The Canadian Business Council (CBC) Abu Dhabi organized a webinar titled Exponential Crisis Needs an Exponential Response, Thriving in the Future . The webinar took place on Tuesday, 14^th of July 2020, with keynote speaker and co-founder of the Xponential platform, Mr. Tariq Qureishy to talk about the importance of futurist thinking in response to current epidemics. Mr. David Laliberte, the Executive Director – Legal of Digital 14 and moderator of the webinar welcomed the participants, thanked CBC Abu Dhabi’s partnering companies, and introduced the guest speaker.

The guest speaker, Mr. Qureishy emphasized at the beginning of the webinar on the importance of trust, which comes with harmony, empathy, and ethics. He introduced the current trends with the COVID-19 epidemic, which include fear, isolation, and insecurity of individuals and companies. In his opinion, the biggest epidemic is “misinformation, disinformation and too much information” which we find in social media. Hence, trust is an essential element to preserve the future and keep the world moving. He mentioned the 2009 financial crisis and how during the next ten years many new companies were founded such as WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Pinterest. Therefore, his theory is that with the current crisis there is a chance for even better innovations and companies to initiate in the next ten years. Exponential technologies are the trending ones currently for the future. Some exponential technologies are AI, nanotech, Bitcoin, robotics, and medicine, which are expected to accelerate by doubling their growth continuously. More importantly, when these technologies are being digitalized at some point they will also be demonetized and so their value will be reduced significantly allowing a possibility for energy, food, and water to be free in the future. 

Mr. Qureishy advises people to think like futurists by designing around abundance rather than obsolete through continuous development and transformation. He also mentioned examples of such futurist thinking such as drones, which can carry 51,200 kilograms objects and ambitious visions of involving the health care industry in Apple, Facebook, and Amazon companies by 2030. More interestingly, he mentioned how human creativity decreases from 95 percent in childhood to 10 percent in adulthood mainly because of negative factors such as fear of failure and societal perception. Mr. Qureishy concluded his presentation saying how values such as love, harmony, and empathy cannot be digitized which makes them more valuable than any existing technology and innovation. More importantly, with current epidemics people should not worry as long as they recognize their “true values, true feelings and they look forward in the future”.

The webinar was concluded with live Q&A from the participants.

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About the Canadian Business Council Abu Dhabi

The Canadian Business Council Abu Dhabi (CBC) promotes business relations, commerce and investment between Canada and the UAE with a particular focus on the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. We provide opportunities for Canadian business executives in the UAE to meet on a regular basis and to exchange information about business opportunities. As a link with organizations in Canada, CBC Abu Dhabi is dedicated to the development of trade and corporate investment between Canada and the UAE and assist Canadian companies and business people who are establishing or contemplating to establish a trading base in this country. www.cbcabudhabi.com

About Xpontential

Xponential Talks is a unique video and audio podcast platform that focuses on exponential stories of the future. They intercept futuristic stories bringing it to the present. Their platform is complemented & powered by their partner MAD Group’s memorable archived stories. https://xponentialtalks.com/

https://www.mad.group/mad-stories

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Maryam Almansoori, Intern, CBC Abu Dhabi