Bethesda, MD — As part of its ongoing efforts to inspire, encourage, and lead an international dialogue on the future, the World Future Society is proud to announce WorldFuture 2006: Creating Global Strategies for Humanity’s Future, its annual conference.

This exciting event, perennially referred to as "the World’s Fair of Ideas," will feature more than 100 lectures, workshops, and info sessions. Presenters from around the globe will examine all the major trends and developments influencing the future in the fields of technology, government, the environment, values and spirituality, education, futures methodologies, and health.

Specific topics for discussion will include “Achieving Universal Health Coverage, One Country at a Time,” “Reinventing Human Shelter in the 21st Century,” “Global Nuclear Disarmament,” and “The Promise and Peril of Genetics, Nanotechnology, and Robotics.”
Speakers at WorldFuture 2006 will include:

Joel Garreau, Washington Post writer and editor, principal of The Garreau Group, and author of Radical Evolution and Edge City: Life on the New Frontier.

Ray Kurzweil, inventor and author of the best-selling book The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, among numerous other titles.

Dave Mowat, CEO of the Vancouver City Savings Credit Union (Vancity) and a leader in pioneering technology innovations, products, and services in the financial services industry.

Lance Secretan, founder, the Secretan Center Inc., and former ambassador to the United Nations Environment Program, Canada.

David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Pamela Wallin, Canadian consul general to New York, founder of Pamela Wallin Productions Inc., and author of Since You Asked.

Thought leader Ann Coombs of Coombs Consulting Ltd. (Vancouver) will serve as the first Canadian woman to chair a World Future Society conference. “Enthusiasm is high in Canada and its largest city, Toronto, where we are anxious to showcase the city’s intellectual and cultural offerings—resources that will enrich the WorldFuture 2006 conference-going experience,” she stated.

Since 1971, World Future Society conferences have served as the premier events for the world’s most important leaders and visionaries to explore the future. Previous conference attendees have included future U.S. President Gerald Ford, Tennessee’s then-senator and future U.S. Vice President Al Gore Jr., scientist and inventor Buckminster Fuller, and pioneering feminist author Betty Friedan.

WorldFuture 2006: Creating Global Strategies for Humanity’s Future will take place July 28-30, 2006, at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, located at 123 Queen Street, West Toronto, Ontario M5H 2M9 Canada.

A Professional Member’s Forum is scheduled for July 31, 2006.

EDITORS AND PRODUCERS: For hi-res headshots of keynote speakers, or for more information about WorldFuture 2006, contact the World Future Society at 1-301-656-8274 or e-mail Patrick Tucker: ptucker ( @ ) wfs dot org or Tim Mack: tmack ( @ ) wfs dot org dot For press credentials to attend the conference, e-mail sechard ( @ ) wfs dot org or call 1-800-989-8274 dot Conference updates and schedules can be found through the World Future Society’s Web site, at http://www dot wfs dot org/2006main dot htm or call Patrick Tucker, Tim Mack, or Susan Echard at: 1-301-656-8274 dot

World Future Society
7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450
Bethesda, Maryland 20814
http://www.wfs.org
301-656-8274.

Keywords: Future, Futurists, Toronto, Kurzweil.