To design for the future, we must first imagine it
Victoria Mulligan helps leaders turn uncertainty into strategic advantage.
Victoria works with CEOs, strategists and leadership teams to bring the future to life. A globally recognised futurist and organisational designer, she equips individuals and organisations with the insight, imagination, and tools they need to turn change into opportunity.
Known for her global experience and human-centred approach, Victoria has worked with governments, companies and philanthropies and across five continents. Her early career in forensic psychology and health policy took her from London to Swaziland - and led to a decade in the Pacific, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste where she led initiatives across sectors designing strategies and policies for a future that works, for people and for planet.
Today, Victoria consults to leading businesses, organisations and academic institutions in New Zealand and globally, guiding strategy through foresight, network design, and systems change. She is the co-founder and director of Design Futures Aotearoa and founder of the Aotearoa Futures Network. She is on the Advisory Board of the Global Futures Society and host of The Futures Workshop, an international podcast showcasing the world's leading futures tools.
Victoria’s ability to challenge conventional thinking has made her a sought-after advisor and speaker, most recently speaking at the United Nations General Assembly and the Dubai Futures Forum. She writes for consumer and academic publications worldwide - from Business Desk to the World Futures Review.
Victoria’s keynotes and workshops stand because they inform and equip. Participants leave with practical tools, prompts, and ready-to-use frameworks that they can put to use straight away - personally and professionally.
Talking Points
Think Like a Futurist: Practical Tools for Uncertain Times
Change is constant. But the future doesn’t have to feel like chaos. This keynote demystifies futures thinking -offering clear tools, relatable examples, and a dose of optimism. Victoria Mulligan unpacks the psychology of uncertainty and shows how structured foresight can help leaders and teams shift from reactivity to resilience. With humour, sharp insight, and real-world examples, she shows how futures thinking helps leaders move beyond short-term survival and build long-term strategic confidence.Think Like a Futurist: Practical Tools for Uncertain Times
Key Takeaways:
Trade panic for perspective: shift from fear to foresight
Expand your time horizon and decision-making range
Spot signals of change and rethink what’s possible
Build your team’s strategic resilience and creative confidence
Use futures thinking to design smarter, future-fit strategies
Ideal for leadership development programs and conferences, innovation teams, early foresight adopters, change-makers where mindset shift and new tools are needed.
Hopeful Futures: Why the Future Isn’t Cancelled
Between climate anxiety, AI panic, and the daily doomscroll, you’d be forgiven for thinking the future is happening to us, not with us. But take a step back, and zoom out. There’s a different story unfolding. One of breakthroughs, bounce-backs, and better-than-expected turns. With global case studies and myth-busting insight, Victoria reminds us that hopeful futures aren’t naive - they’re necessary.Hopeful Futures: Why the Future Isn’t Cancelled
In this fast-paced, myth-busting keynote, Victoria Mulligan invites your audience to rewire their outlook. She explores the psychology of why we fixate on worst-case scenarios and how to shift gears. You’ll discover the real-world innovations, surprising trendlines and humanity-at-its-best case studies that are quietly (and not-so-quietly) solving some of the biggest challenges we face. It’s a keynote designed to energise hearts, open minds, and create a sense of agency in uncertain times.
Key Takeaways:
Why humans are hardwired for fear and how to rewrite that algorithm
Real-world stories of innovation, regeneration, and recovery happening right now
Trends to watch if you want to stop doomscrolling and start signal-surfing
Tools to help your team scan for hope, not just risk
Leave recharged, reconnected, and ready to create a future worth getting excited about
A perfect scene-setter for strategy offsites, conference openers, and any moment where teams or communities need to reconnect with the possibility in the future - not just the problems.
Future Forces: Navigating the Megatrends Shaping the Next Decade
Disruption is the new normal - from climate shocks to generative AI. The question isn’t if change will happen. It’s how prepared you are when it does. In this keynote, Victoria Mulligan maps eight powerful global shifts and reveals how they collide, compound and create space for bold leadership. With case studies from boardrooms and policy tables, she shows how to spot weak signals, connect the dots, and act before disruption becomes crisis.Future Forces: Navigating the Megatrends Shaping the Next Decade
Key Takeaways:
Understand the eight dominant megatrends driving systemic change across industries and sectors
Learn how to identify weak signals of change and emerging opportunities before your competitors do
Explore how trends interconnect in unexpected - and sometimes wicked ways
Turn insights about what’s next into smart moves you can make today
Walk away with a clearer view of what’s ahead and the tools to lead through it with purpose
Ideal for kicking off strategic planning cycles, board meetings, executive offsites, or cross-sector summits where a shared view of the future is essential.
Workshop - Think Like a Futurist: Practical Tools for Uncertain Times
This interactive, energising session introduces teams to foundational foresight tools—from signals scanning to Futures Triangles. Victoria makes futures thinking approachable and practical, showing how to stretch time horizons, challenge assumptions, and explore alternative paths forward.Workshop - Think Like a Futurist: Practical Tools for Uncertain Times
Ideal for teams new to foresight, leadership cohorts, innovation and change-makers
Key Outcomes:
Learn by doing: hands-on experience with foresight tools
Challenge assumptions and explore multiple futures
Create simple scenarios and stress-test strategies
Build your team’s confidence working with uncertainty
Ideal for onboarding new teams into strategy, innovation, or foresight roles - or energising teams ahead of large transformations or policy design sprints.
Discover how foresight can be embedded into organisational planning to stay ahead of emerging trends. How can we use the future as a tool to influence present decisions and create lasting impact?
Workshop - Mapping Change with the Futures Wheel
When a disruption hits, its effects don’t stop at the obvious. This popular, interactive workshop introduces participants to the Futures Wheel—a tool that helps teams map the knock-on impacts of change. Using real-world risks and trend data relevant to your sector, Victoria guides teams through a structured exploration of what might happen next, and what to do about it.Workshop - Mapping Change with the Futures Wheel
Ideal for Executives, strategy teams, boards, risk managers, public sector leaders, innovation units, and cross-sector coalitions
Key Outcomes:
Map how risks ripple through your system or sector
Reveal unintended consequences and strategic blind spots
Identify innovation opportunities and points of leverage
Build a shared map to guide decisions and responses
Strengthen your foresight muscles in real time
Ideal for risk workshops, transformation programs, resilience planning, and strategic reviews where you need to explore beyond the obvious.
