Association of Professional Futurists

The Association of Professional Futurists (APF) is a community of professional futurists, founded in 2002. The APF is similar to other organizations that promote the development of strategic foresight including the World Future Society, the World Futures Studies Federation, the Millennium Project, and the Club of Rome.

The APF was founded in 2002 by an informal network of professional futurists. Members of the first board include Peter Bishop, Andy Hines, Michele Bowman, Mike de Bettencourt, Sandy Burchsted, Tom Conger, Bob Hahn, Herb Rubenstein, and Jennifer Jarratt. The APF was created to lead discussion internationally about professional futures practice, encourage the use of futures and foresight in strategic decision making, and offer services, resources and training for foresight professionals to advance their skills and knowledge. As is the intention of many association groups, the APF was primarily formed to increase futures studies conversations through professional networking and improve the image and performance of the field.

The APF's members have written for and are cited in various journals and magazines such as The Futurist, Wired, Futures, Foresight, and the Journal for Futures Studies.

The Association of Professional Futurists has over 200 individual and organizational members that include Arup, the Foresight Alliance, the House of Futures, the Institute for the Future, the Institute for Alternative Futures, Kairos Futures, and Leading Futurists LLC.

The Association of Professional Futurists offers membership following a portfolio review to those who can, at the minimum, document performance in two of seven professional standards: consulting, organizational function, postgraduate degree, certificate program, speaking, teaching and writing. Besides this Full Member program, it also offers Provision, Associate, Student and Organizational Membership.

Annual member gatherings have been a key activity in the history of the APF. A preliminary gathering was the "Applied Futures Summit" in Seattle in April 2001 at which several founders agreed to move forward and formally established APF in 2002. The first meeting in Austin, TX was "The Future of Futures." It used a scenario planning approach to explore the next decade of the field. Each subsequent gathering has focused on a particular topic, such as Design Thinking in Pasadena CA or the Future of (Virtual) Reality in Las Vegas NV.

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