On Friday, November 30th, 2012, the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies (http://www.futures.hawaii.edu & @HRCFS) hosted the Manoa Futures Symposium at The Box Jelly. As one of the first gatherings for graduate students pursuing studies in Futures, the conference brought together young scholars from Australia, Finland, Germany, Canada, Bahrain, and across the U.S. representing Regent University, University of Sunshine Coast, the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), JAMK University of Applied Sciences, the University of Southern California (USC), the University of Houston, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

More details about the event can be found here: http://manoafuturessymposium.com/

The symposium was supported by the Department of Political Science at UH-Manoa as well as the Association of Professional Futurists (APF), who coordinated a live stream and recording of the event, and it was organized completely by graduate students at UH-Manoa who also serve as researchers at HRCFS.

The recording are available for viewing through the APF’s adobe connect platform.

Morning Sessions
http://futurists.adobeconnect.com/p1g59k45o9d/

Afternoon Sessions
http://futurists.adobeconnect.com/p1g59k45o9d/

Afternoon Session & Keynote
http://futurists.adobeconnect.com/p2hpxabran3/

Jose Ramos (@actionforesight) gave an inspiring keynote that served as a call to arms for emerging futurists! A referred symposium is planned for the Journal of Futures Studies, and there has already been some talk about future(s) symposia!

On Saturday, December 1st, 2012, HRCFS ran its Gaming Futures platform, which leverages both experiential scenario-based gaming dynamics with augmented reality and geo-spatial scavenger-hunt-esque components. Home base for the game was The Box Jelly!

12 gamers were marched through 4 alternative futures run by 8 actors and 4 facilitators. For more information about the game and how it acted as the capstone for a grant-funded HRCFS research project on the impact of communication technologies upon power relations within past, present, and futures context, please visit: http://gamingwiththefutures.tumblr.com