Often, in workshop settings, it is useful to begin with a light exercise that stimulates participants’ interactive participation, encourages them to think outside of their ordinary lines of thinking, and which therefore helps prep them for the events to follow.
This is perhaps especially true for participatory foresight workshops with participants not trained in or familiar with foresight are tasked with imagining futures and supplying information and creative solutions beyond their ordinary and traditional expertise. This is not easy, and participants often feel a little uncomfortable about this, at least at first. Asking a simple question that the participant is able to relate to, while simultaneously taking them outside their traditional modes of thinking, is often an effective way of starting to build the trust and comfortability that a good outcome of the workshop requires. 

For this reason, as part of Eye of Europe we have built a set of tried and tested Foresight Starter Prompts that organizers can use in workshop settings. These prompts provide questions that organizers can used to initiate workshop conversation and get the workshop off to a good start. 

By making this standard set of Foresight Starter Prompts available, we want to lower the barrier for organizing workshops and lower the barrier for inviting new groups of people into the workshops.

The prompt really is a simple question aimed at stimulating thinking, discussion, and participation. Not all questions are explicitly related to the future or to foresight and futures thinking, but as you can see in the material, they all have their use for stimulating this.

Can the conditions of our environment determine the core values and goals of a community? Does innovation thrive only during times of economic prosperity, or is human creation something resilient that emerges even in darker times? And is the triple transition (smart, green & fair) a necessity across every possible future, or does it depend on the world we find ourselves in?
These are challenging questions without simple answers.

Bearing in mind to explore new ideas about the future in specific sectors in the region of Central Macedonia, in March of 2026, we implemented 4 workshops dedicated to logistics, tourism, digital technologies, and building materials. The mission was simple: working teams of 4 to 6 people had to immerse themselves in a 2035 scenario set in Central Macedonia and co-design a novel product or service tailored to that future context. The scenario context was predetermined and based to one of the Dator’s four alternative future archetypes: Growth, Discipline, Collapse, or Transformation. Across the four events, a total of 115 quadruple-helix representatives participated—bringing together voices from local businesses, research institutions, civil society, and regional and local authorities, and here is what they ended up to.

To discern the trends that will influence space exploration in the long term, the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) and the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies (CIFS) collaboratively conducted a foresight analysis on the Future of Space Exploration in Europe between 2040-2060.

The study delineates four scenarios for the long-term future of space exploration, emphasizing the critical uncertainties and forces that will shape its trajectory and underscore its significance. As the future of European space exploration is anticipated to incorporate elements from each of these scenarios, strategic foresight is essential for current decision-making that aspires to be alert, enduring and forward-thinking.

Source: ESPI - Home- Reports