Futures of Governance

Futures & Sustainability exists to explore what's developing at the edges of sustainability in our economy and our society, the shifts that haven't made it into the mainstream conversation yet, but will. 

Join us this time to explore: What if the way we run our organizations is the key to a different future?

Governance doesn't have the best reputation. It sounds like a word for meetings, not for ideas. But the way you run your company or organization says a lot about you and what you are actually trying to achieve. Do we have the right organizational models in place today? What else might there be?

This event is about governance inside organizations. It looks at how companies, institutions, and teams make decisions, structure ownership, and set direction, and asks whether those structures still make sense for the world we're actually in.

Some questions we will explore: 

- What does it mean for nature to have a voice in decision making? 

- How do we create organizations that are more resilient and robust? These are the questions at the center of this session.

This is not a night of talks to sit through. Expect a room built for exchange, where you engage directly with the speakers and with each other, and leave having connected with people thinking about the same questions.

This event brings together people rethinking governance from different angles:

•⁠ ⁠Alexandra Pimor (Earth Law Center, Paris) is a voice for nature quite literally. She is Director of Nature Governance at the Earth Law Center and served as the proxy representing Nature on the board of Faith in Nature, the first company in Europe to grant Nature a vote at board level. Alexandra works at the intersection of law and ecology and explores what changes inside an organization when nature is treated as a real stakeholder, not just a resource to manage.

•⁠ ⁠Bonne Reijn (Bonne Suits, Amsterdam) founded his Amsterdam label in 2014 around a single product: a seasonless, genderless suit made to be worn for years rather than a season. As an entrepreneur, he is focused on keeping Amsterdam's social fabric diverse through small businesses that create culture and community. Bonne speaks to the governance choices that keep a young, independent company accountable to more than its bottom line.

•⁠ ⁠Erik Korsvik Østergaard (Good Morning April, Copenhagen), Futurist and Author of Anticipatory Leadership, joins as an active collaborator on this session, not just a speaker. He co-founded Good Morning April, a consultancy that helps leaders design organizations for the future of work. Erik will explore how we can create new forms of governance and what capabilities organizations need to anticipate rather than react, and what it takes to build that into how they're actually run.

Together, we'll open up what new organizational structures could look like, and what capabilities leadership needs to build them. Check out our previous Tolhuistuin events and join us for this interactive session. 

Description of the programme

Doors open at 6.15 pm.

The evening runs from 6.30pm to 9.45pm, followed by drinks in the Zonzij.

About our event partners

Futures & Sustainability is a platform based in Amsterdam, working at the intersection of sustainability, futures thinking, and governance. Through public events and workshops, it brings together a community of people from business, foresight, policy and design to think beyond compliance and reporting toward long-term, anticipatory leadership. Futures & Governance is the fourth event in the series, following three sold-out editions at Tolhuistuin.

Location