FUTURE FESTIVAL - CHICAGO

Nov 3, 2026

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TREND HUNTER

EVENTS

FUTURE FESTIVAL
CHICAGO

Name: Future Festival Chicago
Start: 2026-11-03
Location: Worklife Meetings (at THE MART)

The Innovation Conference for What's Next

1 DAY

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TRUSTED BY

PROVEN INNOVATORS

SESSION LINEUP

Here’s a look at what you can expect.
Session times and speakers are subject to change.

Worklife Meetings (at THE MART) Nov 3, 2026

8:00 AM

Registration, Networking & Breakfast

WorkLife Meetings – The MART

Pick up your badge, enjoy breakfast, and connect with fellow attendees before programming begins.

Meet fellow innovators, business leaders, and future-focused thinkers as you settle in for a day of inspiration, insights, and meaningful connections.

9:00 AM

Morning Address + Morning Show

Jaime Underwood + Jonathon Brown Granite / Glass Room

Welcome to Future Festival Chicago 2026!

Join us as we kick off a day dedicated to exploring emerging trends, challenging conventional thinking, and uncovering new opportunities for innovation.

We'll introduce the day's themes, highlight what's ahead, and set the stage for an engaging experience of future-focused learning and connection.

9:30 AM

Rewiring Risk and Culture for Transformational Change

Seth Rogin Granite / Glass Room

Seth Rogin, McClatchy's President of Performance & Intelligence and an Associate Fellow of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, will lead a discussion on the culture of digital transformation.

Having directed programs for some of the world's largest media, technology, and consumer companies, Seth will share how we can navigate rapid internal change and rethink our interactions with brands in an agentic world.

10:00 AM

Audience Q&A / Comfort Break

Granite / Glass Room

Continue the conversation with an opportunity for audience questions, followed by a short break before our next session.

10:15 AM

Augmented Intelligence - the Co-Pilot Strategy

Sean Watson Granite / Glass Room

Is AI a catalyst for human ingenuity, or a crutch that quietly dulls our judgment? The same tool that makes us faster and sharper can just as easily make us worse — and the moment we stop noticing is the moment it matters most.

This keynote cuts through the hype to explore the fine line between cognitive decline and strategic leverage. Across three arenas — your life, your work, and your world — we'll confront the real risks of leaning too hard on AI, and reframe what it takes to stay sharp, original, and competitive in an augmented age. Expect provocative questions, real-world examples, and a strategy for putting AI in the co-pilot's seat without handing over the controls.

11:15 AM

Comfort Break

Granite / Glass Room

Enjoy a short break before the next session.

11:30 AM

A Conversation with Itonics

Matt Pizzoferrato + Ari Zeitoun Granite / Glass Room

Join Itonics for a conversation exploring how organizations identify emerging opportunities, connect insights, and translate future-focused thinking into innovation.

Hear perspectives on navigating change, identifying meaningful signals, and bringing innovation strategies to life.

12:00 PM

Lunch & VIP Lunch

Lunch Pickup: North Lounge

Enjoy a lunch break and connect with fellow attendees before the afternoon programming begins.

General Admission & PRO Ticket Holders
Lunch will be available for pickup in the North Lounge. General Admission and PRO attendees are welcome to enjoy their meals in the venue's common areas or in the Granite and Glass rooms.

VIP Ticket Holders – Private Lunch
VIP attendees can pick up their lunch in the North Lounge before making their way to the private Limestone Room, where a dedicated space will be available to enjoy lunch and connect with fellow VIP attendees.

1:00 PM

Microgenerations and the Trust Signal

Armida Ascano Granite / Glass Room

Consumer trust isn’t disappearing, it’s fragmenting. What signals credibility to one generation can look like hype or pandering to another.

Microgenerations and the Trust Signal explores how cultural conditioning shapes the way different cohorts decide what (and whom) to believe. Introducing Cultural Intelligence (CQ) as an essential brand capability, Armida Ascano reveals how trust has shifted from automatic acceptance to active verification, and why brands must understand the cultural codes behind the evidence consumers seek.

Learn how to recognize each microgeneration’s trust signals, avoid its credibility blockers and design proof into every consumer touchpoint, without losing what makes your brand recognizable.

1:45 PM

The Golden Ticket - Traps and Cures of Consumer Trend Hunting

Tess Sansbury, Natalie Taake & Armida Ascano Granite / Glass Room

In an era of accelerating change, leaders need more than trend reports to anticipate what's next. Much like the challenge faced by Willy Wonka in identifying the one individual capable of seeing beyond temptation, distraction, and conventional thinking, today's leaders must distinguish between fleeting signals and meaningful shifts. The most successful menu innovations emerge when data is paired with cultural intelligence: the ability to understand the consumer motivations, behaviors, and shifts shaping demand before they appear in the numbers.

Through real-world examples and interactive discussion, this session will reveal a practical framework for identifying which emerging flavors and cultural movements are poised for growth and which are likely to fade. Attendees will leave with new tools for turning uncertainty into opportunity and future-focused insights into action.

2:30 PM

Break

WorkLife Meetings – The MART

Take a moment to recharge, connect with fellow attendees, and reflect on the day's insights before our final afternoon sessions.

3:00 PM

High Signal Innovation

Jonathon Brown Granite / Glass Room

We've been taught to trust signals. Market momentum. Engagement metrics. Viral adoption. But in a world where the most convincing signals often arrive too late, ring hollow beneath the surface, or are actively engineered by misaligned incentives, signal-spotting alone won't cut it.

This keynote challenges a fundamental assumption: that paying closer attention to market signals makes you a better innovator.

Through evolutionary psychology, real-world case studies, and diagnostic frameworks, Jonathon explores why human discernment — the ability to see what signals can't tell you — has become the critical, undervalued edge in business leadership.

You'll examine why breakthrough innovations often happen before signals appear legible, how to distinguish genuine opportunity from hollow momentum, and what it means to build discernment as an organizational discipline when incentive structures are designed to deceive.

3:45 PM

High Signal Innovation Panel

Jonathon Brown + Panelists Granite / Glass Room

When the signals are noisy, contradictory, or simply haven't appeared yet, how do leaders decide what to trust?

Jonathon Brown brings together industry experts to explore how discernment works in practice. Through candid conversation and real-world examples, the panel will examine how leaders distinguish meaningful shifts from manufactured momentum, balance data with intuition, and make confident decisions when the evidence is incomplete.

From knowing when to follow the market to recognizing when conventional wisdom is pointing in the wrong direction, this discussion moves discernment from theory into practice, revealing how experienced leaders make the call before the answer becomes obvious.

4:05 PM

Audience Q&A

Granite / Glass Room

Join our speakers and panelists for a final audience Q&A, bringing together the day's key themes and perspectives.

4:15 PM

Closing Remarks

Jonathon Brown Granite / Glass Room

As Future Festival Chicago comes to a close, we'll reflect on the day's key insights, emerging opportunities, and ideas for putting future-focused thinking into action.

Thank you for joining us for a day of inspiration, innovation, and meaningful connections.

4:30 – 6:00 PM

Happy Hour brought to you by Itonics

Marshall's Landing – The Founder's Room

Keep the conversations going at our Future Festival Chicago happy hour!

Join fellow attendees, speakers, and the Trend Hunter team for an opportunity to reconnect, exchange ideas, and build meaningful relationships in a relaxed setting.

Celebrate a day of future-focused learning and connect with the people shaping what's next.

VENUE

SPACE

CONFERENCE VENUE

Venue

Worklife Meetings (at THE MART)

222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza #250, Chicago, IL 60654, United States

Happy Hour

Marshall's Landing (at THE MART)

222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654, United States

Inclusion General Pro VIP

Full Conference Programming ✓ ✓ ✓

Networking Experiences ✓ ✓ ✓

Meals & Refreshments ✓ ✓ ✓

Digital Take-Home Resources ✓ ✓ ✓

1:1 Trend Hunter Advisor Meeting ✕ ✓ ✓

Innovation Assessment Overview ✕ ✓ ✓

Horizon Demo & Extended Trial ✕ ✓ ✓

Priority Networking ✕ ✓ ✓

VIP Lunch with Speakers & Team ✕ ✕ ✓

TREND HUNTER

TEAM

MEET OUR
FUTURISTS

ARMIDA ASCANO

Chief Insights Officer

JAIME UNDERWOOD

President, Work Culture Expert and Innovation Assessment Creator

JONATHON BROWN

Chief Growth Officer and Innovation Strategy Storyteller

SEAN WATSON

SVP of Transformation and Future Tech Trend Forecaster

FEATURED

GUEST SPEAKERS

GUEST SPEAKERS
& PANELISTS

SETH ROGIN

President, Performance & Intelligence at McClatchy Media

TESS SANSBURY

VP, Marketing & Consumer Insights at DSM-Firmenich

NATALIE TAAKE

Director of Beverage Marketing at DSM-Firmenich

ARI ZEITOUN

Enterprise Account Executive at ITONICS

MATRICE JACKSON

Director of Global R&E at Kimberly Clark

MATT PIZZOFERRATO

Account Director US at Itonics

THANK YOU TO OUR
SPONSORS

GOT A QUESTION?

WE GOT YOU

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Future Festival is an innovation conference designed for industry leaders who are ready to break through chaos. Content is aimed at Managers, Directors, VPs, and C-Level executives from all industries who lead innovation, strategy, marketing, R&D, insights, and transformation initiatives.

Whether you're driving growth at a global brand, steering change within a fast-growing startup, or guiding strategy at a non-profit or government agency, the content is curated to provide high-impact ideas and tools you can immediately apply.

Yes! Many of the activities are designed for teams, leading you to specific outputs for your own brand. At Future Festival, you will be excited by trends and undiscovered opportunities—you'll get the most out of the event by sharing this experience and building ideas with your team in the room.

Expect engaging keynote programming from our team of renowned futurists, alongside workshops and networking events tailored for meaningful connection and hands-on learning. Check out our event recap to learn more.

Future Festival is led by Trend Hunter's team of Futurists, and we also invite guest speakers who are leaders in their fields. Check out each individual event page to see who will be appearing.

World Summit in Toronto is our premier event where we introduce new ideas that will shape the year ahead. It takes place over two days as we go beyond our keynotes and create an immersive experience for attendees.

Check out the event page for World Summit in Toronto to learn more.

Each Future Festival event boasts its own unique schedule. Check out the event page you're interested in attending to see which speakers and topics will be covered.

Start by taking our Innovation Assessment to identify your unique innovation archetype. Discover tailored strategies to help you realize your potential faster, and see how you and your organization compare to the world's top innovators.

Yes! Your ticket can be transferred to a colleague—just email futurefestival@trendhunter.com to make the change. Please note that transfers will only be accepted up to one week before the event.