Caught between urgency and inevitability, have we given up our capability for radical change?
Join us for a collective exploration of futures in Africa. This is an exploration beyond the obvious, ultra-processed, pre-packaged versions that colonize our imagination.
Through a Futures Literacy lens, this Lab will challenge you to think beyond inherited narratives and consider what new futures we could actively shape in an increasingly uncertain and multipolar world.
Our future is being imagined and built today, but who is doing the imagining?
What if our imagination itself is depleted and impoverished?
What if we lose our agency in this relentless pace of change?
Internationally recognised futures thinker and educator, Professor Martin Calnan, Director of Executive Education at École des Ponts Business School in Paris, will lead you through an interactive Futures process and explore these questions and more.
Martin is the UNESCO Chair for Futures Literacy (FAST) for the Future of Finance at the business school. He designs transformative learning experiences for leaders navigating complexity and uncertainty, and is a guest lecturer and facilitator around the world.
Join us and learn from the best
What is Futures Literacy?
Developed over a decade ago by UNESCO, Futures Literacy is the capability to consciously imagine and build futures beyond the constraints and inevitability of the ‘used futures’ we are bombarded with. Futures Literacy is not about predicting the future. Rather it is a way of looking at the present through new eyes and expanding our field of possibilities.
Futures Literacy creates room for emergence in the present, literally changing the conditions of change. By imagining novel, previously ‘unimaginable’ futures, we change the way we think to positively impact our world.
Accelerate your impact
In a world that denies or is overwhelmed by complexity, Futures Literacy offers an essential new capability: the ability to use the future differently. Not to predict, but to expand what we can imagine and create; to broaden the field of possibilities.
Emerging from decades of work with leaders, coaches and people striving for positive change, this Masterclass will allow you to:
Explore a wide variety of im/possible futures to focus your leadership attention.
Use uncertainty as a catalyst for innovation, creativity, resilience and better decision-making.
Learn how to think beyond used futures and inevitable scenarios.
Leave with a change in perspective, new critical questions and a new way of understanding the present
Who should attend?
This Futures Lab is for thinkers, leaders, change catalysts, strategists, creators, HR professionals, facilitators and founders, or anyone interested in asking new questions to enable better decisions and different outcomes.
More and more leading organizations are learning to experiment with the future.
Shouldn’t you?
Meet the facilitators
Professor Martin Calnan studied at Stanford University in California where he graduated with Honors and Distinction. He then completed an MBA at Bocconi University in Italy, and is currently finishing his Doctoral thesis on the Future of Value and its impact on Finance.
Martin is Director of Executive Education at École des Ponts Business School in Paris, where he designs transformative learning experiences for leaders navigating complexity and uncertainty, as well as the UNESCO Chair for Futures Literacy (FAST) for the Future of Finance at the business school. He is an internationally recognised futures thinker and educator.
Over the course of his career, Martin has been the CEO of several companies in fields as varied as digital and leisure. His professional journey demonstrates a life-long commitment to navigating shifting markets and diverse industries. This allows him to bring an unconventional perspective to leadership development and bridge the gap between rigorous theoretical frameworks and the gritty reality of organisational innovation.
With more than 20 years’ experience as a facilitator, coach and strategy executive, Lesanne Brooke has worked with leaders, coaches and organisations across South Africa and internationally to navigate transformation, complexity and emergence. As an accredited Master Coach, she supports executives and teams to become more adaptive, impactful and future-ready.
Her work sits at the intersection of systems thinking, transformative leadership, mindset development and human potential. Through deeply intuitive yet grounded facilitation, Lesanne helps people recognise the unseen dynamics, patterns and belief systems shaping their organisations, leadership and decisions. In this way, her work closely aligns with Futures Literacy, making visible what is often hidden, expanding awareness beyond habitual thinking, and opening space for new futures to emerge.
Known for her warmth, insight and ability to create profound shifts in perspective, Lesanne is especially valued for helping people move from stuckness and certainty into curiosity, possibility and meaningful action.
Join Martin Calnan and Lesanne Brooke for an exclusive one-day Futures Lab designed to stretch constraints and uncertainty into assets.
The Futures lab will practically step you through:
Assessing assumptions: Participants will examine the elements that shape and limit their ability to imagine the future and be challenged to strip away the narratives and expectations that subconsciously dictate their current choices.
Expanding possibilities: We will move beyond typical scenarios to imagine truly alternative, diverse futures.
Nurturing emergence: This is the pivot from thinking to doing. We will use the future to detect and invent meaningful experiments in the present, allowing you to sense and respond to novelty as it happens.
Decolonising the future: We will explore how to move away from the repetition of past successes to embrace a future that celebrates equality, diversity, and surprising emergence.
COSTS
Book your spot today
The cost for the one-day Futures Lab is:
* R 3 500.00 excluding VAT per corporate delegate,
* R2 800.00 excluding VAT for private individuals,
* A discounted 10% for bookings of 3 or more participants from the same organisation.
This includes catering for an awesome wholesome buffet lunch as well as snacks and teas.
We want this Futures Literacy Lab to be as inclusive as possible. If the registration fee would prevent you from attending, please contact us to discuss available options. We would love to explore a way for you to join us.
Venue
A creative space in the heart of Stellenbosch
Wallenberg on the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) campus is a world-class conference centre and an environment carefully designed to stimulate innovative thinking, cross-disciplinary engagement, and the unfettered exchange of ideas.
Surrounded by indigenous gardens, a historic vineyard, and views of the Jonkershoek Valley and Stellenbosch Mountain, it has a reputation for excellent service and nourishing cuisine, providing the perfect backdrop for deep reflection, growth, and renewal.
Purpose-built for creative intellectual exchange
Seats are limited
An opportunity not to be missed!
The chance to get expert guidance from an internationally recognised futures educator and UNESCO chair for futures literacy.
Join us!
Please secure your place as soon as possible
Wednesday, 26 August 2026
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Gain UNESCO Certification in Futures Literacy!
This Futures Lab is the introduction to an optional 3-month virtual, live-time programme in Futures Literacy, with a certificate of completion endorsed by UNESCO, Paris Business School and DialogueSA.
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