My former boss Joe Coates once wrote a piece “There is much to celebrate.” I think that captures perfectly the essence of my experience hanging out with fellow futurists at the WFS and APF meeting from Wednesday to Sunday. The Houston Foresight community was well represented throughout.
Many of our community participated in the APF Professional Development Day. Our own Heather Schlegel was the MC and helped plan the event with alum Jennifer Jarratt, with the guidance of faculty member and APF Board Chair Cindy Frewen and the assistance of alum Mary Jane Naquin in facilitating (what a team!). The day was devoted to discussions and exercises around professionalizing foresight. There was lots of great conversation and a real positive energy throughout the day. In my mind, the “moment of truth” for the day – if not the entire conference – was when Dr. Bishop, in a somewhat rare display of fiery emotion, made the case based on his “future of foresight” paper that the degree of consensus in the foresight community is much greater than the difference –despite the conventional wisdom to the contrary. It clearly hit home – you could see the paradigms shifting in the room!
For those who enjoy the social part, on Friday student Jim Breaux and the fabulous Marci organized a River Cruise that narrated key architectural buildings. On Saturday there were two cocktail parties. We had our annual Houston Foresight cocktail hour — a great mix of students, Master’s alums, certificate alums and friends. Right after that, most of us headed over to the APF annual cocktail party, in which the “Most Significant Futures Works” awards were announced. In the category of “Advancing methodology and practice,” I’m so happy to report that Professor Emeritus Oliver Markley took Second Place with “A New Methodology for Anticipating STEEP Surprises” and….[drum roll], current faculty Terry Grim took First Place with “The Foresight Maturity Model.” It’s great to have our faculty’s work recognized by our professional colleagues. And the prizes were handed out to Heather Schegel and Jim Breaux for being winners in the APF Student Recognition program, as previously noted.
There were lots of great presentations with 20 members of our extended “family” presenting. The “Best of Houston” panel once again was one of the best-attended sessions, and we’d like to share these three excellent presentations.

It was great content, great networking, and great fun – hope to see you there next year! Andy Hines