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Future Salon Network    

ACCELERATION-AWARE
MONTHLY MEETINGS

Boldly Creating a World that Works for All.

Look Further. Think Deeper. Act Smarter.
Share the surprising present. Make great friends. Get more important things done.

Future Salons are free monthly educational, activist, and social events, created by volunteer Salon leaders around the world (perhaps you?) to help make our rapidly changing world more fascinating, manageable, profitable, and positive-sum for all of us.

Salons strive to find and network practical, positive, future-oriented people in each metro area, and to always provide both thinking-idea oriented and doing-action oriented activities. We use these events to improve our foresight, innovation, strategy and execution skills.

"Salon" is a European term for an intimate, supportive deliberation community. Future Salons focus on existing or emerging scientific, technological, entrepreneurial, or social change topics and projects worthy of your help and attention. We also cover critical-thinking, management, and personal change topics, and occasionally longer-term scientific and philosophical topics.

We try to attract folks from four general areas: Science (scientists, science writers, science geeks, educators, policy developers, etc), Technology (engineers, developers, hackers, makers, inventors, writers, etc.), Business (entrepreneurs, financiers, socially responsible managers, org. developers, consultants, etc.), and Society (futurists, transhumanists, social innovators, media professionals, educators, sustainability leaders, freethinkers, skeptics, etc.).

Come for fun and useful discussions. Work with new tools, practices, ideas and projects. See the future and sieze the present. Grow your network of supportive, future-oriented friends. Ready to meet other Salon leaders and attendees? Be a fan of ASF's Future Salon Facebook page (545 fans).

 

Visit and post to our Future Salon Community Blog at FutureSalon.com

Watch our vimeo channel of select Future Salon Videos.

Listen to audio recording of select Future Salon events and past conferences at ITConversations.

Speaker suggestions? Add them at our Future Salon Network Wiki

Are you a Future Salon moderator? Join our FS Moderators Forum (30 members) to communicate with other foresight culture promoters around the world.

 

Start a Future Salon in your city. Network future-oriented thinkers and doers in your community.

Our brief guidebook answers several Salon startup and management questions. Salons are easy to get going and very personally rewarding, especially with a co-moderator!

DOWNLOAD GUIDEBOOK

COLLATERAL MATERIAL
Business Card Template
Flyer Template
Custom Banners

FUTURE SALON LOGOS

ASF LOGOS

Ready to start your own Salon? Read the guidebook above, then email us at mail@accelerating.org for help!

On Politics: We welcome right and left speakers and members, but strive to be neither right or left wing. We are activists for what futurist FM Esfandiary called upwing. We seek to find and advance policies from any party that will create the broadest measurable progress in our collective and individual intelligence, diversity, ethics, resiliency, and capability, for all life forms on this planet. (Yes, many of us expect uplifting to occur one day!). As Adam Smith, Henry Adams, FM Esfandiary, Alvin Toffler, Carl Sagan, Gerard Peil, Ray Kurzweil and many others have noted, the world is progressing at an accelerating pace. We need to recognize and guide those accelerating processes. We call this being acceleration-aware, or accelaware. The upwing perspective starts with a recognition of the magnitude and directions of rapidly advancing global scientific and technical progress, and seeks practical knowledge of the many roadblocks to that progress, and the opportunities, challenges, and dangers that sci-tech progress brings, particularly at first, before it is well-integrated into business and society.

Future Salons typically meet once per month. All are free and open to the public. Sign up at each salon's Yahoo, Google, Facebook or Meetup group (we recommend Meetup groups for all salons willing to pay their low annual cost, as it is easiest for potential new members to find you there) for notifications of meetings and conversations with other local Salon members. Come add your insights and energy to the mix!

For more general foresight discussions, join ASF's Global Foresight - Linked In (5,050 members) for business foresight discussions. Finally, visit our Global Foresight Wiki for a user-built directory of the best foresight networks, programs, people, orgs and resources that we know of.

Here's our global list of affiliated salons. Ten are presently active, eight are previously active and the moderators have moved on. Inactive ones are open for taking over, rebranding, and revival! Interested? See our guidebook above for tips. Good luck and let us know if we can help!

Bay Area Future Salon    DETAILS

 

WHEN: 3rd Fri of Every Month
WHERE: SAP, Bldg D, Southern Cross Room,
3410 Hillview Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304
MODERATORS: Mark Finnern (email | weblog) Aslan Noghre-kar (email)
Video Archive
| Salon Weblog

NEXT MEETING:

See Yahoo! Group home page (currently 904 members, active)

Beijing Futurists NEW   DETAILS

 

WHEN: See Facebook Group
WHERE: Beijing, China
MODERATOR: Bridget Coila (email | weblog).

NEXT MEETING:

See Facebook Group home page (currently 75 members, active)

Boulder Future Salon  DETAILS

 

WHEN: 4th Fri of Every Month
WHERE: Boulder Bookstore, Upper Room North,
1107 Pearl St, Boulder, CO 80302
MODERATORS: Amanda Hargis, Wayne Radinsky (email)

NEXT MEETING:

See Meetup Group (currently 98 members, active)

DC Future Salon    DETAILS

 

WHEN: 1st Wed of Every Month
WHERE: Bethesda Community Ctr.
MODERATORS: Ben Goertzel (email)

NEXT MEETING:

See Yahoo! Group home page (currently 101 members, inactive—needs moderator)

Honolulu Futures Salon   DETAILS

 

WHEN: 1st Wed of Every Month
WHERE: University of Hawaii at Manoa
MODERATORS: Jake Dunagan (email) & Stuart Candy (email)

NEXT MEETING:

See Yahoo! Group home page (currently 17members, inactive—needs moderator)

Las Vegas Future Salon   DETAILS

 

WHEN: 2nd Fri of Every Month
WHERE: Borders, 2190 N. Rainbow, Las Vegas, NV (Usually)
MODERATORS: Gilda Cabral (email), Mike Korns, Mark Klein, and Sheila Klein

NEXT MEETING:

See Yahoo! Group home page (currently 307 members, active)

LA Future Salon   DETAILS

 

WHEN: Second Sundays,
WHERE: Downtown Los Angeles, CA, Various Venues
MODERATORS: Josie Roman (email) and Peter Voss (email)

NEXT MEETING:

See Yahoo! Group home page (currently 630 members, semi-active).

LA Mindshare   DETAILS

 

WHEN: Second or Third Fridays
WHERE: Downtown LA
Los Angeles, CA
MODERATORS: Doug Campbell (email) and Adam Mefford

NEXT MEETING:

See Facebook Group (currrently 121 members, active).
See also Mindshare LA, the producers website.

Manila Futurists   DETAILS

 

WHEN: See Yahoo Group
WHERE: Manila, Philippines
MODERATORS: Gilda Cabral (email) and Mike Korns.

NEXT MEETING:

See Yahoo Group home page (currently 297 members, inactive—needs moderator)

Munich Singularity Stammtisch NEW  DETAILS

 

WHEN: Monthly, date varies
WHERE: Beer Hall or Garden in Downtown Munich, Germany
MODERATOR: James Pearn (email | G+ page).

NEXT MEETING:

See Webpage for details and meeting writeups (currently 15 members, active)

New York City Future Salon - See the Futures   DETAILS

 

WHEN: See Meetup Group
WHERE: Greater New York City
MODERATOR: Paul Vasquez (email)

NEXT MEETING:

See Meetup Group home page (currently 451 members, active)

Philadelphia Future Salon  DETAILS

 

WHEN: 1st Thurs of Every Month
WHERE: Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, 1835 Market St, 14th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103
PAST MODERATORS: Tim "Flipper Peregrine" Allen (email), Don Bain (email), Melanie Swan, & Frank Taney (email)

NEXT MEETING:

See Google Group home page (currently 188 members, inactive—needsmoderator)

Seattle/Pacific Northwest Future Salon   DETAILS

 

WHEN: See Yahoo Group
WHERE: U. of Phoenix, and other locations in the greater Seattle area.
PAST MODERATORS: Jan Vandenbos (email), Ryan Rawson, and Dave Gould
Salon Wiki

NEXT MEETING:

See Yahoo! Group home page (currently 64 members, inactive—needs moderator)

San Diego Transhumanists Future Salon   DETAILS

 

WHEN: Typically Sundays
WHERE: Price Center, UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr, San Diego CA
MODERATORS: Jamie Dunbaugh (email), Cecilia Abadie (email)

NEXT MEETING:

See Meetup Group (currrently 76 members).
See Yahoo! Group (167 members) for listserve of previous salons.

Santa Cruz Future Salon DETAILS

 

WHEN: See Yahoo Group
WHERE: UC Santa Cruz and Borders Bookstore, 1200 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
PAST MODERATORS: Miguel F. Aznar (email), Jeff Jones (email) & Max Comess (email)

NEXT MEETING:

See Yahoo! Group home page (currently 91 members, inactive—needs moderator)

Second Life Future Salon   DETAILS

 

WHEN: See Yahoo Group
WHERE: Inside the free and easy-to-join 3D Online World, Second Life
PAST MODERATORS: Jerry Paffendorf (email | weblog) & Timothy Moenk (email)
Audio Archive
| Salon Weblog

NEXT MEETING:

See Yahoo! Group home page (currently 125 members, inactive—needs moderator)

Singapore Futurists   DETAILS

 

WHEN: See Facebook Group
WHERE: Singapore
MODERATOR: Stefan Pernar (email | website)

NEXT MEETING:

See Facebook Group page (currently 83 members, active)

Tucson H+ Future Salon   DETAILS

 

WHEN: See Facebook Group
WHERE: University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
PAST MODERATORS: Sybil de Clark (email)

NEXT MEETING:

Facebook Group (was 30 members) decommissioned. Inactive—needs moderator.


Other Salon, Entrepreneur, Activist, and Maker Networks We Recommend

BarCamp (International)
Ad-hoc un-conference gatherings, born from the desire for passionate people to share and learn in an open environment.
Berkeley Cybersalon (Berkeley, CA)
Impact of technology on society. Moderators: Sylvia Paull and Jeff Ubois
BrainJam (San Francisco, CA)
Attendee-led knowledge networking events.
Cafe Scientifique/Science Cafe. (Britain, Europe, North America: WA, MN, PA, CO, CA, TX, MT, MI, MA, IA, FL, NY)
Monthly forums for understanding and debating science issues, concepts, controversies. Not a shop window for science.
DorkBot (National)
People "doing strange things with electricity." Maker culture.
Engineers without Borders (International)
Partnering with developing communities worldwide to improve their quality of life via sustainable engineering projects. Student friendly.
FishBoN (Santa Barbara, CA)
Collaboration space for artists, scientists, enginers, writers, and performers to create new aesthetic experiences.
Force For the Future
SF Bay Area social network for alumni of startup accelerators such as YCombinator, Tech Stars, Seedcamp, and Launchbox.
Hacker Dojo (Mountain View, CA)
A community center for hackers and thinkers to meet, discuss, learn, and create.
Hackerspaces (International)
Community-operated physical places, where people can meet and work on their coding/engineering/science/art other projects.
Hike the Geek (International)
Monthly hiking and conversation for geeks and science types. Seven cities (six in US).
Hollywood Hill (West Los Angeles, CA)
Community using and exploring digital media and social change.
Humanity+ US Chapters (Chapter List)
Advocating the ethical use of technology to extend human capabilities. Mild technofabulist bias.
Idealab (Pasadena, CA)
Pioneering technology business incubator. Innovating in Web 2.0, robotics, printing, and renewable energy.
ISEPP/Wanderers (Portland, OR; San Jose, CA)
Science, engineering and public policy discussion group. Impressive speakers.
MeetUp (International)
A forum for people with shared interests to meet regularly in communities around the world. Type your postal code and see what's local!
Langton Labs (San Francisco, CA)
An ongoing experiment in creating and living an artistic, DIY, maker life.
Launch Box (Reston, VA; Palo Alto, CA)
A leading incubator for online startups. Helping entrepeneurs accelerate innovation.
Mind Camp (Seattle, WA)
A self-organizing, digitally minded, entrepreneur-driven, overnight confab.
Noisebridge (San Francisco, CA)
Nonprofit infrastructure provider for technical-creative projects, collaboratively run by its members.
Plug and Play Tech Centers (Palo Alto, Redwood City, Sunnyvale, Hollywood, West LA)
Incubator for over 200 technology startups in Web 2.0, SAAS, and other digital enterprise. Entrepreneur-centered.
Science Cafés (International)
Monthly pub and coffehouse conversations with a scientist about current science topics. NOVA and Sigma XI affiliated.
Science for Humanity (International)
Projects matching scientific capability to human need throughout the world.
Seedcamp (London, UK; Europe)
Jumpstarting innovation in Europe with seed capital, events, and support for entrepreneurs.
SuperHappyDevHouse (San Francisco, CA)
A monthly community for knowledge sharing, technology exploration, and ad-hoc collaboration.
TechShop (Menlo Park, CA)
An open-access, full service machine shop, tool education center, and public workshop.
Tech Stars (Boston, MA; Boulder, CO)
Seed capital and mentorship for startups. Summer camp, with up to $18,000 in seed funding.
The Do LaB
Artists, makers, designers, musicians, performers, event producers. Creating unique interactive social events since 2000.
World Café (International)
Discussion groups for "conversations that matter." Broad and interdiscipinary.
World Future Society US Chapters: (Austin | Boston | Colorado Springs | Dallas | Madison | New York | Philadelphia | Wash DC)
The oldest and largest futures network. Nonpartisan, broad based.
Y Combinator (Mountain View, CA)
A venture firm specializing in funding early-stage startups in software and web services.

Futures Studies - Discussion Lists

• General
alt.history.future. Usenet group on various futures (and secondarily, alternative history) topics. 300 posts/month. Variable quality. Since 1994.
Extropy-chat. Oldest transhumanist discussion list. Some futures studies, great thinkers. Mild libertarian bias. Since 1991.
Technoliberation. Techno-progressive politics (democracy + techology). James Hughes and Dale Carrico are moderators.
soc.history.what-if. Usenet group on alternative history topics. 3,000 posts/month. Variable quality. Since 1992.
Humanity+ lists. Topical and regional lists. WTA Chat is is the main list. Moderate volume.

• Members Only
Association of Professional Futurists list. Reasonable annual fee. For professional futurists.
World Futures Studies Federation list. Reasonable annual fee. For persons active in futures studies, practice, or 'prospective' change.

 

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