On May 1st 2025, SA Futures Agency officially launched at the Kurri Kurru park in Lot Fourteen, Adelaide, Australia.

Here is a transcript of the speech delivered by Foresight Director Ariella Helfgott and Artistic Director Stavroula Adameitis introducing our collective values, goals and hopes to the world.

Thank you for joining us as we open a new chapter for South Australia — one that’s not about predicting the future, but about shaping it. Together.

We are here to launch something quietly radical. SA Futures Agency exists because the future doesn’t belong to experts or algorithms — it belongs to all of us. And it will be shaped by what we do, together, starting today.

We don’t have a crystal ball.
What we have — is something far more powerful.

We have a compass.
We have collective wisdom.

We have the ability to observe, sense change, to listen deeply, to look up at the stars and down into the soil, and to find our way — not alone, but together — through unfamiliar terrain.

That’s what foresight is.
It’s not about prediction. It’s about navigation.

It’s about recognising that we’re all moving through a time of great transition — climate, technology, social cohesion, economies — and asking:

How do we prepare? How do we adapt? And how do we create futures that are just, inclusive, regenerative, and alive with possibility?

Foresight is about making better decisions today by understanding the world of tomorrow — not just as it might be, but as it could be — and then asking, what role can we play in getting there?

That’s why we created this agency — to give South Australians the tools, the space and the support to do exactly that.

We’re not driven by short-term interests. We don’t represent any industry, academia or government. We’re here as an independent voice — committed to serving the future - not any single agenda.

Because the truth is: you can’t see the future alone.

We all have blind spots. We all carry assumptions. And that’s why foresight is a participation sport.

It requires artists and engineers, farmers and CEOs, policy-makers and teenagers — people from all walks of life — coming together to make sense of change and imagine new possibilities.

When we bring those diverse perspectives into one room, we can see more clearly.

And when we act together, we can shape more courageously.

Across all of our collaborations we work to make foresight more visible, tangible, and playful — because this work should engage the head and the heart.

And we’re building a team that lives this work every day — people who are humble, curious, collaborative, and fierce in their belief that better futures are possible.

We’re here to help others build their capacity, not to tell them what to do.

We’re here to ask better questions, and to hold space for South Australians to imagine, test and shape what comes next.

So whether you’re in government, business, research, education, or community — this is for you.

Whether you’re excited about what lies ahead, or uncertain, or both — we’re here to listen.

Reach out. Join an activity. Invite us into your strategy sessions. Tell us what you’re noticing, what you’re wondering, what you’re hoping for.

The future is not something we passively await. It’s something we actively create.