The DDT working group that supports the organisers is representative of the rich mix of futures oriented participants we are aiming to bring together in Antwerp and Brussels in June. 

Together we think about the set-up, the call for papers, the programme, the guests, speakers and participants as well as the content and thematic angles of the event. Some working group members also sit on the reading committee, listed seperatly.

Erica Bol is an entrepreneurial future designer who brings together strategy and creativity for sustainable future innovation. At the Dutch futures consulting firm, Conscious Futures, she works as Future and Innovation Designer for international clients in business, governments and Ngo’s. For the foundationTeach the Future, an international initiative working to integrate future thinking in classrooms, she has the role of ‘Change Maker’ and is responsible for the European section. She has set up the Dutch Node of the Millennium Project and is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists (APF) and the Dutch Future Society (DFS). Erica is a creative partner in reWrap, an independent brand that designs and produces accessory products inspired by the Cradle to Cradle principle.

Shermon Cruz is a professional futurist, a climate reality leader, a certified business continuity professional and founder of the Center for Engaged Foresight. He is an active member of the World Futures Studies Federation, the Asia Pacific Futures Network and the Association of Professional Futurist. Shermon specializes on futures education and research, strategic foresight facilitation, planning, governance, city resilience, crisis management and policy management. He was formerly a director of the Philippine Center for Foresight Education and Innovation Research (PhilForesight) at Northwestern University in the Philippines. Shermon combines and integrates culture-based narrative and metaphoric thinking to question and explore alternate futures and to help people create a deeper, more authentic and action-oriented transformation.

Cornelia Daheim, based in Germany, is the Founder and Director of Future Impacts Consulting where she brings together team members with different methodological foci and thematic expertise. At Future Impacts a strong connection with communication and art feeds into meaningful conversations about the future. This is a co-creative practice involving projects that aim to let the future come to life via storytelling, gamification or walk-in futures installations and. Cornelia is an active member of the Association of Professional Futurists. Cornelia is also on the reading committee for DDT.

Denis Maksimov is an independent curator, researcher and theorist of art, politics and visual culture and the founder of the transdisciplinairy Avenir Institute. He investigates relations between aesthetics and power, post-structuralist thought and geopolitics, critical theory and international political economy, style and epistemology, historical analysis and futures studies. Denis has been working in strategic consultancy since 2006 in Moscow and continues an independent practice in Belgium and other countries.

An Mertens is an artist, writer and story-teller. She is a core member of Constant, a Brussels-based non-profit organisation for art and media with a focus on free software, feminist methodologies and free culture. An conducts research projects on how algorithms and code transform (literary) creation that lead to digital an print-publications, installations, walks, performances. She was a collaborator on the Latin American leg of the first Agence Future  project and is a full member of this non-profit group conducting (co-)creative futures projects. An is also on the reading committee for DDT.

John Sweeney is an international foresight practitioner, consultant, and educator. John has extensive project management experience, particularly in developing contexts. He has managed, facilitated, and designed educational workshops and seminars, multi-stakeholder projects, and strategic gaming systems in multiple settings. John served as a Researcher at the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies under the direction of Jim Dator until his retirement. John is a member of the World Futures Studies Federation and the Association of Professional Futurists. He is the Deputy Director of the Centre of Postnormal Policy and Futures Studies.

Maya Van Leemput combines research and consultancy with a creative multi-media practice. In 2015 she started as senior researcher at the Erasmus University College as the senior researcher of the new centre of expertise Applied Futures Research – Open Time. Maya’s activities gravitate towards the themes of media, culture, arts, (cross-cultural) communication, development, science and technology in society and urban environments. Her work is based in critical theory on alternative futures with experimental, creative and participatory approaches. She is Agence Future‘s coordinator. As a member of the World Futures Studies Federation she is the coordinator of the World Futures Learning Lab (LEALA). Maya is also a member of the Association of Professional Futurists.

The working group is supplemented by Bert De Bisschop, Research Coordinator of the Erasmus University College Brussels and Anders Kreuger, Senior Curator at M HKA.