Who would have foreseen the demise of all the major investment banks on Wall Street, the introduction of deposit insurance in New Zealand and the effective nationalisation of many of the leading institutions in the world’s financial sector either by home government or foreign sovereign funds? When we began FutureMakers in May 2008, had we forecast the speed and scale of the meltdown in world financial markets the forecast would have been dismissed as not credible.

The Futuremakers project was prompted by the fact that in New Zealand futures work is done in silos, under-resourced, and under-discussed. Therefore New Zealand risks becoming wholly a ‘future-taker’ instead of a ‘future-maker’, by being forced to take paths that would not have been consciously chosen. To keep choices open, New Zealanders need to develop a shared understanding about the long-term opportunities and challenges.