FutureEverything’s mission is to create societal change through art, design and participation. This takes many different forms; art installations, new media festivals, human centred design and social experiments at a massive scale. For 21 years, FutureEverthing has pushed the boundaries of new media art, engaging the wider arts community, city makers, policy-makers, businesses and academics around digital engagement and creativity.

Our Change Creation Plan

There are three key interlinked changes that FutureEverything is looking to make. The first is a shift in the business model. In mid-2016, as part of building a research programme to develop outlets and funders for new media art in non-art domains, from the Internet of Things and Smart Cities to Climate Services and Citizens’ Observatories, we added a service design department to the existing longstanding ‘’new media art festival’’ business model and supporting organisational structure. We are transforming our relationship with our eponymous annual festival of digital culture, transitioning to alternative models.

This shift in Business Strategy has not been supported by sufficient attention on the second critical change – that required to organisational structures, hierarchies, company working culture and the fundamental transition from the ‘’old’’ FutureEverything 2.0 and the more design oriented FutureEverything 3.0.

The third element is the desire from Dr. Drew Hemment, Founder and Creative Director of FutureEverything, to transition from his existing role to take a new position within the organisational structure. He needs to accommodate other roles alongside a firm commitment to FutureEverything, notably project lead on the GROW Observatory and Dundee Fellow at University of Dundee. The challenge for the company is to accommodate this change in a way that can strengthen rather than diminish the creative leadership of the organisation, while making best use of Drew’s vision and strategy role. This sort of change requires careful and thought through change management.