Three years ago, I attending the World Future Society annual conference. I attended a workshop run by a handsome, smart, fast-talking Brit and his equally smart partner. They introduced me to a world of thinking so far outside the technology box that my world became brighter. In fact, my world became a paint box. Among other things, they showed us how to color our internet worlds and our logos with color-based technology paint brushes. What that session did for me was to make me realize that anything at all was possible. If I could think it, it was possible.

Lucky for me, Derek Woodgate lives here in Austin (and is the President of the Austin World Future Society). Over the years, we’ve gotten together every now and again to drink wine and chat about the future, about change, about decisions, about music and art and society. And I would like to share Derek with you.

Derek has a beautiful mind. Forget that guy from the movies that Russell Crowe played. Derek REALLY is the one with the beautiful mind. He grasps ideas and concepts quickly, sees the holes and the possibilities, and has such a focused way of accepting What Is, while seeing the ways it will shift in the future and understanding the models to use to make the future present.

When I asked Derek what he is thinking now he told me this: Living Cities; homes, buildings, structures that are responsive, immersive, and reconfigurable, and the Future of Aesthetics and Identity; renewing our future – how are our aesthetics and narratives changing due to our multisensory inputs.

For those of you who would like to begin a dialogue with Derek, here is his website: The Futures Lab. His company works world-wide to help bring the future to our daily lives, and often follows a 6-step process he designed and has written about (with a new book coming out in a few months):

Futureframing, Futurepulsing, Futuremapping, Futurescaping, Futuretuning, Futurefabbing (see the definitions here: The Process). He and his company come into your organization to find out where you want to be, help you make the industry possibilities and trends your future reality, and teaches your team how to succeed with them on a daily basis.

Here is something he says about what they do: “Visioning is generally defined as seeing the desirable over the possible, but we think that it is more about seeing the seemingly invisible. Hacking examples from unknown space, hijacking unexpected signals, drawing from the unthinkable, opening the gateways, trigger hunting, listening for missing colors, disruption, seeing the void, creating hybrids and new paradigms. Getting to a point where you can choose the future you so desire.”

Ah. A man who thinks and listens, hears colors and sees possibilities. His world is a beautiful place, and if you want, he can help you make your business life glisten with the same colors he sees.

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Listen to Sharon-Drew Morgen speak on MaestroConference on Oct. 14.

Check out my new book coming out October 15: Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what to do about it. Read two free chapters. Sign up for presales deals, and announcements.

Or have a look at my book Buying Facilitation:the new way to sell that inluences and expands decisions. Click here for two free chapters. It will teach you how to understand and manage the route through the internal decision process. Will it help you make a sale? Maybe. Maybe not. But it sure will help you make a client.