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I want to give the future as big a stage as possible.

Published by max

// Future unplugged – our possibilities for tomorrow!

We all realize that the world is changing. But how exactly? How will we experience our everyday life in the future? With the beginning of industrialization, we have invented a new form of work, social laws, insurance, supermarkets, banks and bank money, concepts such as leisure and vacation have entered our everyday lives.

Many people do not have the opportunity to deal sufficiently with the future and its possibilities. Our understanding of how we can shape the future is on the same level as the topic of health was in the 1960s. There are many misunderstandings, false statements and far too many negative things to report.

Together with Bochum Veranstaltungen and the Bochum Jahrhunderthalle, I have conceived a show in which I would like to show the possibilities of the future: for our society, for companies, but above all for each individual person. And with this format I would like to contribute to the fact that in the future more people participate in the new possibilities and we get a more balanced society.

This format can be booked: for the city, region, large companies, universities, to invite people of all kinds to deal with the new possibilities of the future – and to be well entertained (by the way: then it is also easier to remember).

But wait a minute: Future? Entertaining?

Think of it like Eckhard von Hirschhausen, who managed to bring us closer to the subject of health with a lot of charm and entertainment – for that I have great respect! Humor and good stories are much better than pure (and often far too dry) science.

It’s a new format. No one has ever done it like this before on a stage open to the public! All the more exciting when we try it out together.

What I can guarantee in any case: we will have an exciting, entertaining time! And afterwards the sensitivity to look at and shape the everyday life of the future in a new way.

I am looking forward to meeting you – and to our jointly shaped future.

Max

Future does not come.

We design it.

This is how it can look on stage. Here during rehearsals in the large Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum.

Here is a short interview about it:

Max, why a show?

Many people write a book. I found that too boring, so I conceived this show, the greatest show about the future ever. I can say that so relaxed, because there is no other one yet (laughs). In this case it is 90 minutes of best entertainment (2×45 minutes) in the great Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum with whose terrific team the show was created. Our lighting technician even worked with Pina Bausch. But everyone is unique here and without this wonderful mutual motivation and inspiration, such a big topic can’t be rocked!

Why future as a theme?

My idea is to inspire people in a new way with the topic of the future, much like Jamie Oliver once did with cooking. All people, relaxed, cheerful, with really good entertainment. Therefore also an entertainment show. We will laugh together and take a lot of these fearful scenarios about the future for a ride – also because most of them are really nonsense. The future is positive and everyone can experience that in this show!

And your goal with this show?

I want to motivate people in all areas of society, companies and regions to see their future positively, show how our entire everyday life will change. To show the possibilities that each individual, company or region have to shape their own future. And that is possible! In digitality, i.e. the combination of technology and society, more than ever before in the history of mankind. To do this, however, we have to put aside the industrial thought patterns we grew up with and discover the digital ones for ourselves. In the digital world, we need fewer large and centralized structures. We could, for example, own, manage and consciously share our data ourselves. We determine what happens to our data and to us. At the moment, we are ceding these opportunities – and the chance to earn money with them, for example – to a few large structures.

Aren’t we dependent on technology?

We like to reduce the digital to technology, which is why we also like to talk about digitization. But it’s really about shaping digitality, i.e., integrating technology into society in a meaningful way. Technology is not the decisive factor here. What is much more important are intelligent structures that link our 17 spheres of life and define our quality of life and economy. By the way, Germany is way ahead in this respect. We have already achieved this once. When industrialization began, we were not the technological leaders, but the ones who created the best working conditions, the best social system back then. We can do it again now. Crazy enough, the global crises are helping us to do just that.

What are the 17 areas of life and how are they changing?

Our everyday life is divided into 17 areas such as: Health, Housing, Work, Mobility, Education, Leisure, but also topics like Consumption & Production, Nutrition, the Financial System, Economy, Politics and of course Climate, Culture and also the very personal within ourselves. All these and a few more areas are changing right now. In the end it will be about 80% new structures in our everyday life. The good thing about it: this doesn’t just happen, this is changed by ourselves. At least we have the possibility to do so.

What exactly can people, companies and regions change?

Everything! You can completely shape the future. This was already the case at the transition to industrialization. Just one example: many of the Internet corporations that have become rich with data today use digital technologies, but they apply them in industrial structures. That’s what makes them so powerful, because we’re sort of granting them centralized collection of data and thus the power to use it – we’re so used to it. At the beginning of industrialization, there were also such misunderstandings. At that time unions had to be founded, we needed new social laws, bank money, pensions for all – a new everyday life with new procedures, new shopping facilities, care and learning (schools) for children. We need similarly weighty changes now: the digital euro is coming in 2026, new social laws are increasingly coming into focus, the tax system, how and where we work. How will we need to learn in the future – and what? Do we need schools in their existing form? What will work mean in our lives in the future. How will it be paid. Can a digital euro create a fairer tax system and perhaps balance out different regions? We can change all this – if we make ourselves aware of it. Much of this has already been initiated as well. I would like to get more people, companies and regions to become active here and to use the individual opportunities that are available to EVERYONE. In the show it goes with many examples and very entertaining about which possibilities individual humans, enterprises and regions have to form these whole structures and to produce meaningful life and economic quality for all humans – how they move the apparently large levers with small expenditure into the correct direction.

That’s what this show is for: to get people excited about the future and show them how they can actually shape it themselves – together with others.

This is how it can look on stage. Here during rehearsals in the large Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum.

Fotos: © Marian Margraf

#jahrhunderthallebochum

#bochumveranstaltungen

The 17 areas of life in our future – and how they will change our lives.

Published by max

When we talk about the future, we often talk about how everyday life will change. That means: on the one hand, we “only” have the new technology, but it will be used in all areas of our lives. So not only in our everyday life, in our profession or in individual areas, but in all 17 areas of life at the same time.

This seems frightening to many people, because if something changes everywhere …. But the opposite is the case, because there are many possibilities. This list should help to divide life into smaller units and to take a closer look at what new opportunities are opening up there and how these can be newly networked in the sense of a greater quality of life and economy for as many people as possible.

But let’s just think about industrialisation. In order for it to take hold, we didn’t just need the steam engine (aka the internet today). We also needed trade unions that fought for social laws, for health insurance, sick pay … otherwise working on the assembly line would not have been possible in the long term. Working time, leisure time, these are terms that only became established with industrialisation. We also needed new money, bank money, insurance in general, supermarkets because no one grew food at home any more, energy suppliers, the automobile, buses, trams, hospitals … our entire society adapted to industrialisation. Also the tax system, politics, our way of believing, all 17 areas of life. That is why they are so important. Because even today, new developments are happening that no one expected.

Of course, we are getting a new money, the digital euro. And in the medium term, this will no longer only be able to represent a financial value, but also other data. These will help to show the true value of goods. The sustainability, the social relevance. Or take the tokenisation of trees. It helps us to be able to increasingly assess each tree and its relevance to the climate. Maybe one day a country like Brazil, through the Amazon, which is responsible for about a quarter of our climate, will get money like we pay for commodities today! Products that are produced locally show this through the data stored in the digital currency.

Just as possible are the gardeners and landscapers who are helping cities to become climate-neutral with Gardening-as-a-Service. It is the new agriculturalists who, instead of selling products, are increasingly selling data on nutritional values that, together with our health data from the apps on our smartphones and patient data, can offer a new form of preventive care. It is the caretakers who suddenly help to bring city life to a new level of quality of life as central contacts in the neighbourhood. It could even be the banks, which increasingly map not only financial but also sustainability values via digital currencies and thus become a control instrument for a healthy society. Which, by the way, they already were once, in the 50s and 60s, with the mandate to promote regions, their companies and people. Or even autonomous driving systems that involve even remote villages in regional and national issues again and support local value creation that makes life worth living there again – perhaps even more worth living than in metropolises.

What must be clear to us is that the digitality that is entering our lives will change them. We can look at it curiously now and say “yes” to the new, experiment with it and say “yes” to the first successes, collaborate with other people, sectors, companies or regions and say “yes” again to new possibilities. Increasingly, new possibilities will develop from these “yeses”. If we say “no” from the beginning, the only certainty is that nothing new will develop.

Of course, behind all these possibilities mentioned here is positive thinking. A trust in people to shape life in a positive way. I know we are sceptical about this, because we have learned from an early age that we are all competitors. No collaborative ideas, every man for himself, America first! Not entirely wrong, by the way, because only when we are doing well can we collaborate with others. Those who do so will quickly have an advantage, creating networks, friendships and thus new systems that spread quickly. So it should be: America first and together! Replace “America” with a country, a name, a company of your choice. Then you have it.

For each of the 17 areas of life, there is a multitude of developments to observe, which complement and develop each other on a daily basis. No one can capture them in their entirety. For this reason alone, collaboration is essential. Specialisation is increasingly being supplemented by generalisation. And we are increasingly moving from efficiency back to excellence, quality – not only of products but also of life, quality of life.

My approach is therefore to present different possibilities of the individual areas of life and possible interconnections and in this way to develop people’s own sensitivity to them. This then serves to recognise and use new possibilities in one’s own life or professional life. In my experience, this is the most efficient way to find new solutions: Showing people how they can recognise new possibilities and then trusting them to do so and implement them in their environment.

Try it out and join in. You will quickly see how the world changes in a positive way. If we first focus on positive thoughts, the few negative side effects of the new possibilities are usually quite manageable, because they can be contained. Conversely, if we think of all the negative probabilities first, we move towards infinity and make no progress. Besides, there are already enough negative thoughts, you don’t need to think about them again. Instead, make a positive future worth living for yourself – and for the people around you and on this planet at the same time.

Futurology creates added value for life!

Published by max

Together with the Schufa magazine “Wegbereiter” we thought about how we could make the possibilities of digitalization visible and thus create added value in life through futurology – and wrote an article about it: “The future is not coming. We are shaping it!” Here are a few basic thoughts about our future. The link to the online version of the magazine can be found below.

We encounter a lot of new things. This is fascinating on the one hand, but on the other hand it arouses fears. Especially since we rarely look at the holistic picture. We look at a detail. A part of everyday life or economy that concerns us. That is per thousand compared to what is changing.

Futurology makes the future visible!

Futurologists show the whole picture. And they show how the individual company, the region, the city or person is networked within it. All of a sudden, connections become clear and fears of the future are transformed into future opportunities. Because yes, over 80% of our everyday life will change. However, 80% of these changes may be opportunities to make it better.

The digital revolution will not overwhelm us. If we make it visible with the help of futurology, we can understand it and use it for our own benefit. To do this, we need to understand the principles of the new and the different thinking behind it. Because industrial thinking will not get us anywhere in digital structures. It can even “backfire”.

It needs a new mindset

What will surprise many people: in order to use digitization successfully, we do not primarily need to understand technology – we need to understand life, nature and people. Because that’s what it’s all about. Then we have to know what we want! Technology is a tool to implement our idea of an optimal life and an optimal environment. The discussion about this is only rarely held at the moment, as we continue to strive for efficiency and growth in our industrial thinking structures.

Digital structures have the potential to change – or destroy – our lives. We must therefore urgently enter the ethical discussion and think about what we really want. Then we can use digitization to really generate added value for life: a new form of agriculture and nutrition, with associated health and education, are at the top of the list. Fairer economic systems and distribution on the other. The crazy thing is: the technology is there! We just have to use it in the appropriate way.

The added value for life

At this point someone always cries out: “Oh Max, you forgot about people, they’ll never change!” That’s not true. In most parts of global society, there are clear signals in that direction. We need to strengthen them. Let me give you an example: we probably agree that the meat industry in its current form is not sustainable. It does not need 50% market share from new innovative companies to change it. Just a few percent of consumers are enough. 5, 7, maybe 11% must think differently, then it is no longer worth maintaining the existing structure. Industrial thinking is so “knitted on edge” that it quickly reaches its limits.

We can change the world. Digitalization can help us do this. We just need to know how.

You can read the whole article here
https://schufa-wegbereiter.de/de/wissen/zukunft-gestalten/zukunft-gestalten.jsp

Requests for presentations, scenarios please via:
anfragen@maxthinius.de
Or via voice box: +49 30 6130 90 41

What makes a futurologist different from a future-researcher?

Published by max

Max Thinius – Futurologist and Future Shaper

Max Thinius is regarded as Europe’s leading futurologist and designer of the future. Besides his work as a consultant for companies, cities, regions and people, he gives many lectures, is a moderator and bestselling author.

Many companies and people today are faced with major considerations for the future. Somehow everything does not fit together anymore. The whole world is changing.

In fact, about 80% of our everyday life is changing in our private and business environment. These changes determine all structures in the newly forming social order. In the future we will live differently, work differently, shape the economy differently.

Futurology makes the future visible

Futurologists design positive models and scenarios for the future. To do so, they break away from purely scientific predictions with which trends can only be statistically extrapolated. Compared to future-researchers, futurologists think holistically and include various parameters.

Max Thinius researches and works on topics ranging from digitalization, social development, economy, financial market, urban and regional development, to health, nutrition, education and politics. From this holistic view, many possibilities of the future often only become visible.

Futurologists go far beyond individual industries in their consideration and show the entire perspective for entrepreneurial, regional or personal development in clear scenarios.

In addition, Max Thinius takes an international view of the various perspectives on the future. Many perspectives from the Asian, Eurasian, African regions flow in addition to the European and American perspectives. This is important to be able to assess global developments in relation to regional markets.

Max took the term “futurologist” from the Anglo-Saxon world and coined it for Germany, because the existing possibilities are not enough for him and mostly have a technological focus – whereby the human being is the one who shapes our future – not the technology.

Max lives in Berlin, Copenhagen and Funen (DK), has published in many public media, was often a guest in the scientific advisory council of the German government, advises companies (from DAX to medium-sized businesses), regions, cities, organisations and people, in actively shaping their own future.

For inquiries about lectures, scenarios please contact via:

anfragen@maxthinius.de

Or via voice box: +49 30 6130 90 41

References Max Thinius

Business: Axel Springer, AllyouneedFresh, BioCompany, Burda, Chupa-Chups, Coca-Cola, Christ Juweliere, Diageo, Deutsche Post, Douglas Holding, Dow, Heineken, GASAG, Lufthansa, MAMA AG, Mercedes Benz, Merck Pharma, MLP, PWC, STEAG, Sparkassen, Togal-Werk-AG, Vattenfall, Voeslauer, Volkswagen.

Politics: Bitkom, Bundesverband E-Commerce und Versandhandel Deutschland e.V. (bevh), Deutscher Bauernverband, Forum nachhaltige Geldanlagen, BMWi, Wissenschaftlicher Beirat der Bundesregierung, UVWM – Unternehmensverband Westfalen Mitte, Konzernrepräsentanz der Deutschen Post, VFI – Verband der Fertigwarenimporteure.

Institutions: Schule im Aufbruch, Rock it Biz – Stiftungsgesellschaft für Unternehmertum, Deutsche Umweltstiftung, Earthrise Foundation, IMK – Institut für Marketing und Kommunikation, Freie Universität Berlin, Universität St. Gallen, Die Tafel, Miami Ad School, Wirtschaftsförderung Brandenburg, Wirtschaftsförderung Düsseldorf, Mitglied im Rat der Gesellschaft.

Comments on Max Keynotes

“That was the best, most comprehensive and insightful talk I have ever heard on the subject of the future.”

Dr. Luling Lo / Uni Bremen, Lehrstuhl Logistik

“He is one of Germany’s most famous futurologists.”

BILD online

“Pretty cool performance yesterday – Merci!”

Ute Welty / Moderatorin, Journalistin

“At last a sound and positive contribution to the topic of digitization and the future.”

Petra Ohlmeyer / Wesco

“Super keynote!”

Uwe Riechel / Regional Director Fashion Europe bei Hellmann Worldwide Logistics

“This ranges from enthusiasm to euphoria!”

Dr. Michael Arretz / VFI – Verband der Fertigwarenimporteure

“Thank you – your lecture makes me feel good about the future.”

Hans Martin Pleiss / ABN AMRO

“Your lecture has given me much to think about in a positive sense.”

Jens Kaß / Geschäftsführer C. Mackprang jr. GmbH & CO. KG

“It’s always impressive to listen to!”

Julia Miosga / Bitkom

WUNDERKAMMER DER ZUKUNFT – Regions and their perspectives.

Published by max

The WUNDERKAMMER DER ZUKUNFT is one of the most exciting development projects for FUTURE in GERMANY. Exciting, because it is here that the development of society, the environment, visions, everyday life and work worth living and working in the Lüdenscheid Museum are collected from the past to the future and made accessible to the public.

What will the city of the future look like? How relevant will cities like Lüdenscheid be in the future (note: very!!!)? What will our everyday life look like then? How do we network with the rest of the world, Germany, Europe, Asia, Africa and America? How can new centres for innovation in business, society, culture and education be created in a city like Lüdenscheid?

IMPORTANT DABEI: We can change our future! It doesn’t just happen. We have the freedom to shape it. If we are aware of the new opportunities offered by digitization, every region can create a new quality of life for itself, for the people who live there and who will certainly want to live there in the future. Especially small and medium-sized cities will benefit from digitization – if they think differently!

One part of the project will answer questions about the future: “What would you ask the future if it could answer! The questions arose at the time of Corona, but are formulated far beyond that. People move the future. The WONDERCHAMBER OF THE FUTURE manages to bring this future close to the people.

Click here for the video:

If you want to know more about the future and, above all, how regions, small, medium and large cities can develop positively in this digital era, it is best to ask for more.

welcome@maxthinius.de

Via Voice-Box +49 30 6130 90 41

The future interviews differently

Published by max

We are not making any progress in the digital future with our current industrial thinking. We have to rethink, initiate new educational ideas, change ourselves and thus the world. Then we can have a new prospective future. And we have to develop more humour for our world and our everyday life again. Interview with Nico Gutjahr on the Webtalkshow.

Who is looking for new ideas for the future:

anfragen@maxthinius.de

Oder via SprachBox +49 30 6130 90 41

Max Thinius is also known through the famous London Speaker Bureau

The future thinks differently

Published by max

Starting today, digitization will transform our entire everyday life within the next 5-15 years. City centres will look different. Villages and smaller towns will have the chance to grow again, as more and more people will want to move to rural areas or small-/midsized towns. New digital metropolises may emerge in places that nobody thought possible. Of course, all this does not work automatically, but only if you do something about it.

First of all, it is important to remember that the future thinks differently! Our industrial way of thinking is only making limited progress, and above all we are leaving many opportunities and possibilities out of the equation from the outset. This is all the more important because over 80% of our everyday life will change. That is again over 80% chances to improve it. You can’t do that with your head in the sand. But with networking of possibilities, of business, science, society, politics and their joint innovation.

So let us concern ourselves with the new quality of life that digitization can bring to our everyday lives. Not with blockchain and artificial intelligence as such, but with meaningful solutions on this basis that are actually relevant to our everyday lives. The future does not just come – it is made. And it is made by us! The more we have clear ideas about where we want to go, the more we can get started today to get there. And perhaps that is why we are facing the greatest future of all time in our region!

Max Thinius shows in vivid and very entertaining examples and scenarios how we will experience everyday life … and even more important: how we can shape it. From now on.

For enquires on seminars, coachings etc. please contact Max

anfragen@maxthinius.de

Via VoiceBox: +49 30 6130 90 41

Photo by Hendrik Haase

The future lives differently!

Published by max

Do you still live in the present or already in the future? How will we live in the future, how are we mobile, how will urban and rural structures develop, whole regions and the habits of the people living there? Yes, how will we live? How will our life, our education and our everyday life be structured?

Co-Working has become a kind of fashion. One imagines rooms that one rents temporarily. And of course there’s a table football and good coffee. But it’s actually much more than that. There is a deeply developed structure behind good co-working. And not only with a wide range of office services. There are co-working spaces for specific industries. For example, food start-ups settle in a space … right through to legal advice and the mediation of investors, and in the meantime support in company building has also become part of this. In this way, completely new constructs are created, which in their entirety are suddenly larger than existing market sizes. And we are not only talking about the so-called “West”. Asia, Africa, India, huge structures are being created here on this basis – and extremely quickly and perfectly adapted to the respective needs of consumers. By the way, there are also places where so-called crypto-currencies are no longer a foreign word, because in many regions of the world they are more stable or secure than regional conventional currencies. Even the United Nations is paying micro-farmers with them and thus bringing them back into, no, not ours, but a new global economic system with increasingly new structures and paths.

But we came from co-working. What about co-living? It’s a much bigger market in itself. And we’re not just thinking of temporarily rented apartments as they already exist today. In the future, families will no longer share the newly built terraced housing estates, but living space in urban or suburban regions. They will enjoy the fact that their children will find other children there, that there will also be rest areas, that everyone can be with or without children, that educational opportunities will partly be offered in co-living spaces, that medical care will be available locally. New infrastructures are being created, which are possible because digital technology enables a doctor to take photos of the skin with a smartphone and check which skin disease might be present here using artificial intelligence. Of course, the elderly will also benefit from co-living – incidentally, they will no longer be pushed into retirement and thus into social insignificance, as is the case today, but will remain, according to their possibilities, a valuable part of society. These new digital structures and possibilities will also create a new social ethic in broad areas.

In this way, gigantic new “systems” are emerging. It is not simply a matter of changing a few habits. Copenhagen, with its largely new urban infrastructure, is way ahead of the rest of Europe. Over 60% of daily traffic is carried by bicycle. Bicycle paths are partly heated with industrial waste heat so that they can be used in bad weather (this includes avoiding splashing water when it rains). Subway trains run every 2 minutes and that autonomously and thus almost completely without delay … all this means that any further processes in our everyday life can change more quickly! But even Copenhagen is only the beginning.

“80% of our everyday life changes – that’s 80% chance to make it better.”

One of the biggest problems is indeed urban housing, which is the slowest to develop. Cities have been optimized for industrial processes in over 100 years. Efficient structures for industrial processes. People should be brought close to their workplaces, start families. For this purpose, living space has been developed and laid out in an urban grid. All this is now being questioned, because digital processes no longer need these structures. Transport systems can still be converted, but real estate? Here too, Copenhagen is making progress. Its goal is to relocate its center. A bit down to the right, towards Nordhafen. New housing concepts are being developed here, some of them already in co-living structures, but also with artificial intelligence that suggests the optimal neighborhood when people move in and connects people with each other. In this way, new social structures are created in urban areas that lead to more togetherness, a significantly lower crime rate and more social interaction and balance. And to an infinite number of new business and social models that build on this.

The future lives differently! However, we cannot shape it in the future, but only today. That means: only what we do today will have an effect on the future and will influence it positively (I hope so). So we must not wait for the future, but we must understand that our future is being shaped right now. By each of us, by each organization, each company, each political institution and many more. We therefore need clear scenarios where we want to go.

Get your share of clear scenarios for the future of your organization and start shaping it. The growth possibilities are endless.

Presentation show approx. 60 minutes

Anyone who wants to experience their perspectives for the future live:

anfragen@maxthinius.de

Or via VoiceBox +49 30 6130 90 42

(Also bookable as one-day seminar with many exercises to create your own future successfully)

Max Thinius is also available through the famous London Speaker Bureau

The next big thing in online commerce – food!

Published by max

How does LEOH (the food retail online trade) work? Experience insights on how to establish a new category in retail. How do you get the idea to establish an online supermarket? What are the hurdles that stand in your way? How do you achieve a veritable learning curve among consumers, society, the media public? What are the key factors that make LEOH successful. And, oh yes, how does an online supermarket like this actually work in everyday life and what potential is there in business models and convenience for manufacturers, consumers and society in general?

Many!

Keynote / show – 45/90/120 min

Contact Max

welcome@maxthinius.de // +49 30 6130 90 41

Future 4.0 – how future changes our everyday life!

Published by max

Don’t be afraid of the future!

Probably the most entertaining insight into the future, understandable for everyone. Max explains how the future actually works, why we sometimes panic (but don’t have to) and who actually shapes our future. He takes a trip into the world of intelligent refrigerators, new health care systems, smart technologies, self-driving cars in smart cities and wondrous developments promised for our smart everyday lives. He brings all this “smartness” together in an understandable way and shows us why the digital revolution will not overwhelm us in the end, but rather why it offers us all prospective opportunities.

Keynote / Show – 90/120 min

Thanks to SPRECHERHAUS® Nadin Buschhaus for the photo