You know how the Pulp song goes… “If we get through this alive, I’ll meet you next week, same place, same time…”

What if the song went: “If we get through this alive, I’ll meet you in TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS’ TIME…”

My friends Mike and Pete are two of the most original thinkers I’ve met. To know them is to constantly have to think about the world and the progression of life a little differently. The project they’ve just launched is absolutely no exception to the rule – in fact, it’s the epitome.

They’ve started to plan a party. That’s not very original, you might think. But let me tell you: this party will be taking place in 2269. Not this century, not next century, but the one after – and then some.

Why?

A massive proportion of activities we’re involved with today constantly references the past. And I’m not just talking about stately homes and history programmes. Everything, from commerce to music to sport and film, envisages the past and celebrates it, often tries to emulate it. Nodding to the past, and especially, how long ago the particular product or organisation was established, has become the ultimate quality mark.

There is nothing wrong with all that. But wouldn’t it be cool, fun, creative, innovative and – most important of all – OPTIMISTIC to create something that, by its very definition, only looks to the future?

This isn’t just planning a party. This is planning for something that will only come to fruition if we powerfully visualise, and protect, the future. Think of what could occur in the next 250 years if we think big, and positively. It’s not all about hoverboards and AI. It’s about sustainability, inclusivity, and protecting the one world we’ve been given. Not just celebrating the old ways – there’s enough of that already, and rightly so. This is about picturing an event that will happen with a whole new world (don’t break into song please) built around it. What will it look like?

This is only the very start of the project, and it all starts with the invitation to the party: the ultimate forward-looking line in the sand. How many times have you looked through old stuff in an attic, or old pictures or maps on people’s walls? Imagine, in place of seeing something on those walls describing something that happened long ago, seeing something which gazes forward to an event that hasn’t happened yet, and for which we’ll spend the next couple of hundred years planning – with all the collaborations and innovations that will bring?

Have a look at Mike and Pete’s Kickstarter page. Yes, it’s bonkers. Yes, it requires a little imagination. But yes – it’s an original message of optimism and hope.

I, for one, am IN.