Scott Smith

Scott is founder and managing partner of Changeist. Having worked for twenty years in futures, strategy and innovation, Scott has consulted to a range of global institutions, including SWIFT, UNICEF, The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, The Royal Society, Nesta, and the Dubai Future Foundation.

He has also led engagements with some of the largest and most respected global financial, retail, telecoms, technology and media brands, such as the BBC, The New York Times Company, ASOS, AXA, Samsung, and Comcast. He has designed and delivered futures projects, talks and workshops in over a dozen countries and facilitated projects and workshops in multiple languages.

Scott helped create and lead the Strategic Foresight program for Dubai Future Academy, and lectures in the Innovation & Future Thinking program at IED Barcelona, a course he designed. He has also been a long-time lecturer for the Dubai Future Academy, and has led courses at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Center for Leadership Development in Dubai. He was also a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of South Australia in November 2023.

Scott has written for international publications such as The Atlantic, Quartz, WIRED UK, and How We Get to Next. He has spoken at major events worldwide as diverse as The Next Web, Lift, Flow Festival, Open State, Atlantic Council Energy & Economic Summit, Oxford Futures Forum, EPIC, SxSW, Sibos, FutureFest, FutureEverything, NEXT, and me Convention.

Scott has also contributed work to pieces featured in several cultural exhibitions, including for the BIG BANG DATA exhibition in 2014, and the 2017 Vienna Biennale. He has provided research, consulting, scriptwriting and worked as on-screen talent for non-fictional and fictional exploration of trends, scenario, and futures. He has also consulted on narrative experiences for major museums and international attractions currently under development, and was the driver behind the Future of Arts and Culture, a project supported by Arup and Therme Group.

Scott is also author of How to Future: Leading and Sense-making in an Age of Hyperchange, published by Kogan Page Inspire in September 2020, and co-author of Future Cultures: How to Build a Future-Ready Organization Through Leadership, published in October 2023.