How can we proactively co-create the future we would like to see?
What does this future look and feel like?
What is futures thinking and how could this help us in delivering a better world?
These were some of the questions explored in the recent Living the Future event that took place in Aberystwyth on the 21st January 2026.
To build upon the Light Up the Future event held in Cardiff last year marking the 10-year anniversary of the ground-breaking Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, Cynnal Cymru’s Sustainability Trainer, Chris Woodfield, co-organised Living the Future to shine a light on the great work happening in Mid and West Wales. The event, co-created in collaboration with Porthi Aber, The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), The Welsh Government’s Sustainable Futures Team, The Office of the Future Generations Commissioner, Public Health Wales, and Hwb Dyfodol, was an opportunity to take stock, celebrate successes, share challenges, and explore positive visions of the future through a facilitated co-creation process.
The event took place in the Aberystwyth Bandstand, perched beautifully between land and sea on the Aberystwyth promenade, and attracted 80 attendees from across the public and private sectors, civil society and local grassroots organisations.
The day started with short changemaker talks from local project leads and organisations taking positive action towards a brighter future, including:
- Cian Llywelyn of Coetir Anian (Cambrian Wildwood) highlighting the importance of nature restoration and connecting people with nature.
- Joanna Jordan of Parents for the Future Ceredigion showcasing how we can all be activists to facilitate change in our communities.
- Erannan Bent of Niku-Naka sauna in Bala, emphasising saunas as a place for connection, listening, and play for all ages, whilst supporting physical and mental well-being.
- A short film showing of the Llyfrgell Zine Cymru (Welsh Zine Library), curated by Elin Angharad, highlighted how zines can be a form of slower, creative and inclusive expression in an increasingly fast-paced and digital world.
- Owen Shiers (artist / musician) representing the Llafur Ni Network shared how seeds can be metaphors for long-term and futures thinking, the lost story of the Welsh black oat, and how seed sovereignty can be an opportunity to rebuild a local and resilient food system.
Following this, with the guidance of volunteer facilitators participants discussed how their own work aligned with the Seven Well-being Goals of the Act, highlighting the importance of systems thinking and how we need to view the Well-being Goals as interconnected and mutually supporting each other, rather than individual goals, or boxes to tick-off.
The Future Generations Commissioner, Derek Walker, shared his reflections and thoughts on how Wales is doing and what more needs to be done to live our way into the future in a positive and inspiring way, before participants enjoyed a spiced parsnip and banana soup produced by local not-for-profit Porthi Aber, who are taking action to improve the local food system.
The importance of creativity ran through the day with the Aberystwyth Town Poet, Hywel Griffiths, performing a futures poem of a positive vision of the future he had written for the event, and outlining how and why Aberystwyth had recently been recognised as Wales’s first UNESCO City of Literature. A local artist, Harrie Fuller from Spork Studios, designed an artistic impression to go alongside the poem, and all the participants took away with them a bilingual copy of the poetry and design.
The rest of the day enabled participants to practise “futures thinking”, and to deeply discuss their visions of the future and what we can do today to make that vision become a reality. Wales has an ambition to become a Future Literate nation, with Hwb Dyfodol being an avenue to support organisations to understand what futures thinking is and how it can be used to not just think about the future, but to deliver meaningful change in the present to enable that desired future to thrive. The day finished with a beautiful starling murmuration on the Aberystwyth seafront as a perfect reminder of collaboration, emergence, and embracing the beauty, awe and wonder of nature.
So, what next? Where do we go from here? Cynnal Cymru were involved in leading the national conversation of the “The Wales We Want” back in 2014, which supported the development of the Well-being of Future Generations Act. This latest event brought futures thinking to the fore, with our next (and ongoing) challenge being “how do we ensure we combine futures thinking with creative, practical and proactive action on the ground today?”.
We are living our way into the future, and let’s ensure it is a flourishing and thriving future we all want to live in. To finish, I’ll leave you with three provocations to reflect upon:
Whose future are we co-creating and how can we ensure we incorporate unheard voices into our futures thinking discussions in inclusive and accessible ways?
How can we bring more creativity, play and culture into our futures work?
Where are the stories of hope in your community and how can you help amplify these pockets of the future to become the new normal?
If you’d like to respond to these questions, feel free to reach out to Chris on chris@cynnalcymru.com or find him in Aberystwyth for a coastpath conversation outside his home on the seafront, where all the best stuff happens on the edge.
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Cynnal Cymru are a member of Hwb Dyfodol and you can find out more on futures thinking tools and approaches on the Future Generations website.
