CECILY SOMMERS

What future can you bank on? Futurist Cecily Sommers knows that making predictions is a fool’s game, however understanding and anticipating change is required practice for those who want to play smart.

She also knows that these are challenging times for organizations in all sectors, and that holding onto advantage is a slippery proposition at best. It is indeed tough out there: just as an increasing interconnected global economy requires a broader perspective, competing pressures from near-term priorities and shortened planning horizons cloud the picture. Issuing a challenge to eliminate short-sightedness, Cecily shows how a winning strategy is one that applies foresight to market forces, champions proprietary opportunities, and invents a future that can be chosen and planned for.

Cecily’s work has been used by leading institutions such as Best Buy, Target, American Express, Motorola, General Mills, Wrigley, and Yahoo! A popular speaker at conferences, business schools and retreats across the country, Cecily takes her audience on a guided tour of the future, noting key opportunities and challenges along the way. Her provocative and entertaining trend analysis is enjoyed by many in her "Future Conversations" segment, heard regularly on All Things Considered as well as other media outlets. She is a member of the World Future Society, was named by the Business Journal as one of twenty-five Women to Watch in 2005 and selected as one of Fast Company’s 2007 Fast 50 Reader’s Favorites.

“Cecily Sommers is a ChangeMaker in the best sense of the word. Her visionary approach ties human elements of meaning and content value to a business context in ways both easy and practical to implement. Even as she brings her followers forward, she is out still further – exploring, connecting, and searching for the next new thing, trend and idea. She is catalytic and brilliant, a true original thinker.”
- Merle Minda, former SVP, Fleishman-Hillard