Can we be honest about how impossible it feels to contemplate big change?

The expectation of change to help us through the crises of our complex age is as exhilarating as it is burdensome. With so much around us tearing at the seams, why is it so hard to fathom a world re-drawn from scratch, our lives re-written in entirely new realities? Why does the radically new feel unrealistic, when the present is arguably insane?

Our global economic model delivers rich spoils for some, exploitation and deprivation for many, and impending climate collapse that should have us shaking in our boots. Our democracies are creaking under the burden of our disappointment. We live noisy lives of online interaction, our every fear and yearning monetised by algorithms, for which our inner realities are nothing more than fertile soil for profit.

As humanity’s house is on fire, we get bogged down in ESG abstractions, tick-boxes, acronyms, tech distractions and policy whizzes - all designed to ensure we do the minimum we can get away with while things stay broadly as they are.

We’re yearning for big change, yet we struggle to believe it is really possible.

This session is a challenge to name the world our hearts are crying out for. To imagine change that doesn’t leave our lives untouched. Who will we be? What will matter most? What will our new reality look like?