NEWS FLASH: Article on Simplicity and Core77's Design 2.0 Boston event in today's Boston Globe! Check it out here.

Bill Cockayne is the founder of Change Research, a San-Francisco-based technology R&D firm that builds tools for Fortune 100 companies. He also teaches foresight and innovation at Stanford University, and leads the creation of a Humanities + Engineering degree at the university. Bill is on the front lines of helping companies and students understand how to position themselves in the future. (And, presumably, how not to get run over by that future.) Bill has found that combining short- and long-term thinking is a good way to get the (communication) wheels greased, but that "the younger you are, the more difficult a time you have with this stuff." (Hopefully more on that in Boston!)

At next week's Design 2.0 Panel Discussion event, Bill will talk about foresight strategy--what it promises, and what it doesn't. And ultimately, "how to think about doing designs in the future." He will share many tools-of-the-trade, (how do you find the "white spot opportunities"; "where are the clusters"), but with a nod to the future. Make that a "viable future"; that's how these folks talk.

Don't have a ticket yet? Read more about the event and register right here.

Read a preview on Natalie Jeremijenko right here. Read a preview on John Maeda right here. Read a preview on Jason Pearson right here.