Science fiction novelist and strategic foresight consultant

Madeline Ashby writes books about the future, but her research is grounded in the now. She’s a science fiction novelist and strategic foresight consultant. That means her clients often ask her to write stories (or speeches, or presentations, or scenarios, or user stories, or reports) about technologies or policies they have in development, and she gives them a human touch.

She also facilitates workshops and helps teams develop their own stories and come to their own insights. In some circles, that’s called “science fiction prototyping.” It’s also called “scenario development,” or “futurism,” or “foresight.” Whatever you choose to call it, she helps make the strange familiar.

She helps people create a vision of the future, so they can execute a strategy and get to where they want to be. ‘What I enjoy most is helping the people who consult me to understand what it is that they really mean, really think, or really want. The sooner they know those things, the sooner they can move forward and start doing better work.’

Her academic writing has been published in Transformative Works and Cultures and Asian Cinema, and her fiction has been published in Nature, Flurb and Escape Pod. She recently completed her Master of Design in Strategic Foresight & Innovation at OCAD U and is also a graduate of York University and Seattle University.

This speaker is made possible by Stadsfonds Hilversum.

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