Support, Structure and Speed: Key Concepts for the Digital Delivery of Creative Foresight Workshops

This article presents lessons learned which support the digital delivery of creative workshops addressing technology foresight. It analyses a workshop template which uses speculative fiction techniques to explore the potential disruptive effects of emerging technologies within society and expand participants’ capacity for thinking about critical junctures and unintended consequences. Our findings show creative workshops can engage participants in technology foresight through playfulness and mess or open-endedness, yet these elements are harder to navigate in a digital environment. Three themes—supporting discussion, structuring worldbuilding, and sustaining speed—were vital to help reduce cognitive load, manage communications and select appropriate tools.