EVENTS & OFFERINGS
2028 Futures Fair
Each year, thousands of business leaders, educators, civic organizations, and community members will come together to make sense of emerging signals, explore possible futures for the region, and develop shared action priorities. Part conference, part civic ritual, the Futures Fair will take its name from Buffalo’s own history of bold ambition, echoing the spirit of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, when the city invited the world to imagine what was possible. That invitation will be extended again: to ask what future we want to build together.
BUFFALO FORESIGHT CERTIFICATE
The Buffalo Foresight Certificate will train you to think a decade out. The certificate will immerse participants in the forces shaping Western New York while building practical foresight skills they can put to work right away. Each session will pair hands-on training in signal scanning, scenario planning, and systems thinking with direct encounters with the people, places, and ideas driving change across the region. Participants won’t just learn about Buffalo’s future in a classroom; they’ll move through it, seeing the history alongside the transformation and asking what comes next. The program will culminate at the Futures Fair, where each cohort will present its scenarios and action recommendations to an audience of regional leaders.
workshops
Buffalo Signals Laboratory will offer foresight workshops in two formats, both designed to be hands-on, active, and immersive. Community workshops will be open to the public and will require no prior experience; participants will move through immersive activities and installations that make futures thinking tangible, leaving with practical skills in signal scanning, scenario building, and long-range decision-making. Organizational workshops will bring a customized full-day experience directly to your team, built around your sector, your challenges, and your planning horizon. Both formats will give participants dedicated time to step away from day-to-day demands, engage their imagination, and develop a shared vocabulary for talking about what’s coming.