The Make/shift Summit
Where the builders get together to start bringing better futures to life.
Two weeks of imagination, provocation, and inspiration - all leading up to this. The Make/shift Summit is a one-day assembly on future-making strategy and practice. It brings together the people already working on today's biggest challenges, and sends you home with a fresh outlook, new connections, and momentum for your own future-making practice.
Don't expect to just sit back: you'll be immersing yourself in the futures ahead, and rehearsing the moves we need to build the ones we really want.
The Summit Program
Session 1: Opening and provocation
-
9:00am | We’ll receive a Welcome to Country and settle into the space, offering us a chance to ground ourselves before a day of exploring big ideas and even bigger questions.
-
9:10am | The Good Together team set the scene on the festival’s core themes.
-
9:20am | In conversation with Wellbeing Economy advocate Katherine Trebeck about the futures on offer, where they fall short, and what we could aim for instead.
-
9:50am | Senior Yindjibarndi leader Michael Woodley shares why caring for Country, reciprocity, and generational stewardship have to sit at the heart of better futures, in an exclusive recorded message just for Make/shift.
Session 2: Rehearsing plural futures
Choose one breakout session to join.
-
10:30am | Hear from Jon Alexander on subject, consumer, and citizen futures, then take your place in the assembly in a participatory democracy activity set in a resource-limited future WA.
-
10:30am | Hear from Indy Johar on taking adaptation seriously, then step into an interactive future scenario where you’ll negotiate how to care for each other in a climate-struck community.
-
10:30am | Katherine Trebeck will outline the urgency and risks of transition, then you’ll be the first in Australia to play ‘Dawn’, a brand-new game where you play out a green transition on a tabletop together.
-
10:30am | Hear from Erinch Sahan along with Doing Co, The Fremantle Foundation, Impact Seed, and Saul Cresswell on putting money to work for better futures, then get hands-on practice unlocking wealth and wellbeing in your local place.
-
With by the folks at Make-Shift Evenings, get into your body and watch how embodiment can be part of the cognitive. Let all the discussions of the Summit and the whole festival settle and manifest through your body and the collective.
Expect a gentle warm up, cultivating deep listening, and sharpening the skills of witnessing, being witnessed, and going before you're ready.
Session 3: Inspiration and strategy
-
1:30pm | Sharing exclusive video messages recorded for Make/shift by our partners and friends across the country and the globe, to inspire our future-making work.
-
1:45pm | We’ve raised some big questions about what’s next, but now let’s tie it back to strategy - how do we leverage power and possibility to make better futures?
Session 4: Reflection & closing
-
3:30pm | Our dedicated listeners will play back key themes and their critical reflections.
-
3:50pm | The Good Together team will share a final message as the Summit and the festival come to an end.
-
4:00pm | Locally based and globally loved artist and performer Max Barton will put on a special show to close out Make/shift.
Frank conversations with experts.
Under the hood of a shiny keynote presentation, what do they really think about the futures we’re headed towards, and what we can do about it?
Rehearsing possible futures.
In a hands-on workshop setting, get to grips with simple frameworks that can help us make sense of the mess we’re in, and hash out the details of how we can leverage power and possibility to make better futures.
In a unique set of immersive experiences, step into rich future worlds when you’ll need to work with the people around you to respond to calamity, protect what you treasure, and find joy even in challenging times.
Getting serious about strategy.
As we close the Summit and the whole festival, set aside your comfortable expertise and travel to a future you really long for, to get a sneak preview of how we could build it - starting right now.
Unlocking your imagination.
The Make/shift Summit is designed to help you make some big shifts in how you feel about the future, and how you see your role in making it.
The shifts we’re making
-
Clarity might be too much to promise in fast-moving and confusing times, and we won’t ever have a full, clear picture of the challenges and what needs to be done. But we want to move you towards resolve: just enough clarity to take action together.
-
It’s beyond time to let go of the naive hope that we can keep everything running as it is now - but the doom spiral doesn’t help either. We’re looking for a grittier hope, grounded in our belief that more just, sustainable, joyful futures are possible even in challenging times.
-
We quite literally can’t do any of this alone. You’ll leave the Summit with new connections not just to specific people you can pick up the phone to or collaborate with, but also to a shared identity: you’re one of the future-makers now.
-
All these big ideas are no good to anyone if they remain just ideas. The Summit will help you to take your future-making practice to the next level in your own contexts and communities, giving you a real sense of the work to be done next and your place in it.
Who’s this Summit for?
The Make/shift Summit is for anyone and everyone who’s taking on the big social and ecological challenges of our time, and building towards better futures - in whatever capacity that might be.
We’ll be welcoming leaders and innovators, activists and entrepreneurs, policymakers and artists, funders and futurists. We’ll also be welcoming bakers, teachers, tradies, accountants, FIFO workers, psychologists, baristas, gardeners, grandparents, and a whole lot more. If you’ve got a stake in better futures (and we all do), you’re invited.
Join us at the Walyalup Fremantle Town Hall
8 William St, Fremantle WA 6160
A grand historic space in the very heart of Walyalup, a short walk from the Fremantle train station. Parking is available nearby, though public transport is recommended.
The venue offers step-free access and accessible toilets. If you have specific access needs, we're happy to help.
THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS
