Introductions & icebreaker

Objective: This step helps participants get to know one another and establish a shared understanding of the topic. Through a simple icebreaker, participants will reflect on what the proposed technology or scenario means to them. Their responses will set the stage for deeper discussions in later steps.

Icebreaker Prompt: What is your name? In 2-3 words, can you tell us what [this technology or scenario] means to you?

Additional Prompt (if needed): What word(s) come to mind when you think of [this technology or scenario]?

In-Person

Facilitate an introduction circle where each participant shares their name and responds to the icebreaker prompt. Record these responses on the ‘Icebreaker’ cards (see: example Icebreaker Card), then read and share them aloud with the group, collecting them for later analysis.

Online

Participants introduce themselves in the chat or via breakout rooms, responding to the prompt. Record responses on the Miro board. Encourage everyone to keep their cameras on if possible to foster a more personal connection.

FOLLOW-ALONG EXAMPLE

For our workshop, the focus was on ‘immersive technology.’ Some of the keywords we collected were:

• innovation
• collaboration
• communication
• experimentation
• possibilities
• connection
• memorable experiences
• sensorial
• embodiment
• unfulfilled potential.

Futurecasting

Objective: In this step, participants explore and prioritise key trends shaping the future of the chosen technology or scenario. By discussing potential developments across technological, societal, and sector-specific areas, they will identify the most relevant opportunities and challenges. This analysis will serve as a foundation for the scenario-building exercise in the next step.

Main Question: What are the key trends shaping the future of [this technology or scenario]?

Additional Prompts (if needed):

• Consider both specific technologies and broader societal, sectoral, and use-case developments.
• Use the provided Trend cards (e.g. Advances in Technology, Societal, Sectors, Use Cases) or create new ones.
• What shifts are likely to impact this landscape in the next 5–10 years?
• What is most relevant to your practice and why?

In-Person

The facilitator guides the group in deciding whether to discuss broad trend categories (one of the four sections) or rank specific cards. Participants debate and determine whether each category or card is of high, moderate, or low importance, placing them accordingly on the Future trends board.

Online

Facilitator’s online will follow the same procedure outlined above, but utilising a Miro board.

FOLLOW-ALONG EXAMPLE

Our group decided that immersive collaboration tools, digital spaces and objects, ethical design, and engineering & manufacturing were of relatively low priority both now and in the future. By contrast, our group felt that virtual production tools and spaces, immersive learning and education, cultural heritage and GLAM, design-thinking, sustainability, and immersive storytelling/interactive narratives were of high importance to the future of immersive technology.

Hopes and fears: scenario-building

Objective: This step helps participants explore potential futures by developing best-and worst-case scenarios around key themes. Using the prioritisation exercise from the previous step, participants will select one or two priority themes to focus on. Through a two-part exercise, they will first devise detailed scenarios based on their hopes and fears, then summarise and visualise these scenarios in a creative way. The outcomes from this will inform the next step of the workshop.

Part 1: Devise Scenarios

Main question: What are your hopes/ambitions (and fears) for the future(s) of [this technology or scenario]?

Additional Prompts (if needed):

• What do you see as the most pressing/important issues?
• Who are these technologies for?
• How can participation be diverse and inclusive to make innovation more open?
• What are the best and worst case scenarios?
• How can we prepare the industry for future disruptions and opportunities, ensuring resilience and adaptability?
• What ethical dimensions come to mind (eg. diversity, fairness, equity and inclusion)?

In-Person

Participants write 1-2 hopes and fears on Post-its (different colors for hopes and fears) and place them on the Hopes for the future board (pictured left) and Fears for the future board (pictured right). As a group, they discuss and cluster similar themes, agreeing on which hopes and fears contribute most to best- and worst-case scenarios.

Online

The same process is followed using the Miro board, with different sticky note colors to represent hopes and fears.

PART 2: SUMMARISE & VISUALISE

Main question: How can we capture the essence of these hopes and fears in a compelling way?

Additional Prompts (if needed):

• What would the world look like in the most extreme version of this hope/fear scenario?
• If this scenario were a film, what would its music sound like? How would the setting and cinematography look?
• What would be the film’s title or tagline?

In-Person

Participants reflect on the clusters of hopes and fears, then imagine a “hope scenario” and a “fear scenario” as if they were films. They will then create a title or tagline for each. (If time is short, the facilitator can suggest to focus on just one scenario.) The chosen titles/taglines will serve as starting prompts for the next step.

Online

The same process is followed as above using the Miro board with sticky notes for brainstorming and voting.

Impacts: The role of open innovation in scenarios

Objective: Building on the prioritisation and scenario-building steps, this step explores how open innovation influences the future of the selected themes. Participants will use drivers and impact cards to assess how open innovation could help achieve the best-case scenario or intensify the challenges of the worst-case scenario. This analysis will provide a deeper understanding of the factors shaping these futures and inform potential strategies for action.

Main questions: How can open innovation drive the future of [this technology or scenario] and support practitioners to deliver the future we want to see? In contrast, how could things go wrong?

Additional Prompts (if needed):

• How do open innovation ecosystems need to evolve in these (different?) futures to best address the sector’s hopes and fears?
• How can open innovation help practitioners in overcoming resource limitations?
• How can we create supportive and inclusive ecosystems for innovation?
• What would a robust and supportive open innovation ecosystem look like to them?
• What skills & capacity do they feel they want/need most?
• What is diversity, fairness, equity and inclusion like in each of these scenarios?

In-Person

Take the best- and worst-case scenarios (or their taglines) from the previous exercise and place them at the center of the Role of open innovation board (pictured below)— use one board for the Hope scenario and one for the Fear scenario. (If time is limited, focus on just one scenario.)

Using the provided Prompt cards (e.g. advocacy, spaces, impact measures, etc.), or by creating new cards with sticky notes, participants will work from the inner ring outward, placing cards that reflect how open innovation can shape the scenario. Consider both positive impacts (helping achieve the best-case scenario) and negative impacts (exacerbating the worst-case scenario).

In the outer ring, participants will expand on these interventions, adding details on how open innovation strategies will have the greatest impact on the chosen scenario.

Online

The same process applies, using the Miro board to organise scenarios, impact cards, and sticky notes.

FOLLOW-ALONG EXAMPLE

For the hope scenario, participants chose the film title ‘IMMORTAL’. Through discussion, they identified how open innovation could bring this scenario to life through matched funding policies, physical spaces for networking and ecosystem development, and IP policies for AI. They anticipated outcomes such as the creation of innovation hubs, labs or accelerators, and opportunities for continuous lifelong learning around open innovation and innovation skills. (Note: only a few of the selected impacts are presented here for simplicity; additional drivers and impacts were also chosen in this workshop.)

In contrast, for the fear scenario, participants selected the tagline ‘Brave New World’ (referencing the Orwell novel). They identified impact measurement as a possible exacerbating factor, where the data might not be used to benefit people’s health but rather to monitor public behavior and reinforce inequalities. They discussed how legal frameworks and research strategies could be misused, deepening existing inequalities instead of promoting public good. Participants also explored ways to identify and prevent these negative impacts from occurring.

Key Learning wrap-up

Objective: In this final step, participants will review and consolidate the key insights gained throughout the workshop. They will reflect on any remaining or new questions that need further exploration and commit to actionable next steps, ensuring that the learning outcomes are effectively carried forward.

Main question: What have we uncovered through this process? How will we apply this knowledge, or seek to answer these new questions, after we leave this workshop?

Additional Prompts (if needed):

• Reflecting on today’s activities, what’s one key question you’re taking away with you?
• What’s one action you’ll be doing in the future?

In-Person

Participants will reflect on their key learnings from the workshop, identifying one key question they will leave the session with as well as one action they would like to commit to taking in the future. They will write these reflections on Post-its and share them aloud with the group.

Online

The same process applies, but participants will use the Miro board to document and share their key learnings, questions, and actions.

FOLLOW-ALONG EXAMPLE

In the online workshop, participants identified that a key question moving forward was how to work together effectively. In the in-person session, several participants focused on identifying new potential collaborators and discussing ways to create new avenues for dialogue regarding the challenges raised during the exercise.

The action in the online session was a commitment to the slogan, “Immersive is a great opportunity today.” In contrast, the in-person group focused more on specific networking follow-ups with individuals they had met during the workshop.