Hello. We’re very proud to be presenting at the 2013 Webster University Sustainability Conference ON April 13, 2013. Our session, Our Common Future: The Stage for Stories in a New World, is about creating the setting for a web/television series called Gateway: the City’s Reason. It takes place 50 years from now in a “sustainable” St. Louis.

In order to create a “sustainable” vision of the future of St. Louis for the series, we will be interviewing sustainability professionals and advocates from around the world and right here in St. Louis.

The Webster Sustainability Conference administrators have been kind enough to let us do a quick survey that will allow us to continue expanding our series development bible. Whether you are attending this year’s conference or not, we invite you to share your thoughts with us. It won’t take long and we will not be able to identify you.

Click here to take the survey!

+++++ CONFERENCE PRESENTATION ABSTRACT

“Our Common Future”: The stage for stories in a new world.

Fiction and entertainment are shaped by our times, but stories also have the power to shape our world. They can help citizens bridge the gap between what is now and what is possible.

We’re used to seeing the drawings and models of architects and planners when it comes to sustainability issues. But how often is a positive vision of our common future incorporated into popular entertainment that can compellingly communicate innovative visions for the future?

We are creating a sustainable “stage” for a television drama set in the near future here in St. Louis. The show’s creators have been interviewing leaders in business, government and science in order paint a picture of St. Louis in 2063. A picture of a future where we live more intelligently with the earth and with each other.

“Gateway” offers a vision of a sustainable way of living and working, and it does so in a way that is unthreatening and energizing. It gets this vision into the common air of public thought, into the mainstream experience–and mind’s eye–of ordinary Americans. We need this now, as we face terrific challenges and the immanent need for smart, agile changes as a society.

Our team, which will include producer/writer, Gene Pfeiffer, director, Mike Sneden and casting director, Joe Hanrahan, will present the series trailer and storyboards and will discuss our research and vision of Gateway: the City’s Reason.