Climate change, artificial intelligence, changing demographics, automation, and – seemingly overnight – a global pandemic whose ultimate death toll and socioeconomic impacts are unknown. Change is accelerating at a rapid pace in today’s world, and the future of communities depends on our ability to respond and adapt to disruptive technologies, natural and human disasters, and other emerging challenges.
Ben Hitchings, FAICP, Principal of Green Heron Planning, LLC, and I thank the Maryland Department of Planning and the Smart Growth Network for sponsoring our March 27 webinar, ProAct Now: Planning Effectively in a Changing World. In our webinar we discussed 16 drivers of change – major social, technological, economic, and environmental trends that are transforming the world – and shared a new methodology we call ProAct Now, which is designed to enable communities to prepare effectively and holistically for change. The current COVID-19 crisis and its implications for trends such as an aging population, e-commerce, workforce automation, and globalization illustrate how interconnected the drivers are. Ben and I appreciated thoughtful audience questions exploring the pandemic’s possible consequences for rural communities, development patterns in urban communities, changing workplaces, emergency preparedness, and more.
Here is a link to the recorded webinar, courtesy of the Maryland Department of Planning. A pdf of the presentation is available for download on the ProAct Now webpage.