I'm Tim Griffin of the AFE program.
You can imagine my excitement about having our guests here today
from the University of Nebraska, as many of you,
especially the AFE students know, I went to the University of Nebraska
for my first two degrees.
Grew up in the midwest, and I've been talking to RFI
over the last year, and this is one thing we came up with last April in about the first
20 minutes of our conversation was we need to get together.
And very much with the idea that we should be having
conversations about positive opportunities that link rural and urban areas,
both in the United States and outside of the United States.
Our conversation over the last day and a half has been very much in that vein.
We have two presenters today.
We have Chuck Schroeder, and I'll let Chuck introduce his role.
And we have Connie Reimers-Hild, and I'll let Connie introduce her role.
I asked them as usual, to keep it to about 45 minutes,
and then we will have some time for discussion.
Students in the room probably already know that if you've seen information
that there is a lunch afterwards upstairs.
They've met with some undergrad and graduate students already,
but it's another opportunity to do so.
I don't know, Chuck, are you first?
Yes.
I'm gonna turn it over to Chuck, and let's welcome our guests.
(applause) Well, what am I doing here?
Sorry.
This always happens.
(mumbling) I figured there was another presentation
there somewhere, right?
Well listen, good afternoon.
I can't tell you what a delight it has been for Connie and me, as well as two colleagues,
Theresa Klein and Katelyn Ideus, who are also here from the Rural Futures Institute
at the University of Nebraska, to spend the last couple of days
here at Tufts and at Harvard.
We've been here long enough.
I see some familiar faces, so it's already feeling kinda like home.
I'm the founding executive director of the Rural Futures Institute,
which was a big idea founded at the University of Nebraska,
around the notion of shouldn't there be some place
on the planet where we bring together the broadest array of resources?
Harnessing the resources of the University of Nebraska
and its partners, and that circle of partners has been expanding here over the last couple
of days, where we could perhaps wrestle with
the broadest array of challenges to rural people and places?
Our big, hairy, audacious goal at the Rural Futures Institute
is a thriving, high touch, high tech future for rural.
We're very serious about both sides of that equation.
We've spent a lot of time over the years thinking about the high tech side,
and the importance of connectivity, and we'll talk a little more about that.
Enormously important, but you know what?
It is still all about people.
It is still all about people and relationships.
Human creativity.
Human connections to one another, locally and broadly
in order to achieve that high touch, high tech future
where we believe communities can best thrive.
If you are followers of Science Senate, you know that he says it's not just the what
you do that's important, it's the why
that creates the foundation for the things that you're gonna hear more about
through my presentation and Connie's.
I want to walk through a few of our core beliefs at the institute, and by the way,
as I shared with a group this morning, these are not just theoretical,
oh wouldn't that be nice things that you'd like to put on your resume to say,
yes these things (mumbling) are what I'm all about.
No, what we're gonna share with you, these beliefs are based in our observations
of success in rural communities.
Number one, and most fundamental, we believe in people's capacity to shape their
own futures.
You can read all the mega-trends that you want
about how rural communities can't be successful, they're this, they're that,
they're too far from the interstate, they're too small a population.
All of that's great, except when you get down to individuals
who are making decisions about what's going to happen
to them, their families, and their communities.
By the way, they're making a difference.
We believe that communities are not just localities, but also networked groups of individuals
working together toward a common goal and shared purpose.
It's important to understand, because as we think about communities,
indeed we think about Ord, Nebraska, and Seward, and places like that,
but we also think about communities of practice.
Folks that are working in and around the rural realm.
By the way, we feel that we've added to that community of practice this morning
with some students that we met with, the folks that we met with at Harvard Law
a couple of days ago.
It is important that we think about connectivity and creativity involving communities.
Not only of location, but of practice.
This whole idea of creativity, we had the notion come up this morning
that while what we hear and what we think about
rural communities is there's a lack of creativity, and that whole intellectual firepower.
Well unfortunately, it's just not true.
Richard Florida, who's a fellow that I worked with
a good bit when I was in Oklahoma talks a bit about the creative class.
Which by the way, is not confined to urban settings.
But the important thing about creativity is that we think about it,
and this is such a critical issue for rural communities,
it's not just about business development.
It's not just about technology, but creativity combines science and technology,
and business management professions, art, design, entertainment.
And in a small community, that has to happen.
That's where the energy comes from is when we cross those sectors,
and it's where creativity happens.
We believe that leaders, by the way, are known by their vision, their ideas,
their energy, passion and engagement in collective action.
If you hear nothing else this afternoon, underline this notion of leadership.
What we know about successful, thriving rural communities
is it's not about population.
It's not about how close they are to an interstate or an airport.
It isn't about the mix of the local economy.
It is always, always about leadership.
It's about who's there, not where they are.
By the way, in today's world, leaders are no longer defined by title or
by heritage.
Leadership in a rural community is no longer defined by
the four oldest, fattest, whitest haired guys in town
making all the decisions like they have for the last 40 years.
It is defined by those folks in that community who have a vision.
Who say here's, we're not okay with where we are.
We think we know where we'd like to go as a community,
and we have by the way, a core group of us that want to move in that direction.
Those are the leaders that we try being in the business of empowering with information,
with inspiration, with connectivity, in order to achieve their dreams.
Entrepreneurs are individuals in communities that combine strategic foresight
and grit to take action to reach their desired futures.
Entrepreneurship is the key.
By the way, it's not strictly economic entrepreneurship.
Yes, we're interested in small business development, startups, using the resources of both human
and natural resources in a community to start new enterprises that are reflective
of the assets that are there.
But we're also talking about social entrepreneurship.
Rethinking what our community looks like.
How we draw people into the circle of leadership in a community that weren't there before.
We believe also that diverse and inclusive leadership
is needed to propel communities forward.
Again, we're seeing this happen.
We're seeing a new generation of leaders in rural communities say, we can't just rely
on the cosmos to drive change in our community.
We're gonna have to take purposeful action in order to draw new residents in our community
who are otherwise being left out of the circle.
We're gonna invite 'em in.
One of our good friends in West Point, Nebraska who's now well in his s,
has been one of those change agents said, we just say invite 'em to church.
We don't care what church.
Just invite them to come.
Come to the church social.
Come be a part of some conversation, because once they're there once, you'll find
them showing up at other events in the community.
This whole idea of drawing new people into the circle
gets around to this idea of shared creativity.
Because creativity, unlike land, labor and capital,
those things that we thought of as the key resources
for economic development in the past, they could be depleted.
Creativity, not so.
Creativity builds on itself.
Energy brings energy.
We try to be in the business of encouraging those creative types
to come into leadership roles in the community.
We believe that our complex future requires mutual respect,
collaboration between rural and urban.
One of the principle reasons that we're here at Tufts
is to connect rural and urban.
We've had so many fascinating experiences over the last two days,
but we know that we need each other.
A whole rural urban divide is a myth that we would like to bust.
What we also know.
When we think about rural communities and connecting to urban communities,
we know that creativity attracts creativity.
Creative people attract other creative people.
The more we can make that connection, the more that we can bring creative people
together, the more success we're gonna have in rural
communities.
I'm gonna end my section of this going through six characteristics
of a successful rural community.
We had a study was commissioned a few years ago
by Dr. Lindsay Hastings at the University of Nebraska,
who looked at some rural communities that had been successful in transferring leadership
generation to generation.
Her findings, we found actually apply to virtually every successful rural community
that we dealt with.
Number one has to be leadership that matters.
Again, leadership that's not just occupying a seat,
that's not just so proud of being elected mayor,
but are actually getting up every day and saying,
okay, what actions can I take to draw people into the circle
to encourage their creativity, to make my community better?
Deliberate efforts to invite people into leadership roles
who might not otherwise participate.
We've touched on that.
Willingness to invest in the community.
We find rural communities that are really thriving today
who are not sitting around waiting for the next big smoke stack to come to town
and create an economy.
West Point, Nebraska, Connie's hometown.
Wonderful community that has thrived now for generations.
They have business, after business, after business
on Main Street that were established by groups of one, two, three, six local investors
who have said, you know, our community would be stronger
if we had that business.
I don't care if it's terribly profitable.
I want it to break even.
But my business would be better if that business were here, so they invest.
Fear is not a barrier to taking steps toward a desired objective.
Towns like (mumbling), it's really a big deal.
When we talk to folks in rural communities where they really have driven a renaissance
and we say, well how did that happen?
Hastings, Nebraska, their downtown redevelopment leader said
- votes of the city council, we figured out the cavalry (mumbling).
And we're gonna have to take charge.
And it was - votes of the city council.
This was not Kumbaya at -H camp.
Strong social networks.
This is not everybody in town being on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn.
This is people coming out, sit down together and say,
what could we do as a community that would make this a better place?
Those communities that are making it, do this purposely.
It isn't by accident.
It isn't by accident.
Finally, and most importantly, we've got T-shirts.
If you want one, I'm sure we could get one to you.
Hopeful vision backed by grit.
Those communities that are making it have said,
we're not okay with where we are.
We believe that we can be better because I'm working and living around people
who have hope.
By the way, we're willing to take risk.
We're willing to kinda fight it out in our decision making.
And we're gonna see to it that this community is a better place than it's been.
At this point, I'm gonna invite my colleague, Dr. Connie Reimers-Hild,
who's the associate executive director and chief futurist at RFI to come talk to
you.
Great, thank you Chuck.
Okay, so this is kind of the reaction I get.
Let's see.
Let me get there.
When people hear that I am the chief futurist.
It goes one of two ways.
Oh, that's really cool.
Like how can I become one of those?
Or futuring, yeah right.
Like, what exactly is that?
I do want to explain a little bit about what that is,
and why this type of work is so critical to our mission at the Rural Futures Institute.
Many times, people think the future, and futuring, also used as strategic foresight,
I use those two terms interchangeably, you start at point A, and you move
to the future like point B. You're actually predicting the future.
Telling people what their future's gonna be.
Sort of looking in that crystal ball and helping them understand that.
But actually it's not like that at all.
Futuring is really a science, it's a discipline.
Now it's relatively new compared to some of the disciplines
that are studied here at Tufts and other universities like our university system in Nebraska.
But as we all know, I mean I think we're all at the point in our lives, we can sometimes
see that the future looks a little more like this,
right?
We're at point A, but there are actually many plausible futures in our path.
Many different ways we could go, decisions that we could make,
but also other things that are gonna happen that we can't always predict.
So strategic foresight and futuring are not an exact science,
but it's really that science of looking forward.
You're planning for the future.
And it's the methodology, but that's really married up to the mindset.
We now know that mindset's incredibly important to achieve outcomes.
We have to believe things are possible.
Just like many of the communities Chuck mentioned.
If they believe their future is going to be one of opportunity and growth,
then that's what's gonna happen.
But if they believe it's gonna be desolate, that also will happen.
They have to choose, they have to make those choices,
and we want to help them with that.
But it's also looking at the future and looking forward.
What do we really want this to be?
What do we really want to experience while we're here?
What do we want our communities to experience?
Just like the community of Tufts.
I think with Tim hosting us here, it's been so fascinating
and great to meet the students and the faculty, and just kinda feel the atmosphere, right?
Feel the future as we're sitting here in these meetings
and getting to meet with incredible people.
It's recognized now as the core leadership competency.
Why do you think that is?
I have spent years in the classroom, so I am gonna call on people if I get desperate.
I do want this to be a bit interactive.
Why do you think now is a time to infuse strategic foresight and futuring
into leadership?
What do we experience right now?
What's happening?
Say that a little louder.
(mumbling) Absolutely.
There's a lot of uncertainty, right?
We can't just know everything about one thing anymore.
It's about bringing people together and thoughts together,
and taking those systems approaches much like you do here at the Friedman School.
What, other thoughts?
You look like you have a thought, and you're in the front row.
Thank you.
That's great.
(laughing) Because not everybody has it.
Oh good.
Explain more.
Not everybody has it all the time.
Right, right.
Expand what you're thinking, though.
Not everybody has it.
Not everybody has it all the time.
It's not easy to look forward and see multiple plausible futures at the
time ahead of you, and try to figure out a way to either choose
which of those you think (mumbling), and how do you take the next step to get there.
Great.
Thank you.
Yeah, this isn't necessarily a strength for everybody, right?
We don't naturally have this or possess this.
Now I didn't really always realize that I was a little bit of a futurist.
Even when I was little, it was just something that
sort of I was born with.
It is one of my top strengths, if you take a tool like the Gallup StrengthsFinder.
And for a long time, I always wondered why I was this person, like I was literally 10
years out here somewhere in my mind.
It's sort of like where science fiction eventually meets science fact.
I think that's where, and I'm gonna borrow that
from the Thor movies because I am a bit of a science fiction junkie and nerd.
But you know, it's really having a different view of the world.
Actually, when I was in high school, now and this is, I'm not gonna totally age
myself, but this was a long time ago.
Just want you to know.
It's been a while.
I was actually, and I grew up in West Point, Nebraska,
for the most part, a small town.
And this is before the internet, or Facebook, or Twitter,
but I could see where bottled water was gonna be a really big thing.
I was like, okay mom, dad, I just need you to know this.
And of course they're looking at me like, who are you?
(laughs) What exactly are you trying to say?
Well you could see this growth, and then of course about years later,
they're like, oh Connie, we really should've listened to you on that
one, right?
And so it's not that I always make the best investment decisions, or use that
knowledge, but it is something where you can bring
a lot of disparate phenomenon or data together and put it together in a very cohesive way
to create those different alternatives and scenarios.
Because we are seeing this pace of change at an increasingly rapid rate, right?
Again, the future consists of many plausible outcomes.
There's not just point A to point B. There's a lot that happens in between there.
But also, people have the capacity, and I think this is very, very important.
People have the capacity to influence those outcomes
through their beliefs, their behaviors, and their mindsets.
But there are also things that happen, right?
In the world of futuring, we call these wildcards.
Those things that you don't always foresee happening.
The things that sort of strike you and you're like,
oh wow, I totally didn't see that coming.
So natural disasters we can think of as a wildcard.
That can be a drought, it can be a tornado, it can be a hurricane.
Things we can't always predict.
We know that they're going to happen at some point.
I mean, that's the likelihood.
But we don't exactly know when, or how big, or how small.
Health, you know you can have just personally a health situation that you didn't see coming.
Now it mighta been in the making for a while, but at the same time you could be riding your
bike, right?
We know there's a lot of biking going on here.
Riding your bike and have a major bike accident.
That changes the outcome.
Things like the stock market.
Different financial situations throughout the world
have an influence and impact on what happens.
Those outcomes, right?
You can even win the lottery.
Now you have to buy a ticket to play, right?
We know that.
But you could inherit a large sum of money, for example.
So wildcards don't always have to be negative.
They can also be very positive.
But again, if I would've won the Mega Millions at 520 million, I probably wouldn't be here,
Tim.
I'm sorry, but my goal with that was to call in rich,
and just be done, right?
So these types of things can happen.
Again, that will influence those outcomes.
It will influence the trajectory, or our path.
But it's also mindset, right?
We have to keep that path, know where we want to go,
and keep working towards it, even against those odds,
regardless of those wildcards, right?
Everything that can be invented has been invented, and this was by Charles Duell,
commissioner of the US Office of Patents in 1899
Now could you imagine if he could get in a time machine
from 1899 and be transported here now?
What he would think.
I mean, what do you think his thoughts would be?
I mean I hear little laughs and stuff, but seriously, that would be amazing, wouldn't
it?
To come from 1899 to the period in time that we're living in now.
Let along, I'd love to beam myself years to the future sometimes
to see what that really looks like, because we don't know.
But has everything been invented?
What do you believe?
How many of you think yes?
Like, I think it's all been invented and we're just kind of riffin' off some of
the stuff now.
How many of you think there's a lot more to do in this space?
Yay, I'm so glad.
Good.
Yes, and that's the mindset we need to have, right?
We still have not just innovations in terms of technology to create.
That will continue to happen.
When we talk about innovation and the future, we talk about new partnerships,
much like the reason RFI is here at Tufts right now.
How can we bring new partnerships into this space?
What new partnerships or programs can we create?
It might be a technology solution, but it might not be.
It might be a new collaboration.
The key is that it has to get used somehow.
We have to move from that creative space into the actual innovation of implementation
and action.
This is actually old data from like a year ago,
so this has increased exponentially.
But we know the world is changing at an increasingly rapid rate.
I mean, you think about it.
Again, I'll age myself a little bit, but when I first started listening to music,
it was on an -track.
How many of you have ever even seen that?
Yeah, okay, so I still have a few.
Yes.
I was always hoping they'd make a comeback, but I don't think that's happening.
The records have, but you know, I just remembered our -track player,
and you'd have to be really patient 'cause there wasn't a good way
to really get to the next song, right?
And then pretty soon, you had the boombox, and that was awesome, 'cause I'm like, yeah,
portable music.
It's like, 20 pounds.
I mean, this thing was huge, right?
But those cassettes were really sturdy.
I still have some.
I once in a while run into one.
And then you move to the Walkman with the cassette,
and pretty soon that was a DVD.
So I think I have all these things in my house.
It'd be kinda fun to just display them in a museum I think, at some point.
The progression of all this.
I would've never thought growing up, or as a teenager in high school
that some day I'd be able to use my phone for music.
I didn't see that coming, right?
In thinking about how that's disrupted things like the music industry, for example,
and how they've had to change their business model,
this is where so many industries are, including higher education right now.
Because this isn't just coming from companies.
Where is it coming from?
Where is it coming from?
A lot of this data, a lot of the information being produced.
Why are we seeing such a rapid growth?
Yes.
(mumbling) Love it, yes.
Thank you.
Citizens.
Citizens.
People, right?
Positive have been empowered to create their own YouTube channels,
to create whatever it is they can even at this point.
And this evolution will continue.
We'll continue to see technology expand at a rapid rate.
I mean, many of you are working in this space.
And I think as institutions of higher education, I think this is really interesting for us
to think about how our model changes as well.
Okay, now I have to see what's going on over here in the second row.
Okay, so what is the joke?
What is the joke?
No, honestly.
What are you thinking?
She's my professor and she graduated (speech drowned out by laughter).
(mumbling) Right, right.
I think that's it, right?
We have Jill Watson, AI-powered graduate assistant chatbot
at the Georgia Institute of Technology who's answering questions with % accuracy,
right?
Because Jill is able to take all those answers and keep building and building on that database,
right?
And she's always available.
It's really thinking about what this looks like
as we move forward.
Now the good news here is that we did host an executive
from Microsoft last week, Shelley McKinley.
She's our director of technology in corporate responsibility.
She said what they're really finding, and research will prove this out, or bare
this out, even in healthcare, is it's not just about
accuracy.
There's an element of humanity in here, as well.
And so what improves accuracy in many of these cases,
especially in places like the medical industry for example,
is when things like artificial intelligence are married up with people, and the technology,
that high tech and high touch come together in a very intentional way.
Yeah, so I don't know.
I feel like I could just do my job sometimes, and be like, just download that app on your
phone and we're good to go, right?
Other technologies that we see influencing the future of the world, and we heard about
some of these this morning even.
(mumbling) Developing something like lab on a chip
that can be printed with an inkjet printer.
Anywhere in the world you have an inkjet printer.
And the reason this technology was developed was so more people would have access to healthcare.
And so they could actually assess what their health was like using the chip.
You can actually spit on the chip, and it'll read information about you.
What's going on with your health, it can read that.
In a lot of ways, this was developed for developing countries, but of course in
our rural spaces, this type of technology's very important as
well.
But think about it.
You don't even have to be a trained lab technician to use this type of technology,
and it can be printed for cents.
Literally, just a few cents.
At the same time, we see all this growth and technology,
and all these big investments in technology, we have a major demographic shift going on,
right?
This is where I think now rural has become kind of a hot topic lately.
In 1910, in America, 54.4% of people lived in rural.
By 2010, that had changed to less than 20%.
We've had this huge sort of trend towards urbanization.
Now we were asked a question today, do you think this is just,
we had talked about the fact, is that just a trend?
And will it ever go back the other way?
I don't know, many plausible futures, right?
Many plausible outcomes.
It's hard to say at this point.
But we do know with the population changes, it changes a lot of things about where you
live.
It changes a lot of things about communities.
Not just urban, but also rural, right?
We've seen hospitals close in the rural sector, and there are many factors associated with
this.
A lot of it is based on business models that are no longer relevant,
but it's also based on that loss of population, right?
You need patients if you're going to be a successful hospital.
At least that's the way it has been, not necessarily the way it'll be.
The ones that have reopened are in the green, so there have been two reopened.
Also, the healthcare system has changed, right?
There's a lot of ownership changes, a lot more of the corporate world.
Not just owned locally anymore.
Then of course, one of the big questions that we pursue
as the Rural Futures Institute, why should anybody care about rural?
Why did you come today?
Why should anybody not living in rural care about rural?
What does that really need to look like?
I think this is one of the quotes that kinda hits the point home.
Rural America is important to all Americans because it is a primary source for inexpensive
and safe food, affordable energy, clean drinking water,
and accessible outdoor recreation.
There are definitely benefits to rural.
Not just for the people living there, but to our urban centers as well, and vice
versa.
This is where urban and rural I think, have great opportunities to collaborate.
Our rural areas are home to our pollinators, and we need pollinators.
But what do we see happening in pollinator populations?
Yes.
You did it.
Right, we're seeing that, right?
And so we need to figure out why, and we need to figure out what we can do differently
to make sure that our pollinator populations continue to grow and thrive.
I've heard from a graduate student, not Jill, (laughs)
physical graduate student at the University of Nebraska,
that actually they're hand pollinating apples in China.
Could you imagine if we had to do that here, what our food supply would look like?
You know, how that would change things?
I know, you're thinking, why would a person from Nebraska
talk about elephants, right?
But this is also rural.
Sometimes I think we think about Nebraska or the midwest,
but rural exists throughout our country, and throughout our world.
One of the big elephant studies ever done found a more dramatic decline in elephant
populations than they ever thought possible, right?
And so this was very alarming, and some people, some futurists,
really talk about the fact that we are in an age of mass extinction.
Not just of our large animal populations, but think about those pollinators as well.
Those bees that are kept, but also are native pollinators.
What happens to us as humans?
What happens to the planet if these things happen?
A lot of the poaching that goes on is in rural areas
because a lot of people are impoverished.
It's a way to make money, but this is a global issues.
Even zoos in places like America no longer will get elephants, right?
And regardless of what you think of zoos, in Omaha, we have a huge zoo.
It's a major economic driver for that area of our state, actually.
What happens in rural influences urban?
And our whole globe is impacted by these types of things.
What is the future of rural?
That's really the question that we're here to ask.
Not just because we have some thoughts, but because we want to get thoughts from you
all, as well, and have this robust conversation.
We've been asking ourselves this question for a while.
What problem are we trying to solve?
That's kind of a step one type question, in many ways.
But also, what we had posed to you today for some open discussion and thought,
is what future do we want to create, and how do we do this together?
What does that really need to look like?
How do we take that systems integrated approach and do this differently than what has been
done before?
We know that future focused leadership is important.
We need to infuse that in some of what we're doing.
This whole model, this whole process moving forward
has to be sustainable, include elements of humanity
as things continue to evolve there, and technology, but rural and urban also have to come together
in these conversations and in these models.
We have companies like Microsoft, I mentioned earlier,
really working to connect our rural areas, because in many ways, they have been left
behind.
Not just economically, but with technology.
And connecting them will be an important part of the economy moving forward.
But in order to do that, we have to envision almost the impossible in some ways.
We have to envision those various futures.
The different outcomes.
When Google's hot air balloons connect the most rural
and underdeveloped areas to universal high-speed internet,
or micro-drones deliver medical supplies after natural disasters, we can start to imagine
a world where the ultimate resource technology
amplifies our imagination to believe anything is possible.
And that's the mindset we would like to start out with
in our time here together in our discussion period.
I really enjoyed learning more about the Friedman School.
I think the work here is incredible.
I think we've all discovered that.
The students, the faculty, and just the ideas, and the work that's being done,
and the models that you're using to do it, I think are so rich, and we're learning so
much.
I love the Friedman School pursues cutting-edge research and education from cell
to society.
I mean, that's a very wholistic view of what needs to happen moving forward,
and so it's exciting to be here today and to really share with you,
but also learn from you as well.
Thank you so much Tim, for your hospitality, and all of you have taken time to meet with
us.
Those of you that have come to this seminar, so appreciate this connection
and so looking forward to seeing what plausible futures
we get to co-create together.
I also want to thank your staff, and the team that's helped make all this possible.
Jen in particular.
She's around, yes, yes.
It's been awesome.
Also Theresa, Katelyn, thank you both.
I know it takes a lot to make all this happen.
We appreciate everything.
(laughing) Yeah, yeah I am, that's where I live.
I'll let you kinda guess which one is me.
(laughs) And my two kids with me.
Now this is where we could totally say, let the force be with you,
and leave, and fly back to Nebraska tomorrow, and hope it all works out here,
and hope it all works out there, but that's not why we're here.
That's not the purpose at all.
We want to know what your big ideas are.
We want to know what's possible.
Things like the X Prize for example, where big pots of money are given to come
up with ideas.
Anyone a Star Trek fan and remember the Tricorder?
Yes, I see some hands in the back, thank you.
Has been developed, yes, I know.
Prototyped, it has been prototyped.
It's a very exciting time.
But the X Prize is what has made that possible.
It has always made us think, is there a rural X Prize
that we can launch?
What can we do here to stimulate great thinking, but also, really crowdsource that thinking?
It can't just be our little team at the Rural Futures Institute.
It has to be crowdsourced.
It has to be done differently.
We also have a catch up with Chuck on Facebook.
We have a Podcast, we're always looking for great speakers.
We interviewed Tim this morning, and he'll be on catch up with Chuck tomorrow.
So I'd love some deep thinkers, people that are wanting to get
their maverick selves out there and be heard.
Please do join us.
With that, I'd like to say thank you and open it up for questions.
Thank you.
(applause) I know Connie and Chuck
are looking for your big ideas.
I am always.
We have lots of time at to have that conversation about what those
might look like.
From what we think about here, to what you think about there.
I'm gonna just step aside and let that conversation happen.
Great, thank you, Tim.
Wonderful.
How can we develop (mumbling)?
Go to school for it.
(laughs) No seriously, I've taken a lot of
professional development in that space.
It's always been there, but to learn the methodologies behind it, and the tools,
I mean I think it's part of that learning, and then doing and really practicing.
But there's some great information, different programs for example,
but I think too, it's kind of putting yourself out there a little bit.
'Cause I'm not gonna say it's always easy to be somebody who probably doesn't agree
with the norm.
I'll give an example of I was invited to submit a journal article around the future of rural
healthcare.
I know it didn't say exactly what the journal was hoping.
It took several rounds of back and forth to get that published, but I would encourage
you to get some professional development,
but also just linking up with other people.
Like if this is your world, linking up with other people
in that space is incredible because it'll expand your thinking.
If I can give you my card after, I'd love to.
Yeah, the old maxim of show up for conversations.
We've had a number of these conversations lately,
particularly with students.
It's not that magic to get yourself into a leadership role in an industry, in
a community, and it revolves heavily around showing up
and creating the conversation, and being willing to talk with people
that maybe don't necessarily see the world like you do.
But those relationships really matter.
And I think you're probably, if you're asking that question, already doing
it in some form or fashion.
I think being able to do that at that bigger level is great.
Because of time, we didn't get into a lot of detail
on some things, but it's not just imagining those plausible futures.
It's also then, how do we get there?
That involves organizational shifts in cultures many times,
but it also involves individuals.
And those beliefs and behaviors happen at the individual level.
I'm also a certified professional coach, and so marrying the futuring and the coaching
together have really helped.
You don't just come up with a plan.
You can actually execute on that plan, and pivot when necessary.
Was somebody in the middle.
Yeah, we have some other-- Yes.
I'm curious.
If you must work on gentrification, and why certain (mumbling) in rural areas.
(mumbling) Kind of a barrier to sustainability in rural
areas, like (mumbling).
Also, I worked for a couple of years in rural Maine
in healthcare, and there was (mumbling).
I don't have (mumbling).
I've been serving on a task force for the Nebraska Department of Transportation
where we've had actually our friends from the University of Nebraska at Omaha,
we've had a number of very creative people coming around this issue.
Let me touch on two elements of that.
One, just in terms of creative transportation solutions
in more remote areas, the whole driverless vehicle notion
has some real appeal.
Because so often, the transportation by the way,
is from location to hospital, location to grocery store,
location to school, location to work.
They're pretty definable paths that seems to perhaps hold some opportunity
for that as a low-cost means of moving people around.
Now the other side, the barriers, we find some wacky regulatory things.
The transportation system in this rural county, in Arthur County, Nebraska, population of
about , well they can't cross the county line
into McPherson County.
So they have a population of about ,. I mean it's just crazy.
We're working with regulators to say hey, come on.
Let's be reasonable here because we do have even with more traditional transportation
services, minivans, et cetera, they're willing to do
that.
Okay, so who pays for the gas?
There are all those sort of complex issues, but there are folks that are starting to set
down and say, hey if we're going to have that livable community
out here that accommodates not only the young professionals
that we're actively trying to recruit, but by the way, their parents and grandparents
that still live there, and who now are in a position
where they need a little more sophisticated healthcare,
which means they have to go down the road a ways.
Let's figure out how to resolve that.
Honestly, I've been pretty encouraged by the nature of people that are coming to the
table around those issues.
You know, driverless vehicles are of course a huge point of conversation
right now.
We do have some really great work.
We're a University of Nebraska-wide institute, so we work with our med center, our urban
campus in Omaha, our Lincoln campus, our Kearney campus,
which is in the middle of the state, and all of our extension, our non-tenure leading,
or tenure leading faculty that live across our state.
We actually have a lab at the med center.
It's a brain biology lab, and they are funded by Toyota,
and they have one of the simulator vehicles.
I got to drive it.
Like wow, this is so cool.
It's kind of a weird feeling, but they are actually trying to use sensors,
like your Fitbit, et cetera, then to detect your health.
And so thinking about if I'm diabetic and I'm gonna go into a diabetic reaction,
I shouldn't be driving.
Like I shouldn't be getting into that vehicle.
And so thinking about it from that mode, but all the way to pods of health.
And so rather than thinking of it as just a transportation vehicle,
how could I get my vitals read?
How could I just relax, or listen to music, or be more productive, because is there a
way for these to become pods of health, rather
than just a car?
But of course then along with that, you have a lot of the ethical challenges.
There's a lot of data, a lot of personal health data.
Who's that going to?
Where is that going?
Who owns it?
Can that be used against you?
I think you also have issues of freedom, a little bit.
Most of us are very used to driving our own vehicles.
We drive a long way, and there is not a lot of public transportation,
so my commute to work every day is an hour and
on a good day from my driveway to the university.
But most of that's rural highway, so there's a lot of coverage.
Now would I rather have a car that drives me there,
and I can be more productive, or would I rather drive myself?
I think those are some of the questions.
But we do have some grand challenges.
I think like Chuck was saying, that there's multiple solutions, too.
I will say Japan actually is testing out driverless vehicles
in their rural sector, and we actually did get an email,
what's the future of rural Japan one day?
So I mean, people are curious about this and trying different things and different
solutions.
I think our rural landscapes can be an interesting area
to collaborate on some of these questions, and they're important issues.
Right here.
My question about methodology.
(mumbling) and that resulted in (mumbling).
This is really the social innovation you think (mumbling) transformational model
(mumbling) social innovation.
You called it a strategic methodology, and that actually gave us some of our most
important (mumbling) organizations across the country.
I'm curious to what extent you're using those kinds of (mumbling) methodologies,
and working on the innovative organizational space
in rural areas, or part of your domain.
Well I think this futuring and strategic foresight is part of that, and there are various methodologies
like you're describing.
But it's really tailored to fit whatever the questions are, the groups are.
A lot of the ways we've worked with this is through those partnerships like you're
talking about.
Like what does it need to look like moving forward,
and how do we use strategic foresight and futuring
as a tool, but also as a point of discussion to kinda discover some new solutions?
One of the big ways, we haven't necessarily incorporated
strategic foresight and futuring into it, but we do have, or have had
a robust competitive awards program.
And so we've funded a lot of research and engagement grants,
and teaching and engagement grants.
How do we do this in rural a little bit differently, and engage not only our faculty within that,
but their networks as well?
Students, nonprofit organizations, other community-based leaders and organizations
through that process.
Actually, really looking at a future that is created by the communities,
the students and the faculty together.
I might add on the whole, how do we foster creativity
in rural communities?
We have a delightful colleague at the University of Nebraska, Dr. Shane Farritor.
Formerly at MIT, but he is a (mumbling) Nebraska boy
who's now back in our college of engineering, who really is on a mission to develop maker
spaces in rural communities, and using local libraries,
using the old shop at the school to create those spaces in rural communities.
Where we think of D printers, but laser cutters of various kinds,
and even just art gallery, art studio spaces for creative types to feel that there is a
place in my town where I can come and do stuff.
It's growing in popularity.
There's an interesting movement actually, across the state,
and this has been done around the country, but we think Nebraska's a bit of a leader
in that space.
Anyway, a constant process of trying to encourage that,
how do we go from where we are to where we'd like to be?
Sure.
Well first, thank you for a really hopeful and inspiring talk.
Great to hear.
I'm a professor here in a (mumbling).
Before I came here, I studied here (mumbling).
Oh, sure.
Agriculture.
And you may or may not know about him, but he wasn't the president's first choice
to be secretary, but he got the job in the interview,
and he got it because basically, he wanted to be the secretary of rural America,
and essentially wanted to make the Department of Agriculture (mumbling).
He also wanted to solve certain problems.
One is, he just felt that there was so much, as a former governor of Iowa,
there was so much that needed to be done to help rural America.
From broadband, to (mumbling), and the Department of Agriculture
had the resources to do that.
I want to focus on the second problem he wanted to solve,
which was also to make rural America a little more democratic.
(mumbling) democratic overall, but maybe a little bit more.
I think that the president bought it, so he had the president's full backing,
and he spent eight years, he was there the entire time.
You've met him, you know he's a tireless guy.
He spent all his time and effort there with the belief that if he were to make
rural America better and show that he could do that
as a Democrat, there'd be some movement (mumbling) towards that Democratic Party.
I think if you got him on a stage, he couldn't be more proud about what we accomplished,
but couldn't be more discouraged (mumbling).
He would talk to people about that.
He would talk to people about it in election cycles,
saying please vote (mumbling) now president, trade, corporation, all these things
are gonna hurt the rural economy.
They said we know, but we just can't (mumbling).
I wonder if you could reflect on that, in terms of the positive, hopeful tone of
your work, but what seems to be a very sort of, (mumbling)
negative.
(mumbling) Sure.
(laughs) Yeah, so okay, interest of Fulcram.
I mean, I'm an old Bob Kerrey.
Actually, I was a Republican appointee in his administration as governor.
And then I have consistently missed every election since that time in terms of
my selections.
I'm probably not a good analyst, but I have thought and worried about it.
I honestly, it doesn't make rational sense that rural people vote the way they do in
many cases and particularly agricultural people.
It is sort of a cultural thing, but here's what makes me hopeful.
I spend a good bit of time with students.
We are not a teaching function of the university, but we have the opportunity to engage with
students who either come to us or are sent to us to
job shadow, or just to come talk about what might my life
look like?
I'll tell you, as I meet with these really high-ambition,
high-achieving students, who obviously have a rural interest
or they wouldn't be coming and talking to us,
and in fact that they are very interested in going and starting businesses, building
families, et cetera, in rural communities.
What encourages me is the number of them who say
part of my life plan is public service.
In some cases, I want to run for office, I want to be a direct player.
But even at slightly lower levels of ambition, I want to be in a community where I can be
involved in leadership in the community where my values,
my notion of community, will make a difference.
I'll tell you, these kids really believe in the fundamental principles,
the idealistic principles of our nation in a way that,
and I suppose every generation that's come along,
you could take some subset of them and say, yeah, well that's what they are.
It encourages me with the number of them that look at the way we're functioning today,
so polarized, when it would be so easy to say, you know
what?
I'm just gonna hide somewhere, and I can't deal with this,
and I don't like all the, who are instead saying, no, I'm gonna engage
and try to make more practical sense of this.
Return some civility to our discourse around political issues.
That to me, is encouraging.
Now and I will also say the number of them that are not gonna registrate independence,
and are sorta saying, I can't, it's not making sense to me
on either side of this divide, I want to rethink the way politics work,
makes me encouraged.
It's not a great answer, but it's the way I'm kinda seein' the world today,
and it's what I'm relying on (laughs), to have a more livable future.
Yeah.
I guess personally, I would say, I don't think any politician should try to
lobby for where people should land on the political
spectrum.
I think that part of what we cherish in the United States
is our freedom to choose and decide for ourselves.
I don't know if anyone here is military.
Active, or no longer.
Yeah, well a great deal of our military come from rural areas.
I can't remember the exact percentage, but-- It was one of Bill's messages.
It was.
I heard him speak, and he talked a lot about that.
I think that, you know, I have a great uncle that served in World War II.
I have a lot of relatives that have served (mumbling).
I think to preserve that freedom, to vote however you want to vote is incredibly
important.
And the fact that we can go do that is part of what makes our country so amazing.
I will also say that we did have a good laugh after the election.
Not because how the election played out, but because of the stereotypes that came out
after that election.
Just in our office alone, everybody in our little team
lives in a rural community.
But I would have to say we all defy the stereotypes that came out, as well.
We all are college graduates.
Many of us with advanced degrees.
None of us, there wasn't like, everybody voted for this person,
or everybody voted for that person.
And a lot of our families are from those rural communities
that were so talked about in the media.
A lot of the people in those communities were divided on their votes, as well.
I think that's an important point that often gets missed.
I think what got missed in the election is that a lot of our polling organizations
haven't listened.
They've been polling the same people for so long,
they forgot there was anybody else out there.
So I think for us to lend a voice to rural, which is part of our mission and work
at the Rural Futures Institute, is very important.
But I think it's also realizing that this is an urban rural issue,
and everybody's voice is important, and everybody's voice needs to be heard.
That might be in elections, so for me personally, I was a registered Democrat (mumbling)
first caucus in Nebraska, which was a complete disaster.
(laughs) It just was.
We had never done it before.
And now I'm a registered Independent because I just prefer to vote the way
I want to vote on anything and anybody.
I think we see a lot more of that happening because people are frustrated honestly, with
both parties.
(mumbling).
I just have a specific question about this scenario in New York State, where I'm
from.
I'm from New York City, but my family moved to
very rural upstate New York for my high school years,
so I had the interesting experience of going to
a very rural, very small school.
Yes, you did.
There is very much a divide ideal between urban and rural in New York State,
which I'm not sure if you're very familiar with,
but my question is really, because of this divide,
and (mumbling) tourism, is there seems to be a relationship
very much built in animosity of tourists from New York City
coming to rural upstate New York.
There's also some questions about water-- Right.
The main source of the water (mumbling) type of reservoir in rural upstate
New York.
There's a lot of animosity around the issues.
One of the (mumbling) the schools, and a major strategic plan
of this municipal finance community consolidate the schools.
I guess I'm just wondering, given these sorts of tensions,
and the possibility that these schools will consolidate,
'cause I'm talking about a population of maybe 100 in the school--
Sure.
School.
What could be a specific recommendation for this community to revitalize?
Well I think, you know, we'd need to dive into that
a little bit more, but I think this is part of why
we're taking on this conversation, and really partnering with places like Tufts,
right?
What are some opportunities and solutions in this space,
and knowing that it can't just be about a strategic plan,
but it has to be about the people that are living there,
and that are (mumbling).
In fact, we had some of this conversation this morning, right?
It's not perfect anymore, whether it's rural or urban,
and there are differences and challenges between each locality, wherever you go.
But how do we bring it together and really work with the community, and some
healing?
Sometimes that needs to happen, but also, finding the opportunities that exist
where it's a win-win.
Tim and I talked about this, this morning in our Podcast interview.
Getting different stakeholders to the table.
Oftentimes we're missing some very important voices.
But creating a grand sort of scenario for everybody,
not just one or two players who are gonna win,
and somebody else that's gonna lose, but rather, co-create that future together.
I know that's a simplistic answer to a challenging question,
but I think we could explore that in more detail with you.
Sure.
What happens is this.
Let me touch two points that you made.
One around the tourism deal.
It's so tempting to say, okay, so you smart guys up here, you figure out
how we fix that.
Where I see it actually being fixed are folks, Stan, I can't say his last name, at Greybull,
Wyoming, a rancher who, with the reintroduction of
the wolves.
Now you talk about a divisive situation culturally, and many other ways.
Stan, instead of just taking up arms and saying, I'll just shoot anybody,
instead invites over decades leaders from the Audubon Society, from Nature Conservancy,
you name it, and came out and built a dialogue in the little community of Greybull, Wyoming,
around here's why we as ranchers are concerned about this.
And by the way, we also accept there's maybe some good.
Anyway, it created a very productive dialogue.
Here's a guy who hadn't gone to Tufts to learn how to cross all these barriers,
but did one of the most beautiful jobs of diplomacy.
Calamus Outfitters in Nebraska, that bring actually people from all kinds
of urban areas now out to the sandhills of Nebraska
to float in water tanks down the Calamus River.
They have done a remarkable job, and by the way, a profitable job,
of bringing people not like them into their community.
Again, is there still a certain amount of this?
Yeah, but you know, it's when people get to know each other
on a personal basis that you start crossing those barriers
and building smoother waters going out.
On the school side, when I left the ranch in 1983,
my dad gave me two pieces of advice.
Number one, remember that two and two must always come out four,
and number two, don't be stupid.
I've tried to follow that.
So when we think about school consolidation, it's two and two has to come out four
in being able to deliver education to those students.
Now, once we say that, however, we see relatively small communities that are
saying, okay, we're not okay, which is saying,
okay, we're gonna shrink the education opportunity for our kids just because we live in a rural
area.
They are taking advantage of connectivity.
They are taking advantage of some very creative notions
of bringing education resources to their community.
And I mean, Cozed, Nebraska there's a young woman
taking cello lessons from Julliard.
It doesn't just happen.
Again, it's all about people in leadership roles saying,
yeah, but let's rethink this.
And so creativity becomes an issue.
Thank you.
Thank you.
(applause)
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