Building off methods and aims of the TransforM Cluster of Excellence, this workshop queried how we understand the presents and imagine ideal futures from various industry perspectives–economy and industry, art and culture, health and environment. Each sector featured two mentors (economy and industry with Prof. Dr. Klaus Bengler [TUM, Germany] and Dr. Marlise Horvath Schneider [TransforM, Germany], art and culture with Arne Totz [27 kilometres, Germany] and Alena Mayer, Germany [Caldo Worldwide], health and environment with Dr. Amy Clare [TUM, Germany] and Evelyn Mitchell [City of Austin, USA]. Bringing together stakeholders across multiple industrial and geographic dimensions, Marlise and Amy guided mentors and participants to imagine desirable futures – together– by sketching and jotting during discussions. After moving through each guided sector, participants were challenged to draw connections between the sectors, demonstrating that presents and futures cannot be narrowly and individually decided and that futuring is an active process that requires collective decision making and imagining. The workshop concluded with a discussion of how to pursue collectively desirable futures by understanding the clear entanglements of the economy, culture and our surrounding environments. 

The ideathon will ideally be repeated in other contexts with various participatory groups to create a megamap of future imaginaries and collective ideas.