DARK FUTURES is brought to you by Nikolas Badminton, Futurist, and the team that brought you the Cyborg Camp YVR, From Now: Humanity with Technology, and PRODUCT events.
Society goes about their daily routine oblivious to the psychological, physiological, macroeconomic and technological forces at work. Are we sleepwalking? Can we wake up to what is happening and affect it? Do we even have a choice?
Many conferences talk about the incredible possibilities that are delivered by innovations, this conference speaks about the hidden systems that affect our daily lives (whether we are aware of it or not).

• DARK MEDIA: Media and Controlling the Message – Jenny Uechi, Executive Editor, National Observer
  • The internet and social media have created an unprecedented sense of freedom about what can be reported and who can report what happens in the world. But the collapse of gatekeepers has brought about a corresponding backlash effort to control the message. “Photographers only” at political events, gag orders, efforts to blur the line between advertising/propaganda and objective news. An increasing polarization in public opinion created by online news that becomes an echo chamber reinforcing people’s views. A look at the opportunities and challenges of online news.
  • Organizer note: Jenny is a media tour de force. Essential thinking for a world surrounded by media.

• DARK GAMES: Crowdsourcing Freddy Krueger – Patrick Sauriol, Executive Director at DigiBC
  • For one hundred years, movies and pop culture spawned our collective bogeymen, such as the ones leaping from the pages of Stephen King novels to the slasher films of the 1980s. Now, the internet is giving birth to a whole new generation of things and tales that go bump in the night – and it’s a collective work of fiction being kickstarted to go beyond standard shock into hyper-scares.
  • Organizer note: Patrick is a passionate supporter or new ways to make changes in the world and motivates many to take a brave step into the future.

• DARK MANUFACTURING: What will you make? – John Biehler, 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing Consultant
  • When new technologies first get introduced, there are always those that find ways to use them for dark purposes. In this talk, we’ll explore examples of this in a few different industries.
  • Organizer note: John is one of the world’s foremost experts in additive manufacturing and 3D printing. You have to see this.

• DARK HEALTH: Hybrid Humans, Virtual Surgery and Other Futures for Healthcare – Kemp Edmonds, Solutions Consultant at Hootsuite
  • Exploring some known and some unknown possible technological routes for medicine we’ll delve in the grey market, the black market and beyond. Bringing stories to scare, amaze and inform let’s have some fun and speculate about the potential Dark Futures of medicine.
  • Organizer note: Kemp lives in the future of medicine. A lifestyle cyborg

We’ve just added another speaker:

• DARK INFORMATION SHARING: No choices, no privacy – Kris Constable, privacy and data security expert.
  • Lives have been changed over the last few years from information sharing, and in this session you’ll hear some of those stories. We’ll hear about where things are with data sharing today, and where they are headed legislatively, policy wise, and technically. Use your cell phone or any electronic device during this session at your own risk.
  • Organizer note: Kris is one of the world’s foremost experts in InfoSec. He will challenge you.

DARK FUTURES is now sold out.

We are most grateful to our friends at Hootsuite in providing the amazing venue for this event.

Yet again, Nikolas Badminton pushes thinking and what it means to create compelling events that change the way you look at the modern world.

A donation from this event will be made to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world.
Today, EFF uses the unique expertise of leading technologists, activists, and attorneys in our efforts to defend free speech online, fight illegal surveillance, advocate for users and innovators, and support freedom-enhancing technologies.

DARK FUTURES 2014

Here are the talks from 2014’s event:

***

Nikolas Badminton is a world-respected futurist speaker that researches, speaks, and writes about the future of work, how technology is affecting the workplace, how workers are adapting, the sharing economy, and how the world is evolving. He appears at conferences in Canada, USA, UK, and Europe. Email him to book him for your radio, TV show, or conference.