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we summ( )n the futures

to play with them now

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The Future emerges only when people want to see it.

Ritual of summoning

An ability to summon things – i.e., to bring them from other places to your location - was a skill of the wise mages.

More experienced mages could also transferthe things – or people - from the past to the present.

Only the wisest and most powerful mages were able to summon – or conjure, to bring to existence – the objects from the future.

But even the most powerful mages couldn’t summon things from the future without a help of other people!

Summoning is by the very nature a collaborative, co-creative ritual.

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• why? • how?• …

we summ( )n the futures

to play with them now:

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Why futures?

What does ‘future’ mean to you?

What if you can see – sense? touch? – the future?

For some people knowing more about the ‘future’ would help to develop new products, service, brands – in other words, to innovate.

For others it will provide them knowledge about their competitors, markets, societies at large – in other words, to bring competitive edge.

And for some such knowledge would help to develop and change themselves, in anticipation of the new coming realities – in other words, to transform.

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Exploring Possibilities

Transforming Minds

Understanding People

Our ‘portal’ is a network of methods and tools helping people to see and sense possible futures,and explore them in a creative and playful way.

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In-depth, contextual studies in the people’s ‘natural habitat’

Gathering high-granularity data about people’s behavior and activities, uses (and abuses) of products and services…

… but also about their motivations, ideas, dreams (concerns & fears)

Extracting valuable insights from the data and translating into design

Enabling collaborative encounters and co-creation

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Mediated Conversations

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What is the changing nature of our conversations, increasingly mediated by the plethora of digital tools?

What are the new emerging practices – and new expectations from the future?

Together with STBY/Reach we explored how people ‘talk’ these days – not only verbally, but also using multiple digital tools and practices, and in different contexts.

We applied the principles of co-research in the study, asking people to keep diaries, collect examples of their ‘digital conversations’ and making videos of their activities.

Together with our own video-ethnographic interviews, it provided rich and inspirational materials for the clients and lead to the creation of new concepts.

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Co-creating New Markets

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Smart phones are dominating the markets and minds – but are they the only existing platform of communication and interaction?

Together with STBY we designed and conducted a hybrid people research, combining co-creative sessions (labs) and in-depth contextual video interviews with the users.

The results had been presented as a series of short design documentaries, highlighting key issues people are facing with, but also revealing new opportunities, pointing to a new market segment.

(undisclosed brand)

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Emerging Media Experiences

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TV is moving from its role of a household’s ‘hearthstone’ to a distributed, multipurpose, and collectively used system of devices and services, contributing to the complex media experiences. What’s new (and what’s obsolete) in this quickly changing media landscape?

Summ( )n has designed and conducted an online participatory study of the emerging patterns of ‘media consumption’ and ‘media production’ in the Netherlands.

People kept their online diaries where they told us about various ‘digital media experiences’ throughout a week, their likes and dislikes of the media (both content and device-wise), and their expectations of the future.

Leveraging on possibilities of the online research tools, the client team was able to participate in a dialogue with people, increasing the amount and quality of the insights.

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We are a member of

a global network of design research agencies,capable to quickly and efficiently conductpeople research in all major markets.

www.globaldesignresearch.com

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Gathering and analyzing information about key industry and market trends, but also societal and cultural developments

Identifying leading experts and conducting interviews and workshops

Helping our clients make sense of them in their specific context…

… and exploring these possible futures in a playful, yet serious manner

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Education 2024 in NL

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Design association was keen to explore the possible futures of the Netherlands, to inform and inspire its business members. In particularly, they were interested in the future of education.

Summ( )n collected available information about the key trends and developments that could impact the country by 2025, as envisaged by the experts.

We then designed and conducted a game (‘playshop’) ‘Future Telling’, whereby people construct their own versions of the futures, according to the assigned role models, in a competitive yet collaborative manner.

The resulting scenarios had been critically evaluated, to avoid simple extrapolations of today’s realities into the future.

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The Future of Social Media

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The company operating in directing marketing industry wanted to explore the potentials (as well as threats) of social media.

At the same time, it wanted to demonstrate thought leadership in the area to its customers and partners.

Summ( )n has compiled and presented a comprehensive overview of the historic developments and the possible futures of social media, and its impact on people’s behavior.

Complimentary to that, we developed a serious game for the participants to feel the qualities of this new phenomena, and experience how they can run their businesses with (or rather within) this new media

Most importantly, they realized a set of missing skills that have to be develop to successfully operate in this digitally connected social world.

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The Future of the Internet of Things

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For its inaugural conference in Brussels, the European Council of the Internet of Things, a leading think-tank in this domain, commissioned Summ( )n to create an inspirational, yet also educational event.

Summ( )n has developed a role-playing game called The Internet of Dragons whereby participants had to construct their own versions of the future of Internet of Things – only with the dragons, of various magical abilities!

While constricting – and enacting – their different versions of the future, the participants have seen and experienced underplaying assumptions and values behind their models, and engaged in a playful, yet very productive dialogue about the key dilemmas of this complex socio-technological systems in a making.

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From…

The Internet of Things

…to

The Internet of People

www.theinternetofthings.eu

www.theinternetofpeople.eu

Summ( )n is a member of the European Council of the Internet of Things,and since recently in in the board of a newly formed Internet of People, its business consultancy wing.

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Integrating People Research and Future Studies:

We conduct our people research projects with a view on possible changes in societies – and we explore possible futures from people’s perspectives.

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We don’t merely produce and present reports about studies and explorations – we develop new ways to bring them into innovation process, making them moreimpactful and enhancing.

We make sure that our findings and insights – together with the playful ways to explore and use them – do change people’s minds, transforming them and making ‘ready for the future’.

And we can show ‘before’ and ‘after’.

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Cities of the Future – Cross-Cultural Design

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Co-Creating Tools for Co-Creation

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Walking Backward to the Future

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I Think That You Think That I Think

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Our clients/partners

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let’s summ( )n your futures

to play with them now!