Agility in the 21st Century Conference

We are living through a period of profound and accelerating transformation. Technological disruption, geopolitical volatility, climate uncertainty and shifting societal expectations demand a new kind of readiness. Uncertainty and ambiguity now permeate every aspect of work and life. For individuals and organizations to thrive, we need a paradigm shift: from control and rigidity to agility, fluidity, openness and dynamism.

This full-day conference explores the conditions, enablers and levers of agility across four interconnected streams:

1. The Changing Conditions of Turbulence and Resilience in the 21st Century
2. How Organizations Sense, Decide and Act
3. How Leaders Transcend What They Already Know
4. Creativity, AI and the Fuel of Agility

Hosted by the Foresight Lab at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business, this is a landmark gathering of scholars, practitioners, policymakers and innovators committed to understanding what it truly means to lead and thrive in the 21st century.

Candice Chow

Director of Foresight Lab & Assistant Professor of Strategic Management

Dr. Candice Chow is the Director of the Foresight Lab and an Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at the DeGroote School of Business. Prior to becoming a full-time academic, she held senior management positions across continents for over 25 years, leading enterprise transformation projects and strategy development at scale.

Candice earned her DBA at Henley Business School, UK, and her MBA at the Ivey School of Business. A graduate of the Directors’ College, she holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London.

Her research sits at the intersection of strategic leadership, values-based management, foresight, and governance – with a focus on how organizations navigate uncertainty while remaining anchored in human-centric and sustainable principles. She brings a practitioner’s lens to her academic work, emphasizing experiential learning and leadership development. Current projects examine how strategic foresight and futures thinking enhance decision-making in complex environments, and how pedagogical innovation in teaching foresight to executives and MBA students can advance organizational resilience. Her latest academic contributions include research on the future of business education in the era of Gen AI – in collaboration with scholars at the British Academy of Management – and on professional judgment as a driver of anticipatory capacity.

Riel Miller

Senior Fellow, Former UNESCO Head of Foresight and Futures Literacy

Dr. Riel Miller is one of the world’s leading authorities on the theory and practice of using the future to change what people see and do. He is recognized as an innovative and globally experienced project initiator, designer and manager. He is widely published in academic journals and other media on a range of topics, from the future of the Internet to transforming strategic processes. He is an accomplished keynote speaker and facilitator.

Riel started his career at the OECD in Paris in 1982 in the Economics Department. Completed his PhD in Economics at the New School for Social Research in 1987. From 1985 to 1993 he worked for the Ontario Government, in the legislature and as a senior manager in the Ontario public service (Ministries of Finance; Universities; and Industry). In 1995 he returned to the OECD to work in the International Futures Programme and with the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. In 2005 he founded an independent consultancy – xperidox (which means knowledge through experience) to advise public and private sector clients from around the world on how to use the future more effectively. From mid-2012 to early 2022 Riel served as Head of Foresight and Futures Literacy at UNESCO.

Riel’s lifelong ambition fueled by unflagging passion is to find ways to put the richness of complex emergence at the service of humanity’s capacity to be free.