Any conference devoted to thinking about what’s next cannot fail to address the climate crisis. Many of yesterday’s speakers touched on it, including David Mattin and James Bridle. We’ll have some sessions specifically about it later on today (see below).

However, we also cannot ignore the face that today, people all over the world are going to be striking to raise awareness of the climate crisis, and others are going to be closing their websites for the day in support (including my own personal site).

We are not going to be closing down NEXT for the day, nor are we closing the website as part of the digital climate strike. We only have these two days a year, and we want to make the very most of that. That includes making it clear that we know this is a vital issue – and we’re committed to discussing ways forwards, so that there’s a future for us to keep on discussing.

Sustainability at NEXT19

Two of this morning’s sessions will cover the theme:

• Generational Intelligence and the Future Consumer, with Eliza Filby
• Building Speculative Leadership: Equipping the Next Generation to Forge Possible Futures, with Sophie Howe and Scott Smith

This afternoon, we have two sessions today devoted to the crisis:

• Digital for Sustainability, with Alexander Eckert
• Why the internet is killing our climate – looking for more sustainable digitalisation, with Stefan Kruijer

Please do join those sessions if you’re passionate about the issue.

There’s also a protest in Hamburg, as yesterday’s speaker TL Taylor discovered:

For others at #next19 who may be from out of town but wanting to participate in the #climatestrike tomorrow, 12p @ Jungfernstieg 🌎👊

— T.L. Taylor @ NEXT Conference, Hamburg (@ybika) September 19, 2019