FUTURES UNLOCKED | CFE Seminar Series

Dr Colin Russo – | –Tuesday 24 February 2026

Dr Colin Russo is an Australian futurist, strategist, and CEO of Engaging Futures, based in Brisbane. He is the developer of the Inclusive Futures Method (IFM), a five-phase foresight framework for creating inclusive, intergenerational futures. Colin has held senior roles in the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Mines and Energy, and later served in the CEO’s Office at the City of Gold Coast. He led the community consultation for the award-winning Our Bold Future initiative, coordinating 20 public workshops to shape the city’s long-term vision. He has presented futures work for the Australian War College, Victoria Police Legacy, the AIS 2032 Futures Outlook, and major Queensland water strategy projects. His expertise spans the futures of cities, health, environment, and public policy.

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Virginia Robin– | –Tuesday 24 March 

Virginia Robin is a Legal Futurist with 30 years in the legal field, including as a lawyer and law firm partner. Now focused on innovation, she integrates systems theory, quantum physics, and Indigenous wisdom to reshape legal practice and conflict resolution. She equips law firms with emotional intelligence tools and created the Robin Method, a three-step decision-making model developed over 13 years and taught to nearly 10,000 global students. A qualified mediator, she also developed Reflective Mediation, blending yoga and consciousness studies to support embodied decision-making. Her TEDx talk, Lawyers Are Trained to Break the Law, highlights the emotional disconnect in legal practice. Virginia has authored three books: Let’s Kiss All the Lawyers! …said no-one, ever, Not Guilty: Finding Peace in Three Simple Steps, and introduces emotional intelligence to children through The Many Meeeees of Miniki.

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Shermon Cruz– | –Tuesday 28 April

Shermon Cruz is the Founder and Chief Futurist of the Center for Engaged Foresight and holds the UNESCO Chair on Anticipatory Governance at Northwestern University, Philippines. He chairs The Millennium Project Philippines Node and formerly led the Association of Professional Futurists. Shermon co-founded the Asia Pacific Futures Network and the Global South Futures Community. He is a global thought leader in futures literacy and strategic foresight, contributing to global initiatives in governance, policy, and disaster risk reduction. He speaks internationally, facilitates futures workshops, and serves as editor and reviewer for leading foresight journals. His professional background includes roles at PwC, EY, and Accenture, and he teaches at leading institutions including the Asian Institute of Management and the Philippine Public Safety College. He is also the creator of the award-winning Dreams and Disruptions foresight game, used globally to explore alternative futures and transformative change.

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Prof Jennifer Whyte – | –Tuesday 19 May

Professor Jennifer Whyte is a leading expert in project leadership at the University of Sydney’s School of Project Management. Her work examines how major projects are organised and how digitalisation and offsite construction can transform the sector. A core focus of her research is “making futures that matter” – understanding how organisations imagine and build desirable futures through their project practices. Her work spans field studies on innovation in Sydney’s infrastructure megaprojects, conceptual research on future‑making, and lab‑based development of tools to support systems integration and change management. Professor Whyte is a Fellow and Policy Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and has held senior academic roles in Australia, the UK and the US, including at Imperial College London and Stanford University. She has contributed to major industry and policy bodies, such as the UK Construction Leadership Council and the Building Safely Committee, and currently serves on the Global Infrastructure Hub Academic Advisory Committee.

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Prof Katja Thoring– | –Tuesday 30 June

Professor Katja Thoring holds the Chair of Integrated Product Design at the TUM School of Engineering and Design in Germany. Her research sits at the intersection of design, architecture and engineering, with a particular interest in how physical environments shape creativity, productivity and wellbeing. She investigates “creative space” not only as a setting for current practice but as a foundation for imagining and prototyping futures that matter – futures where work, learning and innovation are supported by thoughtfully designed environments. Her work draws on design science, user‑centred methods and emerging technologies, exploring themes such as design innovation, creative processes and speculative design for future scenarios. Through this lens, she examines how spaces and systems can be re‑designed to support new ways of thinking, collaborating and creating.

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Dr Mahdi Abolghasemi– | –Tuesday 28 July

Dr Mahdi Abolghasemi is a Senior Lecturer in Statistical Data Science, specialising in time series forecasting, decision optimisation and machine learning for applications in retail and energy. Before joining the Queensland University of Technology, he held academic positions at Monash University and The University of Queensland. He serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Forecasting and reviews for several international journals, including Scientific Reports, International Journal of Production Research, Applied Energy, and Computers & Industrial Engineering. His research integrates advanced statistical methods with machine learning to address complex forecasting and optimisation challenges. He develops novel algorithms capable of handling hierarchical structures, systematic events and volatility in time series data. His primary research areas include demand forecasting in supply chains, renewable energy forecasting and decision‑focused predictive analytics.

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Dr Peter Scoblic– | –25 Nov

In this session Dr Peter Scoblic examined how leaders and organisations could better anticipate the future by combining the imaginative breadth of scenario planning with the rigor of probabilistic forecasting. Drawing on his work with Philip Tetlock, he showed why traditional expert judgment often fails and how structured forecasting methods improve decision-making under uncertainty. Dr Scoblic is the Sam Nunn Distinguished Fellow at the Nuclear Threat Initiative and co-founder of Event Horizon Strategies and holds senior roles at New America, CSIS, and Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. He has published widely on strategic foresight in leading outlets and is the author of the forthcoming American Psychohistory (Simon & Schuster), exploring the quest to quantify decision-making while preserving human judgment.

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Dr Stefan Hajkowicz– | –21 Oct

In this engaging fireside chat, Dr Stefan Hajkowicz – chief research consultant at CSIRO working at the interface between science and technology and policy and strategy – joined CFE Director Professor Michael Rosemann to explore the megatrends that have been reshaping our world and the strategies organisations have used to respond. Drawing on over 15 years of strategic foresight experience at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, Stefan shared real-world examples and decision-making frameworks that helped organisations anticipate change and uncover hidden opportunities. The session offered practical insights into how leading organisations built resilience and adapted in an era of uncertainty, and how these approaches could be applied in your own context.

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Mariagrazia Berardi– | 30 Sept

This thought-provoking session, presented by Futures & Foresight facilitator, Mariagrazia Berardi, explored how uncertainty, far from being a barrier, can be harnessed as a strategic asset. Participants engaged with the principles of Futures & Foresight, learning to move beyond traditional forecasting and embrace multiple scenarios, signals of change, and the practice of Futures Literacy. Technology Foresight emerged as a key tool for anticipating innovation within broader societal contexts. Attendees left equipped with new perspectives to transform volatility into opportunity and drive resilient, forward-thinking strategies. Watch the full recording to explore how uncertainty can become a powerful tool for innovation and strategic foresight.

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Prof Dirk Hovorka  | –26 Aug

In this thought-provoking session, Prof Dirk Hovorka explored how Information Systems (IS) research engages with the concept of The Future – not as a distant, digital extension of the present, but as a richly inhabited and contested space. He challenged the dominant narratives that treat the future with instrumental optimism, often overlooking its complexity and potential for critique. Prof Hovorka argued for positioning futures as a site of inquiry—one that enables the creation of novel concepts, tests boundaries, and reflects on evolving values and morals. By working with imaginaries of technological, social, and cultural possibilities, participants were invited to consider how both the world and our science could be reimagined beyond mere projections of the present.

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Dr Elissa Farrow– | –29 July

In this session, Dr Elissa Farrow explores how participatory foresight can empower change leaders to navigate uncertainty and shape preferred futures. Drawing from her academic research and real-world experience, Dr Farrow introduces practical tools like scenario co-creation, futures wheels, and speculative artefact design to foster inclusive and adaptive transformation. A key highlight of the session is the introduction of the Six Pillars Foresight Framework, developed by Prof Sohail Inayatullah. Dr Farrow walks participants through how to apply this powerful framework to any futures thinking process, helping individuals and organisations map, anticipate, and transform their futures with confidence. Whether you’re a change leader, strategist, or simply curious about the future, this session offers valuable insights and tools to begin your own foresight-inspired journey. Watch now to learn how to shape change through futures thinking.

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Dr Joseph Voros– | –24 June

Dr Joseph Voros is a futurist and strategic foresight practitioner with over 25 years of experience helping organisations navigate long-term change. With a PhD in theoretical physics, his early career included time at Netscape in Silicon Valley before transitioning to futures work in academia and policy. At Swinburne University, he played a key role in developing foresight capabilities and taught in the Master of Strategic Foresight program. His award-winning work on foresight methodologies and futures intelligence continues to influence strategic thinking globally. Now working independently, Dr Voros advises institutions such as NATO and the Australian National University on futures strategy, scanning, and long-range thinking. His current focus is on applying deep-time perspectives—such as Big History and Cosmic Evolution—to inform future-oriented decision-making at planetary scale. He remains committed to advancing the discipline of Futures Studies through research, mentoring, and global collaboration.

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