Dubai Crown Prince Attends 2025 Dubai Future Forum, Shaping the Emirate's Innovative Vision

Dubai's Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum attended the opening day of the Dubai Future Forum 2025, where the city honored global pioneers in future forecasting and graduated experts from specialized programs. The forum brings together over 2,500 participants from 100 countries to shape humanity's path forward through international cooperation and strategic planning.

Sheikh Hamdan emphasized that designing the future has become one of the most important strategic sectors for governments and companies worldwide. He said Dubai's global model for future design relies on international partnerships with those committed to positive, proactive values around the world.

"We launched the Dubai Future Forum in 2022 to be an annual global platform that brings together the most important experts and institutions for designing the future in Dubai," Sheikh Hamdan explained. "It's an opportunity to identify national and global priorities, study future opportunities, unite government and private efforts, and develop appropriate services and solutions."

The crown prince presented the first Dubai Future Foresight Awards, recognizing innovators and visionaries from around the world across three categories. The awards celebrate leadership in future foresight, community impact through forecasting, and environmental sustainability through predictive planning.

In the leadership category, a team from Fiji won first place for their "Pacifica Futures" report on how indigenous knowledge in Pacific islands can preserve their future and sustain resources. UNICEF's foresight fellowship program in Pakistan took second place, while France's "Sustainable Future" initiative came third for making forecasting a daily practice everyone can understand.

For community impact, Italy's "Healthy Longevity City" initiative won top honors for integrating artificial intelligence across vital sectors to promote longer, healthier lives in future urban communities. Greece's "Future of Recovery" project placed second for using foresight to overcome social divisions and build more cohesive societies.

The environmental category recognized Cameroon's Congo River Basin initiative, which highlighted the importance of forecasting biodiversity futures for the sustainability of this crucial African waterway. A U.S. project developing three tests for future Earth cooling opportunities took second place, while Egypt's Nile Delta agriculture initiative earned third for strategic agricultural transformation visions.

Sheikh Hamdan also witnessed the graduation of 30 participants from 15 countries in the second batch of the "Future Sensing Program." This international program, unique in the region, trains executives, entrepreneurs, policy designers, and innovators in future forecasting skills over four weeks. The participants were selected from 401 applications across 68 countries.

The crown prince met with graduates from the fifth batch of the "Dubai Future Experts Program," the world's first government program of its kind. This program trains mid and senior-level Emirati government employees to become future experts in various sectors, supporting Dubai's D33 economic agenda goals.

The forum's first day featured keynote speeches and specialized sessions across five main themes: deep future insights, exploring the unknown, future societies, future health, and future systems. Discussions covered global transformations in the AI era, the nature of future societies, correct future decision-making, education's role in building world readiness, and industrial sectors' role in driving economic futures.

Four workshops ran alongside the main sessions, including "Individual Perceptions of the Future" by Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, "Scenario Lab" by Strategy&, "Practical Foresight" by the International Organization for Migration, and "Alternative Methods for Future Foresight from Around the World" by the World Futures Studies College.

The forum included interactive experiences and creative displays using augmented and virtual reality technology, immersing participants in a comprehensive ecosystem for future forecasting and solution design. The second day will focus on future cities, space exploration developments, human-Earth relationships, youth roles in transforming foresight into innovation platforms, and enhancing community partnerships.

This gathering represents Dubai's commitment to becoming a global center for future opportunities and launching collaborative programs between experts, institutions, governments, and young innovators. The city continues building its reputation as a hub where advanced technologies meet clear objectives that prioritize community needs in shaping tomorrow's world.