hat’s happening with meetings right now — the physical butting up against the virtual, and vice versa, and no one
quite sure how the two spheres will co-exist — Michael Rogers has seen that sort of thing before. He got his start in old media — writing for Rolling Stone, co-founding Outside magazine, then mov- ing to Newsweek, where he launched a technology column. Soon he had transitioned fully to digital media, serving as editor and general manager of Newsweek.com, followed by 10 years as vice presi- dent of The Washington Post’s new media division. Today he’s the “Practical Futurist,” presenting
what his website describes as a “common-sense vision of change for business and individuals, blending technology, economics, demographics, culture, and human nature.” In advance of the PCMA Education Conference, where he’ll discuss “Imagining the Convention of 2020,” he recently spoke to Convene about a little bit of all that.
How is a Practical Futurist different from a more traditional futurist? Probably the key difference is that I never set out to be a futurist. I have done a lot in journalism. I have been a media executive, I have done some technology development and earned some patents. So I come from a very practical background. I love thinking about the future, but I like to focus on what might really happen.
Where do you draw your ideas and inspiration from? I probably spend two or three hours a day reading blogs, talking to people, reading various technical magazines. I find technical trade magazines tre- mendously useful. It is sort of a nonstop informa- tion-absorption process. And the other piece that’s important — I often
Michael Rogers
The Practical Futurist, practically speaking. By Christopher Durso
say that being a futurist is the last refuge of the generalist. The world is full of specialized people now. And one reason that I loved working for Newsweek for the years that I did was that News- week was a general-interest magazine. You could walk down the corridors and talk to someone about fine art and someone else about the younger generation and someone else about technology. And you need to pull all of those things together to be a reasonable futurist these days.