Global change 2020: The world's new direction for the next decade and beyond!

In the last few weeks the world as we know it has changed. Are you and your business aware of the profound political, economic and social implications of the following?

• China now has foreign exchange reserves worth a whopping $2.1 trillion dollars in the midst of the world's deepest recession since the Second World War. They will seek to spend this money on investments and the stockpiling of commodities.
• As US car makers falter, Chinese brands like Shanghai and Beijing Auto are on the acquisition trail. India and China will buy global brands like never before.
• South Korea, Sweden and Gulf States (amongst others) are buying 30m hectares of land in developing regions (including Africa) to secure food production for their populations - equivalent to the size of half of Europe's existing farmlands.
• Yekaterinburg in Russia was the host city to a high-profile summit that trumpeted the power, prowess and new found prestige of potentially the future's most important economic bloc, the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China).
• While the world's population is growing, it is also ageing. By 2050 in the rich countries of the globe, one person in three will be a pensioner - and nearly one in ten will be over 80.
• German companies announced a $555bn investment to harness solar power from the Sahara desert and pipe it under the Mediterranean to European consumers as electricity.
• Mind-control wheelchairs are almost ready for commercial production. Brainwaves will be analysed and converted into actions every 125 milliseconds!
• And, forget the YUPPIEs of the past! The new focus will be on TIREDs - Thirtysomething Independent Radical Educated Dropouts who increasingly choose (or are forced) to earn less and question the competitive consumption ethos of the last decade.

These critically important developments are a core of Futurist Daniel Silke's new presentation entitled “Global Change 2020: The World's New Direction for the Next Decade & Beyond!”.

Change is with us. From the fall of the Berlin Wall to the current turmoil in international finance, global relations are experiencing a critical transformation. What are the key political, economic and social trends that are set to influence us over the next ten years? Can the US remain all-powerful or are there the new players lining up for the crown? Will technology change the way we think and express new values? Which are the regions of the world most likely to influence our way of life? Is business and capitalism changing its ethos and values as environmental and ethical questions take centre-stage? And what role, if any, has South Africa in these developments? The answer to these questions and more can be found in Daniel Silke's provocative and predictive new International keynote. Not to be missed!