Ideas and Thoughts for Building a Better Future

100TM’s first Lab on Sustainable Communities held in Helsinki, Finland

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On 16th September in Helsinki, Finland, 100TM organized our first Lab to explore the future of sustainable and resilient communities in 2050 and beyond. This event was co-facilitated by Riel Miller – remotely from Paris, France – and Jaime Alvarez.

There were 25 attendees, five working groups, and some exciting exercises that took participants on a journey into different kinds of futures and back to the present. During this journey, they ventured into probable, desirable, and imaginary futures, building narratives and sculptures they had to present to the rest of the groups.

These exercises allowed them to express their identities, values, and beliefs in ways that reflected their present concerns. Jaime Alvarez provided in-person feedback and guidance for the different exercises. At the same time, Riel Miller gave thoughtful feedback about the underlying anticipatory assumptions that were revealed by the groups in their presentations.

This Lab pushed the frontiers of our thinking to help us make sense of the emergent possibilities present in sustainable communities. We used the Futures Literacy methodology to reach this goal by engaging the participants to think about how people ‘use the future’.

Co-founder Jaime Alvarez commented on the day’s schedule: "Organizing a Lab like this is very complex. Many aspects had to be taken care of, but all went to plan. We had a stellar group of people who spent their entire day with us.”
“We felt a great connection between our project and the fundamental concerns of humanity.”

— Alberto Scherb

CEO Alberto Scherb felt that as founders, “we felt a great connection between our project and the fundamental concerns of humanity. The way we build and take care of the communities we live in is crucial to our health, work environment, spirituality, and many other dimensions of well-being.”

Alvarez adds, “There were many especially significant moments. If I had to pick one, I’d choose the time when one of the presenters said that his group didn’t have a conclusion because they needed more time for reflection. This moment sparked a discussion about the usefulness of not rushing things and the virtue of letting things mature as a basic element for enabling emergent futures to come to life. These kinds of discussions get drowned by our daily affairs. Our quest for efficiency and short-term satisfaction play against the emergence of the futures that we most yearn for.”

Due to the success of this first event, 100TM will be organizing additional Labs. Our second Lab will occur in Portland, Oregon, in November 2022.

Invitations will be sent out soon!

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