How do you manage the most significant change any of us have seen in our lives? What’s next for our businesses? That’s the question we used to ask about digital, but now we ask about the pandemic new normal. That question has always been at the centre of everything we do. 2020 has just accelerated its importance.

It’s ironic that, in a decade of NEXT, it has never been needed more than it is now. Why ironic? Well, its original raison d’etre — the conference — has been pushed into limbo by the pandemic. But it has also reinforced the necessity for our deep insights into what’s going to happen next.

As the global response to the virus both accelerates changes already in progress and throws many of the assumptions we’ve built business on up into the air, we need those insights more than ever. The core of the event is still essential. More than ever we need an intelligent look at the future, that embraces the complexity of our lives, and reveals the emerging narrative of events. The two combined give you genuine insights you can use.

Historically, we’ve tried to pack two days in Hamburg with all the insights you need to sustain you through the year (and two days in Berlin before that[^*]), while supplementing it with our posts here. Sadly, 2020 will be the first year in a decade without a physical NEXT Conference. But we did have our virtual show earlier in the year — and now, we’re bringing it back.

What’s NEXT: season 2 is here

Before the summer, we amplified the voices of key thinkers, who helped us process the early stages of the pandemic. We ran the show weekly, headed up with insights from David Mattin, Ina Feistritzer and Monique van Dusseldorp. Then came those critical guests that helped us all navigate the turbulent waters of the early months of the global crisis.

For the second season, we’re slowing down the pace a little. We’re going to give you a wee bit more time to process and act on the insights between episodes. We’re going to dig a little deeper into the topics that will really make a difference in the way you manage your business in the coming years.

Who’s NEXT: Matthias Schrader

And to start with, we’re going right back to the start — with Matthias Schrader, the founder of SinnerSchrader, which incubated our conference, and now Head of Accenture Interactive in Austria, Switzerland and Germany, our current home. He’ll bring his perspective on the crucial changes he’s seen across Europe and Russia in the last few months, and how he sees them playing out in the years to come. And, while we’re clearly biased, we think it will be a compelling episode.

After you’ve had a few weeks to digest his insights, we’ll be back with more guests such as Thomas Müller, Laëtitia Vitaud, Albert Wenger and Azeem Azhar. They will guide you through the next stage of the pandemic, and the changes that it will bring.

Please join us. We’re building this future together.

A history of the future

To prepare for the new season, here’s a selection of some relevant episodes from the first run:

• Benedict Evans explored the impact of forced technology adoption — and the new companies it would create.
• Harper Reed highlighted the incredible speed with which new communities were forming to help deal with the crisis.
• Pamela Pavliscak explained the role heightened emotions were playing in our experience, and how emotional technology could aid us.
• Payal Arora pointed to the desperate need to put humanity back into our value chains, a theme echoed by Douglas Rushkoff who thought that an inevitable consequence would be us learning exactly what is so valuable about physical human contact.
• And Efosa Ojomo brought his expertise on innovation to bear on the likely impact of the pandemic — and the way to save your business.

Photo by Adrien Delforge on Unsplash

*(And, if you want to be really precise, it was in Hamburg before it was in Berlin, and some years we had three days, with a separate NEXT Service Design event… Let it never be said that we’re not flexible here at NEXT HQ.)