DUBAI, 18th November, 2025 (WAM) – The 2025 Dubai Future Forum began with a diverse array of high-impact activities, including cutting-edge future innovations and immersive experiences in virtual, augmented and extended reality. These initiatives aim to engage participants interactively in shaping a sustainable future and driving positive change, in addition to specialised workshops and a dedicated corner for global book launches and signings with renowned authors, writers and publishers.
The interactive experiences, available to visitors from over 100 countries, included several forward-looking innovations such as “Future Botanica”, which offers an opportunity to design imaginative ecosystems that connect digital nature with physical space and reimagine the future of the natural world, and “Dialogue with the Forest”, a mixed-reality experience combining digital nature with real-world environments.
Other immersive experiences included the VR installation “The Art of Change”, a hand-drawn virtual reality artwork exploring identity, memory and inner dialogue across time; and “Keepers of the Forest”, an immersive film experience that addresses the vital link between traditional human knowledge and biodiversity sustainability.
The first day of the Forum also featured a series of specialised workshops addressing strategic themes around envisioning, designing, and implementing the future. The Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies and Think Beyond hosted a session titled “Anticipating the Future Together: How Can We Assess the Futures Pulse of Citizens?” exploring how individuals can become positive agents of the future by stimulating dialogue, interaction and collaboration, and by expanding the collective future-thinking mindset.
strategy& held a workshop titled “Scenario Lab: What Happens When Imagination Becomes the World’s Most Valuable Resource?”, which brought together futurists, innovators, policymakers, and creators to help lay the foundations of the emerging “imagination economy” – a new model of the future built around creativity.
In the “Foresight to Action: What Will the Future of Migration Look Like?” session, organised by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), participants from various sectors and regions explored the future of migration through foresight methodologies and scenario planning, identifying key trends and drivers of human mobility.
Another session, titled “Alternative Futures Methods: What Can We Learn from Around the World?”, was led by the School of International Futures and the Next Generation Foresight Practitioners Initiative, introducing diverse foresight approaches from across the globe.
This year’s edition of the Forum featured a dedicated and integrated book corner for launching and signing future-focused books by global authors and thought leaders. Highlights included: Making Futures Work by Phil Balagatas; Collaborating by Adam Kahane; Buzzing Futures by Tim Šooš; Breaking Bias by Anu Gupta; Exposure by Ramona Emerson.