Alida Draudt had a piece in Slate that piece observing that futurists industry are overwhelmingly white and male. It caused a stir on the APF listserv and some questioned the numbers — I was not able to come up with the same numbers – and noted that the heads of APF and WFSF were women…but clearly the issue exists. It makes one wonder why and what can be done about it.
When the new Blade Runner movie was released on 6 October, there was a fun spate of futurists who were broached to discuss the movie and what technology it accurately predicted. As a grad student, I’m behind on my own movie attendance, but was thrilled that futurists were interviewed, and will be on the lookout for other movie reviews that feature futurists.
This month’s “states” counted 20 futurists keynotes noted in the media.  The settings ranged from local civic organizations (e.g., Joe Arron speaking to a Rotary Club), to local political organizations (Jay Herson speaking about Carrol County) to specific countries (e.g., Thomas Frey speaking in Instanbul), to continent-focused organizations (e.g., Daniel Silke’s talk at Africa Oil Week).  The topics ranged from policy to space technology to entertainment.
Even though I’m a new student member of APF, I already have a soft spot for it, and I was disappointed that October saw only six postings about or by APF members. Perhaps they  are too busy to toot their own horns? Of course, a key purpose of the FIM project is to see who is being covered by the media about the future – very clearly it is not the professional futurists working quietly behind the scenes.  – Lloyd Chesley