AAI Foresight Inc. 2018 Annual Report
By Timothy C. Mack, Managing Principal
Consulting and Research
On the business side in 2018, AAI Foresight has been moving along at a relatively steady pace, providing research, consulting and strategic advice, and in some cases legal issues research and recommendations to clients.
While European clients took a dip during the summer and fall, the fourth quarter saw a pickup in new directions, involving existing and new clients in western Europe, including France, the U.K., and the Netherlands. This work focused primarily on economic and cultural trends in European business management, including mindfulness, leadership, productivity analysis, and culture building.
In the United States, our work for the energy sector involved enhancing management of electric power system trends for several U.S. national laboratories and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. AAI’s work in the energy sector in 2018 continued to expand beyond federal agencies and the national lab system to clients in renewable energies, including wind and solar.
Beyond working with clients, AAI was a participant in the Association of Professional Futurists’ review of the year’s best foresight projects, and we continue to promote new publications in a range of areas.
Communications
AAI Foresight’s monthly e-newsletter, Foresight Signals, is distributed free to a loyal subscriber base, with an average open rate (40.5 percent) that far exceeds the industry standard (17.8 percent) for consulting firms.
FS is produced by AAI Foresight’s consulting editor, Cynthia G. Wagner, with contributions in 2018 from Lane Jennings, Randall Mayes, Tony Diggle, and myself as AAI Foresight’s managing principal (and FS publisher).
Foresight Signals, I must emphasize, is the only regularly published newsletter in our field with an open subscription policy that reports on activity in the broader futurist and foresight community. Among the groups we reported on in 2018 were the Association of Professional Futurists, the Club of Rome, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, DARPA, Dutch Future Society, Fast Futures Publishing, the Federal Foresight Community of Interest, Humanity+, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Institute for Alternative Futures, The Millennium Project, Pew Research Center, The Root’s Young Futurist awards program, SENS Research Foundation, Teach the Future, TechCast Global, World Future Council, World Futures Studies Federation, and World Resources Institute.
As well, FS offered stories in 2018 about many prominent futurists, including Rob Bencini, Nick Bostrom, Peter F. Eder, Edward E. Gordon, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Nat Irvin II, Thomas Lombardo, Katie King, and Joergen Oerstroem Moeller.
The November issue of FS, featuring an interview with Bob Olson of Institute for Alternative Futures, was the newsletter’s most popular of the year, followed by the February issue, which featured the annual report ranking foresight-oriented think tanks.
Readers tracked those two stories from email to the Web, putting them both among the top 10 viewed pages of the year at www.aaiforesight.com. Overall, Web visitors come to AAI Foresight from 22 countries, but predominantly (87 percent) the United States.
The blog remains the most-visited feature at AAI Foresight, and we invite you to visit its most recent contributions: “Which Factories are the Smartest?” by technology analyst Randall Mayes and “Broadband, Effective, and Affordable Approaches to Climate” by NASA scientist Dennis M. Bushnell.
Now, it’s your turn! Please send us highlights of your 2018 activities—new jobs, publications, awards, events, etc.—to share with the futurist and foresight community. And of course we welcome your news throughout the year—forward your “foresight signals” to Cindy at CynthiaGWagner@gmail.com.
Take care, and together may we make the New Year a prosperous and peaceful one for all.
Timothy C. Mack
Managing Principal
AAI Foresight Inc.
www.aaiforesight.com
tcm333@gmail.com