# Michell Zappa | Envisioning Source: https://www.envisioning.com/about/michell-zappa --- ![Michell Zappa speaking on stage in Kazakhstan](/_next/image?url=%2Fimages%2Fteam%2Fmichell-zappa.jpg&w=3840&q=75) # Michell Zappa Founder and CEO of Envisioning Michell started Envisioning in 2010 to map emerging technology for the people who have to make decisions about it. Before that he worked at TrendWatching in Amsterdam as a designer and developer. He grew up in Stockholm and São Paulo, lives in Amsterdam, and has also lived in London and Milan. He leads our research program and the method behind [Signals](/signals). He also writes code: the CRM we run the company on is his open-source project. He has taught the technology futures module at the THNK School of Creative Leadership since 2012. - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellzappa/) - [michellzappa.com](https://www.michellzappa.com) - [GitHub](https://github.com/michellzappa) Sixteen years, year by year What he launched, who he worked with and where he spoke. A selection; the [case studies](/services/impact) show what the work delivered. 1. 2005 Moves to Amsterdam to work at TrendWatching as a designer and developer. 2. 2010 Starts Envisioning. 3. 2011 Envisioning Technology, a timeline of more than 50 emerging technologies, is covered by Fast Company, IBM's Smarter Planet blog, Next at Microsoft and Wolff Olins. A redesigned edition follows in November. [The 2011 map and its coverage](https://www.michellzappa.com/blog/envisioning-2011) 4. 2012 Joins the faculty of the THNK School of Creative Leadership, where he still teaches the technology futures module. LaunchedEnvisioning Education · Envisioning Health Spoke atThe Next Web · Global Futures Forum, Rome and Washington, DC · LEGO Education · Jaguar Land Rover · Sibos, Osaka 5. 2013 LaunchedEnvisioning the Future of Money Work withPolicy Horizons Canada · SWIFT Spoke atiAmsterdam CEO Summit · Schneider Electric, Bogotá 6. 2014 Work withFIAT · T-Mobile Spoke atCoca-Cola, Atlanta · Amsterdam Mayor's Office · Royal Netherlands Air Force 7. 2015 Starts a multi-year collaboration with armasuisse Science and Technology that runs to 2020. LaunchedFutureKit, a card deck for working with emerging technology signals Work witharmasuisse S+T (DEFTECH) · City of Amsterdam · LEGO Education Spoke atGoogle, São Paulo · TrendWatching Live, New York · Caterpillar 8. 2016 LaunchedTechnology Database and radar, our web-based visualization tool Work withCoca-Cola · SWIFT · KBC Spoke atSaudi Creative Initiative, Jeddah and Riyadh · Sibos, Geneva 9. 2017 Work withVisa · UN World Food Programme · NN Group Spoke atWorld Government Summit, Dubai · Global Humanitarian Lab at CERN · ABN AMRO · Swarovski 10. 2018 Work withGovernment of Honduras · SickKids Hospital Spoke atWorld Government Summit, Dubai · Salzburg Global Seminar · IKEA Democratic Design Days · SingularityU 11. 2019 Work withGIZ · AB InBev · L'Atelier Spoke atWorld Government Summit masterclass, Dubai · Mohammed bin Rashid Center for Leadership Development with UC Berkeley · Société Générale 12. 2020 LaunchedEnvisioning Cities Work withWIPO · Nestlé · EY Spoke atUNESCO Futures Literacy Summit · CogX, London 13. 2021 Starts the Quantitative Futures Lab with the Cappra Institute for Data Science. Work withEIT Manufacturing · BMW · SENAI Spoke atExpo 2020, Dubai 14. 2022 Work withNubank · WKO, the Austrian Chamber of Commerce · Deloitte Spoke atOxford Saïd Business School · Siemens · McKinsey Future Studio, Riyadh · EdCrunch, Almaty 15. 2023 Starts Artificial Insights, a newsletter on AI. Gives Age of Centaurs, a talk on people working with AI. LaunchedSandbox, a workshop facilitation tool built on GPT Work withRoyal Commission for AlUla · UNDP · Horizon 2045 · EPRI Spoke atTrendWatching Trend Seminars, London and Amsterdam · COP28, Dubai [Issue 1 of the newsletter](/newsletter/001-ai-is-having-a-moment) 16. 2025 Signals launches: our research method as a platform that runs several frontier models on one question. Build Sessions start the same year, and hundreds of people have taken one since. LaunchedSignals · Build Sessions · Coding for Non-Coders [Signals](/signals) 17. 2026 The research dataset and Signals Benchmark go public on GitHub, and Hindsight starts grading published forecasts against what happened. LaunchedEnvisioning Research dataset · Signals Benchmark · Hindsight [Hindsight](/hindsight) The full record, with every client and talk, is on [michellzappa.com](https://www.michellzappa.com/about/timeline). Selected writing - [Envisioning emerging technology](https://www.michellzappa.com/blog/envisioning-2011)2011 - [Age of Centaurs](/newsletter/020-age-of-centaurs)2023 - [If you can't build it, you don't understand it](/newsletter/122-if-you-cant-build-it-you-dont-understand)2025 - [Your vault is your moat](/newsletter/138-your-vault-is-your-moat)2026 He has written the [Artificial Insights](/newsletter) newsletter since April 2023. Talks and workshops He has spoken at the World Government Summit, CERN, UNESCO, Oxford Saïd Business School and COP28, and runs sessions for leadership teams. The timeline above lists more by year. For a talk, [write to us](/contact). For a hands-on day with your team, see [Build Sessions](/services/build-sessions). We publish the tools we research with [### Envisioning Research Our dataset of emerging technologies, with readiness, impact and research metadata for each. MIT license.](https://github.com/envisioning/research)[### Signals Benchmark Alpha An open leaderboard that scores language models on how well they generate signals of change. Briefs come from several sectors and judges check them against the web.](https://github.com/envisioning/signals-benchmark)[### Core OSS The open-source version of the CRM we run the company on, built with Next.js and Supabase.](https://github.com/michellzappa/core-oss) He runs Envisioning with this team - Thomaz RezendePartner and Head of Design - Fabio AndradePartner and Head of Development - Daiane CavalheiroOperations Manager - Rodrigo TurraLead Researcher Certified [delivery partners](/about/partners) run our work in their own regions. [More about Envisioning](/about).