If there’s one word that encapsulates most of the challenges and opportunities confronting the Upstate, that word would be growth.
Whether you’re talking population numbers or the economy, the changes being wrought by growth can be both inspiring and daunting, and navigating those prospects was the focus of Ten at the Top’s annual Upstate summit Sept. 11 at the Greenville Convention Center.
Setting the tone
The day of topical breakout sessions and panel discussions kicked off with two keynote speakers who set the tone for the event.
Greenville-based spoken-word artist Dove Dupree demonstrated the power of the spoken word to the hundreds gathered and encouraged attendees to leave the world a better place by working together and using their talents to make a difference in their communities.
Nationally recognized futurist and strategic planning consultant Rebecca Ryan then spoke about five broad trends likely to play out in the next decade where Upstate leaders and residents will have opportunities to shape the future.
Ryan began by describing everyone gathered as architects of the future who will influence how growth and change will affect the 10 counties of the Upstate and the world beyond.
“We are architects of the future by the words we say, by the things we do or we don’t do, by the alliances we make, by the company we keep (and) by the teams we take up,” she said. “We’re all going to be living in the future.”
Being a successful architect of the future requires being able to navigate both the immediate realities of day-to-day living but also able to identify the deeper trends shaping society, Ryan said.
She identified five trends and issues the Upstate and the U.S. will be confronting over the next 10 years that will have significant influence on how communities evolve.
Trends to watch
Ryan outlined the following trends likely to drive change in the next decade:
- Movement of people: Shifting populations and in-migration to regions like the Upstate pose the challenge of how to integrate new residents in the life and future of communities.
- Energy demand: The need for adequate electricity supply to meet the demands of growing populations and economies will be a key challenge to solve.
- Housing: An ongoing shortage of housing stock will require reform of land-use regulations that favor single-family homes and more widespread use of advanced building and manufacturing techniques to build a variety of housing types better, faster and at scale.
- Better downtowns: Community centers like downtowns need to “do more for more.” Thriving communities are built around healthy hearts.
- Building community: Perhaps the most intractable challenge facing communities is the human tendency to organize into ingroups and outgroups. Social media has, in a sense, industrialized society’s impulse toward polarization.
Ryan said these trends are driven by human behavior and likewise can be solved by people and communities working together to find solutions.
“And what we know for sure is culture walks on two feet,” Ryan said. “People are made, communities are made, communities are doomed by the kind of culture that takes place.”
Good to know
Schismogenesis is an anthropological term describing the formation of divisions and differentiation in human society. Futurist Rebecca Ryan used this term to explain how social media has greatly amplified the human tendency toward polarization.
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