Call for creative products, stories and artistic pieces
Provoke ideas. Spark change.
Bring humanitarian futures to life
We want you to imagine, stories, products and events from possible futures to shape the debate at the world’s largest gathering of humanitarians and governments.
Up to five grand-prize winners will be flown to Geneva to present their imagined future products or services at the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IC34).
We want you to imagine products and services from possible futures to shape the debate at the world’s largest gathering of humanitarians and governments.
Up to five grand-prize winners will be flown to Geneva to present their imagined future products or services at the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IC34).
Products shape history and stories and art change society.
From stone tools to smartphones, the legal sector to the advertising industry, the goods and services humans create alter the world we live in.
Here is your chance to get creative and take us on a journey. The best ideas will go on display in a major humanitarian conference in Geneva and you will get to attend and present your piece. (Find out more about the prize below).
The IFRC Solferino Academy and the ICRC Foresight team want you to travel into possible futures to explore the potential humanitarian impact of autonomous weapons systems and emerging digital risks.
How might these advances in technology alter the world around us? What new vulnerabilities might they create? Who might benefit and who might suffer as new tools,services and social shifts change the nature of crises, conflict and our communities, and the way we respond to humanitarian needs?
Your challenge is to develop your own future scenarios and then create an imagined product or service from that future. What kind of devices, gadgets, tools, toys, foods, clothes, personal care, transport, services or social movements might exist in this future as the world responds and adapts to new digital risks, and what do these products tell us about the world that created it?
Imagining the products and services humans might create to survive and thrive in that world could help us understand possible futures and sharpen our decisions today.
Get creative. We welcome everything from imagined product design to a business pitch, advertising campaigns, TV shows or news stories from the future, to a multimedia window into the world that uses the products and services you imagine.
There are more details below to help you explore the possibilities.
The Prize
Up to five grand-prize winners will be flown to Geneva to present their imagined future products or services at the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IC34). Alongside this, the judge’s favourite thought-provoking work will be showcased in an interactive exhibition and across our digital channels.
We will choose the best entries and then help you bring them to life by manufacturing models, transporting items if you prefer to build your own artefact, or sharing digital entries. Your speculative concepts will reach thousands of humanitarian and government leaders from all around the world. We will also promote your work globally through our digital channels.
The International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent is the supreme deliberative body of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (the Movement), where the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions come together with the components of the Movement to discuss key matters of humanitarian concern and to make joint commitments.
Participants are: Movement components (National Societies, ICRC, IFRC), States, and Observer organisations.
This year’s theme is Navigate Uncertainty – Strengthen Humanity. The event takes place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 28-31 October 2024.
The brief
1.
Explore and imagine possible future scenarios triggered by autonomous weapons and emerging digital risks. Focus on the possible humanitarian needs, impacts and implications of emerging trends and social shifts. There is no fixed time horizon – you may use any point in the future for your scenario but you must focus on digital risks. Use our Strategic Foresight Book for inspiration and activities to help you.
2.
Design a product or service from your future scenarios. This should embody the key trends and provoke discussion about the future you have imagined. You can take inspiration from our Forma futures market or these videos. Remember, this is an imagined future world – you do not need to be able to make the product or service today; we want ideas that provoke debate and stretch thinking.
3.
Create your entry. We really encourage you to get creative! We welcome videos – from creative advertisements to news stories, multimedia visions of possible futures to product and business pitches – as well as physical mock-ups, concept drawings, design briefs, or digital renderings as submissions. We want to know the product name, the marketing spiel, the trends it embodies and a bit about the future world which created it.
4.
Submit your product online here by August 25th at midnight CEST 2024.
You must submit the following information:
- A representation of your product or service – this can be a video, press release, physical mock-up, concept art, design brief, digital renderings etc.
- Brand name (if proposing a future product)
- A draft blurb and strapline for your product, service or marketing pitch
- Target users/market
- Tell us a little about the world that created this product or service…
Details on the themes
1.
Digital Risks
Digital technology can have profoundly positive effects, and has revolutionised access to life-saving information, improved participation, communications, engagement and created new options for humanitarian action. But the digital revolution also creates considerable risks, with new tools and data exposing people to harm and negatively affecting their rights, safety and dignity.
The digital technologies which create these risks come in many forms. They may be physical (such as satellites, critical infrastructure, autonomous weapons, and surveillance hardware), or they may be virtual (such as spyware, hacking, disinformation and deepfakes).
A further issue is access and biases within all these systems – a deep digital divide is growing in many places, and many groups and individuals are excluded or actively discriminated against by the design of the technology. They can also be deliberately misused or turned against specific groups. People must be supported to understand the risks they face; information and digital literacy are critical.
As digital technology is now woven through all aspects of society, the impact is profound. And as digital transformation and the frontiers of technology expand, with the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI) and the potential of other emerging tools, new vulnerabilities and unintended consequences will emerge. This poses a challenge to all humanitarian organisations.
2.
Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS)
Conflict and warfare have always driven technology innovation as parties seek a decisive advantage, improved logistics, or greater force.
Militaries and private actors are currently investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous weapons systems (AWS). This is creating a new generation of battlefield hardware and software with significant independence and decision-making power.
A person activates an AWS, but they do not know specifically who or what it will strike, nor precisely where and/or when that strike will occur. These autonomous systems may identify, select and engage targets. This may lead to the loss of human control, autonomy, accountability and oversight, with serious implications for civilians.
As the technology improves, these weapons will become more sophisticated, deadly and pervasive. This is a direct challenge to existing International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and the humanitarian fundamental principles.
3.
Exploring possible futures
Use The Strategic Foresight Book for inspiration and practical tools you can use.
Here are some questions you might also like to consider as you imagine your future scenarios:
- How might these emerging trends create new humanitarian vulnerabilities? Who might be most affected? What is their life like as a result?
- What positive impacts might emerging digital trends have on community resilience and autonomy?
How might digital risks and AWS interact with other trends and social shifts (such as the climate emergency, demographic changes, economic pressures etc)? - How might communities protect themselves from cyber, digital and information risks? What opportunities might there be for communities?
- How might disinformation and malware evolve over the coming decades? How might this reshape politics and civil society? How might people respond?
- How might surveillance and social control change as technology develops?
- How might emerging digital trends and technology influence warfare and geopolitics? What might this look like if conflicts extend out into space and down into virtual domains?
- How might humanitarian organisations respond? What new ways of working, operations or partnerships might they create?
- How might corporations and the economy change as new possibilities, markets and vulnerabilities develop? What kind of industries might gain power? How might they use it?
- What is your message to world leaders working to address these risks and opportunities?
Here are some questions you might like to consider as you imagine your future products and services:
- What is happening in the future you are portraying? Tell us the story through your creative piece.
- What trends does your story or creative piece represent and what questions does this raise about the future?
- What do you want people to feel when they see this creative concept? What do you want them to do differently?
- Who is impacted by this future scenario, what is happening to them?
- What insights does your creative piece about the future give us today as we consider how to prepare for these things.
If you choose to develop a future product or service;
- What problems does this product/service solve? What benefits does it provide?
- Where would this product/service be necessary? When would someone use this product/service? How would they use it?
- Who is the target customer for this product/service? Who else might benefit from, or be negatively impacted by this product/service?
- How might this product/service cause unexpected problems? What might happen? How might the stakeholders be impacted?
- What trends does this product/service embody and what questions does this raise about the future?
- What do you want people to feel when they see this product/service concept? What do you want them to do differently?
We want you to imagine products and services from possible futures to shape the debate at the world’s largest gathering of humanitarians and governments.
Key Criteria for the Competition
- Any Movement Stakeholder can apply this includes staff, volunteers and members of the IFRC, ICRC or National Societies, as well as community members, partner organisations and collaborators. All applicants must be over 18 years old.
- Submissions should be made via the form below no later than midnight CEST 25th August 2024.
- Submissions from teams are welcomed but should you be selected as a winner only one person will be funded to attend the International Conference in Geneva.
- Winners will receive flights, accommodation, per diems and visa costs to attend the International Conference in Geneva Switzerland, between the 28-31 of October 2024. Winners should ensure they have valid passports and can travel during these periods. The prize is not transferable.
- Winners will be selected by judges from the IFRC Solferino Academy and ICRC who have expertise in Digital Risks, Autonomous Weapons and Foresight. Judges will assess against two main criteria:
- The depth, insight and sophistication of the future scenario that is described through the product or service;
- The creativity and originality of the product or service.
Humanitarian Guidance
Eligible submissions must be guided by the fundamental humanitarian principles. Neutrality is a particularly important principle for this activity: “In order to continue to enjoy the confidence of all, the Movement may not take sides in hostilities or engage at any time in controversies of a political, racial, religious or ideological nature.” The products and tools you design should be neutral and not (1) accuse specific parties to armed conflict of violations, (2) refer to any identifiable government or armed group, or individual, or (3) use contextual cues to indicate any specific government, armed group, individuals or other actors are to “blame” for the problems the products address.
Call For Future Products
Submit your idea
by August 25th at midnight CEST 2024
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Get In Touch
IFRC Solferino Academy: [email protected]
