Linking Citizens. Spreading Knowledge.

3rd Quarterly UpdateAugust - September 2012

with support from

Guns and RosesFuture Day in NairobiNovember 12, 2012For the next Future Day, the Bertelsmann Foundation is partnering with the Society for International Development with support from the Rockefeller Foundation to create a dynamic event in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Future Day will bring together voices from East Africa to discuss how regional integration is perceived by its citizens and how they predict it will affect their lives. East Africa is one of the youngest regions in the world today and we are particularly interested in giving a voice to youth in this discussion. The East Af-rica Future Day aims to explore the op-portunities and challenges facing the region’s younger citizens in two main issue areas: ecology and security.

The day will be comprised of plenary sessions and small group discussions aimed at exploring future ecological and security challenges and opportunities, as seen from an East African regional perspective.

FutureChallenges’ next content package will be about the topics covered in the Future Day, and we’re looking forward to reading our blogger network’s ideas on youth involvement in regional integration in their part of the world.

FutureChallenges will be live tweeting the event, and will have several follow-up posts on FutureChallenges.org from our staff and our blogger network. Stay tuned for more updates!

by Anneliese Guess

Website StatisticsFutureChallenges.org is pleased to announce a dramatic increase in both the volume and quality of web traffic. More people are coming to the website than ever before and those who come are spending more time than ever before.

Since the beginning of the year, the FutureChallenges team has been using Google AdWords to advertise and drive traffic to the website. In the third quarter, by launching a new campaign of specifically targeted ads, the team has been able to focus on appealing to the people most likely to be seriously interested in FutureChallenges content. This has been extremely successful; the percentage of people who click on a FutureChallenges ad has gone from 1.98% to 5.20%.

These targeted ads have helped increase total traffic dramatically, up 15% over the previous quarter.

560005800060000620006400066000680007000072000

Q1 Q2 Q3

Total Visitors per Quarter

The success of the targeted ad campaign has brought in visitors to the site who are more likely to spend more time and read more pages of content. The average visitor in the third quarter spent 1:35 minutes on the site, up 14% from the second quarter.

Utilizing targeted ads has also allowed FutureChallenges to expand the geographic reach of the website and increase the diversity of readership. In the past quarter, traffic from Central and South America is up 76% while traffic from Africa is up 42%.

By continuing to create thoughtful, provocative content, and by targeting ads toward the people most likely to be genuinely interested in engaging with that content, FutureChallenges looks forward to continued growth.

By Peter Kimball

bybybybybbybbbyybybyyyybbbybbbybbyyyybybyyyybbbbybbbbbbyyyyybybbbbbbbbybybybyyyyyyyybyybybbbbbbbbyyyyyyybbbbbbbyyyyyyyybbbbbbyyyybyyyybbyybyybbbbyyyyybbbbyyyyybbyyyyyyyyyyb AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneleleleleleeeeleleleeeelleeeeeleleeeeleleeeeeeeeelelleleeeeeeeeleeellleleeeeeelleeeeelleeleelleeeeeleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeleeeeeeeelieieieieeeiieieeeeiiieeieeeeeeieiiieeeeeeeeeieiieeeeeeeieiiieeeeeeieiieeeeeieeeeeeeeeieeeeieeeeeeeeeeeeiieeeeeeeeiieeesesesesesesseseseeeeeeeesesesssseeeeeeeeesssssesseeeeeeeeeeeeesssseeeeeeessseeeeesssseeeeeseeeeeeesseseeessseeeesseeeeeessee GGGGGGGGGG uess

Global

Governance

Demographic

Change and

Migration

Economic

Globalization

Security

Natural Resources

and Biodiversity

Climate Change

and Biodiversity

Megatrends in Global Interaction Events August 17 MIT Media Lab

August 27 UPS, Western Union

September 5 Youth Services America

September 26 Johns Hopkins University

October 1 Gallaudet University

October 10 US State Department

November 9 University of Houston (see next page for detailed info)

Additional events to be announced.

For information on these events, please contact Jonathan Stevens at

jonathan.stevens@bfna.org.

Megatrends in Global Interaction Update

The last two months have marked the successful launch and ongoing promotion of the Megatrends in Global Interaction book, as seen in our last newsletter. We have received positive feedback on the book from many experts working in the forecasting and futures fields.

The next step for this publication is publishing an eBook onto FutureChallenges.org. Look for this in the coming months.

Visit us online at: www.futurechallenges.org www.bfna.org

For further information on Future Challenges and the Megatrends Project, contact

Update on FutureChallenges.org

At our Regional Editors’ meeting this summer in Berlin, we brainstormed ideas to make FutureChallenges a better experience for users. Over the past few months, we’ve been making some changes to the website. Here are a few of the changes you will see on our site:

All Spanish-language content on the site is now available on one page: http://futurechallenges.org/news/spanish-language-content-on-fc-org/

We have begun to encourage our network to submit multimedia content in lieu of traditional content, including video and photo posts. The first photo blog from Shahzeb Younas in Pakistan was a very popular post, which you can view at this link: bit.ly/O58Q9m

We have begin to post more often on our social media channels, target a broader range of time zones and incorporate more multimedia into these posts. As a reult, we have had an increase of more than 50 Twitter followers since July, and have a click-through-rate of 12%, well above the 7% average. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook at FutureChallenges.

We will begin posting shorter, punchier lead articles. We intend for these shorter articles to spark debate and inspire our bloggers and readers to think about many sides of each issue. We will also aim to post more articles about specific days, like International

Women’s Day or Earth Day . In the past, these posts have generated a significant amout of feedback and discussion on the site.

We are always striving to be a more efficient and useful platform, so please contact us if you have any suggestions for improving the website. We welcome your feedback!