The 4th international Future Center Summit was held in Tokyo from November 24th to 26th 2010. It was organized by KDI - the Knowledge Dynamics Initiative of Fuji- Xerox - in collaboration with the Future Center Alliance (FCA).
More than 70 people from 10 different countries attended the event.
The Japan Summit brought a broad cross-section of practitioners together to explore mutually interesting concepts and create a basis for learning and collaboration in the future. There were ample opportunities to work with people who are actively putting Future Center concepts into practice, as well as with people who are in the process of creating new concept and methodologies for Future Centers, innovation workspaces and labs for organizational and societal innovation.
The program included plenary and interactive small-group activities to explore a number of themes, with a special focus on:
· What Japanese concepts such as “ba” can mean for future-directed dialogue, solving cross-organizational problems and creating effective spaces for organizational and societal innovation.
· How to improve and upgrade present centers to address the challenges of the future.
· Visits to Japanese Future Centers and culturally important locations in the Tokyo area, as well as discussions revealing innovation and future-oriented practice at leading Japanese companies.
· Intercultural similarities and differences in working with innovation, future centers, and collaborative work processes.
There is a growing Future Center community in Japan, engaged in translating future center concepts into a new generation of centers that are both unique to Japan and relevant to today’s international world. People from this community worked closely with KDI to prepare and facilitate different activities during the Summit, offering exploiting their expertise and resources to offer memorable and engaging experiences.