future a future I feel we could have
with a lot of help you see at the start
of my career I like most people and if
I’m honest probably all of us in this
room I had no idea where to start
and that really frustrated me because I
thought after graduating from this
university I would just go into my job
and I’d be fine and it would be great
and didn’t happen so about a year went
by and I kept thinking what’s going on
here so after that frustration I thought
let’s stop this let’s think about things
slightly differently and I chose to
think about things from a point of view
of instead of what do I want to do let’s
think about things from a different
point of view why do I want to do
whatever it is I’ll end up doing and
importantly for me who do I want to be
I’m very aware that a picture of Ironman
has just appeared on the screen I of
course want to be Ironman he’s the
coolest superhero but I’m 5 foot 5 and I
looked like this not Robert Downey jr.
thank you for laughing I appreciate that
but what you have there in Ironman is
someone with a purpose and that’s what I
really wanted to be so instead of
thinking about what is this that I want
to do I thought let’s not worry about
that let’s concentrate on why I’m doing
it and who I want to be and I was an
emerging environmental scientist at the
time so I was obviously into
environmentalism and conservation and
animals as a giant hippie inside and I
wanted to go around the world saving all
the animals that’s the job I wanted
I remember saying just before I
graduated to a friend and they asked me
what do you want to do next and I said
so if there’s an oil spill and
everything gets oily because I was that
good a student at the time oily I would
I want to fly there and save it that’s
the job I wanted that is not really a
real job but that’s what I wanted to do
so I thought ok let’s just open my mind
and just talk to people under these
ethics
I have says environmentalism
sustainability just ethics doing good
and that is the best thing I have ever
ever done because since then over those
years so much good has happened now we
do have conservation projects all around
the world and four different continents
ethical products a sustainable coffee
range and the future is looking really
big and bright we’ve got documentaries
coming in urban sustainable farms loads
of great stuff just by talking to people
instead of having that idea of I’m doing
this it doesn’t matter what you do if
you have those core ethics that all
culminated to me at the start of this
year thanks to a nomination by this
University actually and eventually the
u.s. embassy
I got nominated to go to America for
three weeks I ended up going for four at
the start this year on a trip and I did
I had to fight my biggest fear on day
one which was no fun at all and that is
flying I don’t know how you all deal
with flying but I do not do well at all
but I did it I did it with the help of
two beautiful wonderful just really
really amazing bottles of wine next
thing I know I’m in Washington DC with a
hangover and that’s it I’m in America
and I’m meeting these wonderful people
people from all over the world and were
the same ethics and beliefs as me
environmentalism sustainability Urban
Development things like that and we
traveled across America for three weeks
with the US State Department and a
wonderful company called Meridian and
the whole point of the tour was to let
us meet other people who thought like us
that is such a great opportunity to be
in amongst people like you meeting other
people like you it is the most inspiring
time because the discussions that come
out of it
are just amazing especially when you
have the same ideas about life but the
trip was more than that to me personally
because I went at quite a turbulent time
for America I arrived in Washington DC
with that giant hangar
just a few hours after the exchange of
power in the White House so which I’m
sure you’ve all heard of in one way or
another so America was not quite America
it was quite different and I got a
front-row seat to all of that so I spent
three weeks traveling America meeting
people who in to be honest were really
inspiring I know lots of I could be very
bad things are happening at the moment
in the world when it comes to this
situation but what I saw for three weeks
were literally tens of thousands of
futurists I saw people who genuinely
cared about their future and were trying
to do something about it whether it was
just talking to be bullish as I say I
feel is the most important thing there
is or they were doing something about it
and that was the best thing I could have
ever seen because I’d a front-row seat
from Washington DC to New York all the
way to California and I saw thousands
upon thousands of people who cared about
their future and many of which were
putting their personal touch about in it
like this guy here so I came back quite
recently as a few weeks ago with the
help of more wine and I’ve decided to
make my biggest project even bigger
you see I’m designing a city a whole
city
everything from the recreation space the
waste waste is not fun but it’s
important the architecture the office
space absolutely everything with a group
of well a very large group who are
growing every day of architects
designers environmentalist s– artists
just the the group is growing every
single day and its really great to see
so why would I design a city why would I
do something which is arguably going to
fail
chances are you this city will not be
built what I noticed a few years ago was
if you talk about a concept you talk
openly issues I always had with trying
to get people to be honest was they
would put their framework on it so if I
was talking about a building which was
right next to me and I said well what
we changed the slope it here the person
I was talking to would often go oh well
you know this fits already here or
that’s gonna cost money which is fine
that’s what we do but that’s not what I
was thinking of because I have the goal
of changing things for the better I
don’t necessarily mind how much it’s
going to cost so if I’m putting a
concept there what I found is the people
I’m talking to get really excited they
get really happy to talk about what they
think should be there and the
discussions are amazing and therefore we
make change so lots of discussions come
into place that I never thought would
happen a good example is if you live in
a city chances are your air is not what
it should be which isn’t a good thing
but it’s something we need to talk about
and often people don’t
how dare your air not be good for you
how dare your water be dirty how dare
you be sold products that aren’t good
for you and arguably shorten your life
that is not what life should be but it
gets even deeper than that when you get
people talking in such an honest way the
40-hour workweek for example is
something I’m very interested in
research so is it’s not good for you but
in the UK most of us do Monday to Friday
9:00 to 5:00
but is it really just 40 hours when you
look at it properly let’s face it the
average commuter time I think is about
half an hour now which that’s an extra
hour a day so that’s 45 hours a week but
then on a Sunday you might get asked to
do something that you really want to do
but you’ve got to prepare for Monday
whether doing it or just thinking about
it it actually is about a 60 to 70 hour
work week and that is not good you
should be able to do more than that so
designing the city has enabled us to
open openly discuss and that is great so
even if all that happens is one day in
2050 I’m sat outside a restaurant on a
beautiful spring day with my intelligent
caring gorgeous wife
because I’m still holding on to hope
that I will have a wife thank you and I
see something in that city that is
slightly different because of the way my
group has managed to sway that city and
that’s it
I’ve won but I don’t think that’s all
that’s going to happen I think if enough
of us have those frameworks and those
ethics and instead of thinking about
what you’re doing you think more about
why you’re doing it or who you are in my
case
Iron Man Robert Downey jr. then I think
that entire city will change for the
better too
you see the biggest lie in the entire
world I believe is that our opinion
doesn’t make a difference and I think in
the future everything we plan everything
we do everything we should we think of
it should be designed to do no harm to
this planet but should also do something
good for us as humans why would you
design something otherwise so that’s why
I’m a futurist and you can be too thank
you
[Applause] you