On 30 April 2020, kraftwerk agency gathered an invite-only audience to take place in its first FastForwardForum virtual “un-conference” over Zoom. The select group of thinkers was urged to challenge hand-picked experts speaking across three areas hit hardest by the global coronavirus pandemic in “Beyond Corona – What’s next?”. Three forums covered the topics of health, the economy and society – looking back at what we had learnt, looking now at what’s next, and discussing the ramifications for the future, both good and bad.
How COVID-19 will re-shape the future:
- Moving towards global collaboration – shifting towards multi-stakeholder organisations working towards shared goals and principles
- Digital transformation will accelerate – fast forwarding us to the future, consumers will permanently shift to ecommerce and online entertainment
- Personalised, data-driven, on demand healthcare, where our first point of contact with health services may be an AI interface or virtual clinic and we’re treated in our own homes
- Data donors – society donating their data to further medical breakthroughs
- The rise of human companies – companies have reacted in very human ways and this will be a permanent shift, also moving towards treating people not as consumers but as humans who have values
- The world has woken up to the risk of inaction – we ignored the threat of a global pandemic, the resultant crisis is a wake-up call for climate action
- Building a more equal society – the virus has made the gap between rich and more visible than ever, making us rethink who deserves to be compensated in society.
The healthcare panel was chaired by Dr Markus Hengstschläger, Head of the Institute of Medical Genetics at the University of Vienna. Panellists were:
- Dr Doris Malisching, mental clinical and health psychologist
- Dr Franz Gruber, specialist in microRNA studies and DNA profiling
- Robin Famanfarmaian, entrepreneur and angel investor
- Professor Dr Shafi Ahmed, surgeon and advisor in digital health
- Pete Trainor, CEO of ValaHealth, a virtual private healthcare service
The economy session was hosted by kraftwerk CEO Heimo Hammer. Panellists were:
- Dhiraj Mukherjee, co-founder of Shazam Entertainment
- Sunnie J Groeneveld, managing partner, Inspire 925
- Matteo Atti, executive vice president, marketing and innovation, VistaJet
- Arno Wohlfahrter, CEO of Trenkwalder Personaldienste
- Igor Beuker, speaker and trendwatcher
- Alicia Garcia Lopez, brand management and innovation specialist
The society session was chaired by Lucie Greene, worldwide director of Innovation Group. Panellists were:
- Carla Johnson, storyteller and business influencer
- Cindy Gallop, founder of MakeLoveNotPorn
- Heather Mills, owner of VBites Group and philanthropist
- Dr Alfred Koblinger, CEO of IQONIC Consulting
Highlights of the event can be viewed here...
