Date: Thursday, 12 November 2026
Time: 11:30 am–5:00 pm, followed by networking drinks
Location: Adelaide Festival Centre
Tickets on sale!
Date: Thursday, 12 November 2026
Time: 11:30 am–5:00 pm, followed by networking drinks
Location: Adelaide Festival Centre
Tickets on sale!
Shaping Adelaide’s Next Decade
The next ten years will decide where capital flows, which industries win and which cities thrive. Adelaide's leaders need to be ready for more than one version of the future.
On Thursday 12 November, AEDA's new premier forum brings more than 200 senior leaders from business, government, industry and education into one room to stress-test Adelaide's economic future against the forces already reshaping it.
This is not a conference. You will work through alternative scenarios for Adelaide's economy, test your own organisation's strategy against them and help build a shared outlook for the city, using the same scenario planning approach relied on by Shell, the OECD and governments worldwide.
Tickets are strictly limited.
Event Details
Date: Thursday, 12 November 2026
Time: 11:30 am–5:00 pm, followed by networking drinks
Location: Adelaide Festival Centre
Cost: $320 per person, or $290 per person for a table of 10
Speakers
Keynote
Dexter Docherty , Strategic Foresight Unit, Office of the Secretary-General, OECD (Paris)
Facilitator
Professor Ariella Helfgott , SA Futures Agency (Adelaide)
What you'll take away
A clear-eyed view of the global forces bearing on Adelaide's economy, from the OECD's own foresight team. Two rigorous scenarios for Adelaide in 2036, built with local leaders and tested in the room. Practical foresight tools you can use in your next strategy conversation. And a shared outlook for the city that AEDA will carry forward.
Grounded in the internationally recognised Shell and Oxford Scenario Planning Approach.
Speaker Bios
Dexter Docherty
Strategic Foresight Unit, Office of the Secretary-General, OECD (Paris)
Dexter Docherty is a foresight expert who specializes in geosecurity, geofinance and technology futures. He has led scenarios processes with senior level government officials from around the world. He was the lead author on the OECD’s Strategic Foresight Toolkit for Resilient Public Policy and a co-author and designer of OECD foresight work on AI, gold and global markets, geoengineering and the futures of multilateralism. Prior to the OECD, where he was from 2020 until October 2026, he worked at Policy Horizons Canada and the Canadian Justice Department. He has a masters degree in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation from the University of Oxford and a bachelor’s degree in history from McGill University.
Professor Ariella Helfgott
Professor of Foresight, Adelaide University | Director, SA Futures Agency
Ariella Helfgott has spent more than twenty years helping governments, boards and global companies make sound strategic decisions when the future is anything but certain. She built scenarios with the Shell Scenario Team and the Oxford Scenario Programme, established South Australia's first whole-of-government foresight function as Director of Strategic Foresight in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, and served as global Director of Foresight and Strategic Learning at the World Energy Council. Now Professor of Foresight at Adelaide University and Director of the SA Futures Agency, she sits on Australia's National Security College's Futures Council and is an Honorary Professor in the ANU School of Cybernetics.
About Adelaide Economic Development Agency
The Adelaide Economic Development Agency (AEDA) works closely with businesses, industry groups, state government agencies and other relevant organisations to deliver a range of programs designed to stimulate the city's economic growth. AEDA aims to attract investment, support residential growth, boost an annual events calendar and market the city as a whole, which includes promoting Rundle Mall as Adelaide's premier shopping destination.