reading a myriad of bodily functions ranging from brainwave fluctuations, to micro heart palpitations, gastro-digestive processes, and variations of skin perspiration rates. This constant monitoring of hundreds of thousands of bodily nuances will bring about healthier food options tailored specifically to individual needs. This constantly shifting consumer demand will be felt throughout the food industry supply chain, and will help expand our need for biodiversity, niche products, and smart food in ways we never knew possible.

Future of Autonomous Transportation – “The most disruptive technology in all history”

When it comes to autonomous vehicles, the price of convenience is surveillance. Every trip we make in the future will have multiple parties interested in tracking our activities inside an autonomous vehicle. The company that owns the cars will want to know about any situation that could compromise the ongoing operation of the vehicle. Governments will want to mitigate danger and stop harmful activities before they happen. Advertisers will want to target people who will be interested in their products or services. And passengers will simply want a safe and inexpensive form of transportation. The more personalized these vehicles get, and the more conveniences they offer, the more data they’ll have to incorporate into their operation.

Future of AI – “Rethinking the future human experience”

Our present is becoming a more distant past every day. For most of us, AI is the magical genie in some invisible box that is redefining a new state of normal for us on a daily basis. AI is not something that we can touch, feel, taste, swallow, or toss back and forth like a ball. At the same time, it will soon become part of every one of these senses and activities, and that kind of future is showing up at our doorsteps with increased regularity. Change is our only constant. As this scales up, the rapid onset of AI means every new generation of people will participate in far more unique experiences than ever before. As bystanders, we are on the edge of a technological revolution of such magnitude that we literally can’t even comprehend it. Bit by bit, we are witnessing these confusing shifts happening right under our noses as we contend with one new reality after another after another.

Future Jobs – “Preparing for the workforce of the future”

With all the doom and gloom headlines predicting jobs being automated out of existence, as robots and artificial intelligence take over our jobs, we begin imagining unrealistic consequences for what lies ahead. However, we’re automating tasks out of existence, not entire jobs. As our tasks disappear, new tasks will get created, and jobs, work, and entire industries will be redefined. The first misconception is that robots, automation, and A.I. will destroy jobs, which is not true. It does kill parts of jobs and eliminates the needs for certain skills, but entire jobs are far more complex than that. In the short to medium term, the main effect of automation will not necessarily be eliminating jobs, but redefining them. Future jobs will have professions that bridge technology, but it will be the technology that is the primary job generator, not the profession.

Future Industries – “100,000 new micro industries will be created over the next two decades”

Every major industry today was started as a micro industry. Everything from steel, to photography, oil, airlines, electricity, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, and search engines all worked their way into existence from a tiny starting point. Over the coming two decades we will be witnessing an unprecedented wave of innovation and creativity driven by new tools of production. During this time we will see an explosion of over 100,000 new micro industries that will employ hundreds of millions of people. Additional information at 100,000 new micro industries to be created over the next two decades.

Future of Insurance – “The Future of Risk”

The insurance industry exists as a tool for mitigating the costs and damage associated with a single incident occurring for an individual or organization. But the concept of risk is changing. Driverless cars are reducing risk while flying drones are increasing it. Peer-to-peer models, automated sales channels, telematics, home automation, the sharing economy, big data, pay-as-you-go policies, shifting consumer preferences, and identity theft are all in the process of creating a far different landscape for the insurance industry of tomorrow. Additional information here: Transforming the Future of the Insurance Industry

Customized Keynotes

At the DaVinci Institute we use our own systems for forecasting the future. As we learn about your industry and apply our research methodologies, we are able to create a vision of the future that will specifically address the interests of your audience. Past examples include The Future of…

• Hospitality
• Energy
• Tourism
• Economic Development
• Innovation
• Infrastructure
• Airline Industry
• Housing and Real Estate