NewWOW's 8th Symposium, WORK2020, was held in Santa Clara, California in February 2010. Its theme was The Effect of Higher Oil Prices on the Future of Work. Participants from countries around the world discussed the implications of peak oil on the workplace and the nature of work. Our initial thinking about the subject was inspired by two books, Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller – Oil and the End of Globalization by Jeff Rubin and $20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better by Christopher Steiner.
NewWOW staff delved deep into the research and authored a white paper, WORK2020: The Effect of Higher Oil Prices on the Future of Work. How would “work systems” – the ways we work, what we work on, the tools we use, and where we work -- change over the next ten years if significant increases in the price of oil occur? How will organizations adapt? This paper formed the basis of the symposium discussions.
Groups looked at future trends in fuel prices, demographic changes, technological developments, work organization and management, sustainability, and community development. Using scenario-based analysis, they predicted possible outcomes for several organizational types as well as for two specific industries – furniture manufacturing and high tech.
The final day of the symposium was devoted to the business of the Network. Committees reported on recent initiatives including the 2009 Alternative Workplace Benchmarking Study and the ECO2 Workplace Tool.
