Dubai Future Forum 2024: Carina Stöttner at the world’s largest gathering of futurists
What happens when more than a hundred of the world’s leading futurists, strategists and technology pioneers come together to work through the big questions of the coming decades? That’s exactly what Carina Stöttner experienced at the Dubai Future Forum 2024 — the largest gathering of futurists in the world.
Held at the iconic Museum of the Future, the event drew more than 2,500 attendees, 150+ speakers and 100+ leading organizations from over a hundred countries — cementing Dubai’s position not only as a global hub for technological and social innovation, but as a driving force behind global futures strategy.
Inside the forum’s four major themes
The Dubai Future Forum 2024 was structured around four central themes, each aimed at developing approaches to the most pressing challenges of our time:
1. Futuring Nature
The focus here was on nature-based solutions in the face of accelerating climate change. The numbers speak for themselves: more than 1.2 billion people could be displaced by environmental disasters by 2050. Mangroves and coral reefs were presented as critical lines of defense.
“More than 50% of global GDP depends directly on natural resources.” — Emirates Nature-WWF
2. Empowering Generations
How do we educate the next generation for a complex, technological future?
Alternative education, out-of-school programs and equity of access were at the center of the discussion. Egyptian astronaut Sara Sabry made an urgent case:
“We have to offer young people a future in their own countries if we want to stop the brain drain.”
3. Optimising Health
AI and biotechnology are transforming medicine. Digital twins, personalized treatment and epigenetics were presented as the key technologies of the coming decades, with the intersection of healthcare and data ethics running through the whole track.
4. Transforming Humanity
How is technology reshaping our social structures and our sense of ourselves?
From the prospect of an AI-run CEO to the proposal to replace GDP with measures like wellbeing and sustainability, the forum took a genuinely bold look ahead.
“We need to learn to think in generations rather than quarters.” — Anne Beate Hovind
The future is a global project — and it needs new narratives
Carina Stöttner, futurist and sought-after speaker on the future, technology and transformation, was struck by the range of perspectives in the room:
“The forum makes one thing clear: shaping the future is already a collective global project. The challenges are complex, but the knowledge is there — what we need now is more courage to act on it.”
Dubai Future Forum 2024 in numbers
- 2,500+ attendees
- 150+ speakers
- 70+ sessions and workshops
- 100+ countries and organizations represented
- Multiple award ceremonies, including the Dubai Foresight Awards
- The launch of major initiatives such as the Dubai Future Experts Programme
The takeaway: Dubai is setting the standard for global futures planning
The Dubai Future Forum 2024 was far more than a conference — it was a collaborative laboratory for the future, and it made something clear: tomorrow’s questions demand interdisciplinary thinking, international cooperation and visionary leadership today.
Carina Stöttner is looking forward to bringing what she took from Dubai into her work with companies and institutions around the world.
