KPU’s Third Age Learning hosts Compelling Conversations event on shaping the future

🔊 Listen to Post

In the age of innovation, Kwantlen Polytechnic University students, faculty, and community members can take part in a free event to learn how we can better connect in a divided world. 

The university’s Third Age Learning at Kwantlen (TALK), which aims to offer learning opportunities for adults aged 50 and over, will host an event part of its ongoing Compelling Conversations series on March 1 at the Richmond campus.

Futurist speaker Jim Bottomley will lead a discussion called “How Can We Make Y/our Future Better?”

To make forecasts, Bottomley examines how humans need change and, based on this, he creates better value for a product or service, or improved benefit goals for a company. 

“We all have a multitude of needs, and everything we do is based on our assessment of our need priorities,” he says. “It could be subconscious, it could be emotional, logical, [or] a combination of all those. But what I’m looking at is where needs are growing and where we can deliver better benefits to those needs.”

He adds that such principles can be applied to individuals’ personal lives, for example, by looking at what a better career option would be for a student.

“I’m going to be talking about what needs are changing [and] how we look at needs that will help us in our individual and our overall lives.”

Understanding how all outcomes that come from change produce both good and bad results is another thing Bottomley plans to share at the talk. 

“I’ve done a lot of leadership training, [and] if you’re going to launch a change, why not brainstorm with the people in your team and say, ‘What is the good that can come out of this? What is the negative that can come out of this?’”

He adds using the SWOT analysis, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, can help identify positive aspects of a subject matter and turn them into reality. 

Other topics he plans to cover include trends that affect needs. For example, while looking into the future, one should consider demographics, such as age groups, which may impact future trends.

“The number one year of baby boomers’ births was 1961,” Bottomley says. “So, right now, they’re hitting 65, [meaning] the peak number of people in this country is 65. Will services for [those] 65 and older be a big, hot factor moving forward? Yes. So you can predict where the demand will be, where the growth will be.”

Today, society faces the biggest technological change in history, which Bottomley calls the “innovation age,” where workplaces are shifting how they operate, government organizations are engaging with citizens more frequently, and interactions with corporate stakeholders are becoming more common.

“For many years, I’ve been asking people when I do a speech, … ‘Would you agree with the statement [that there] has been more change in your life and the way you do your work in the last three years than any other three-year period?’” Bottomley says. 

“When I started doing that 25 years ago, I would get a few hands up, then I would get half the hands up. I think about eight years ago, I got 100 per cent of the hands up, and they were municipal IT managers from across Canada.”

Bottomley hopes people will view their lives a bit differently and reassess the way they look at things after attending the event.

“I’m not ordering [attendees] to do anything, but what they’ll do is assess where they are in life and where they’re going in a different way that’s been proven [to] improve your outlook,” he says. 

“I’ll give you lots of examples of how you can do that, and I’ll open it up to questions. So if anyone’s got specific issues or problems, I’m happy to talk about it, and hopefully we can start to see that all human beings are more connected and more alike than we are different.”

The event will take place in Room 2550B at the Richmond campus from 10:00 am to noon. People are encouraged to register for the event before Feb. 21. For more information, visit www.kpu.ca/talk.