The FuturiZe project co-produced a track of the Lisbon Addictions 2019 conference, focusing on new, emerging and future science, technology, phenomena and practice in the addiction fields. See a short presentation on the FZ track.

The FuturiZe Track themes

The main themes or strands running through the track were identified through theFuturiZe participatory process, and developed in collaboration with the conference organisers, cross-cutting the traditional working areas of prevention, treatment, harm reduction and policy:

FuturiZe activity formats - in the Futures Zone

The FZ Track took place in a dedicated space in Lisbon Addictions 2019 - the Futures Zone.

As well as integrating sessions, presentations and workshops submitted as abstracts to the Lisbon Addiction Conference organisers into the FuturiZe track, FuturiZe ran several types of activities within the programme of Lisbon Addictions (only for conference participants):

• FZ Thought Leader Round Table Sessions: Each of the 5 strands above was explored and discussed in a round table session - starting with an overview from experts from different backgrounds and taking different perspectives of the topics, and challenging the audience to discuss and formulate future directions for addiction science and practice around that theme.

• Interactive Game-Jam Workshops: FuturiZe ran two workshops with a Game-Jam format - a gamified session guiding teams through co-creation processes - with future-oriented themes. The two workshops required registration (see details), and focused on:
  • digital health solutions (workshop repeated twice on Wed 23 Oct, 13:20 - 14:50 & 16:50 – 18:20): participants compete to come up with a concept and product outline for a specific d-health solution to an addiction problem.
  • Future EU research projects (Thurs 24 Oct, time TBC): multi-sector teams compete to develop a project idea as if they were planning a participatory research proposal.

• Hands-on technology corner: Permanent exhibition stands and a chance for conference participants to meet the developers of new technology (gadgets and methods), ask questions and see their products or work in action. There was also a digital health technology tour, led by early stage FuturiZe participants on Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th, open to all conference participants.

• Technology Discussion & Demo Sessions: In the same space as the permanent exhibition (Futures Zone 2), groups of participants were able to participate in interactive sessions demonstrating the new technology on show and discussing the most important aspects of research and implementation. These sessions required prior registration (and details can be seen here).

Overview of the FuturiZe track

The complete FZ conference track overview, with details of all sessions, speakers and activities, is available on the Lisbon Addictions 2019 website: https://www.lisbonaddictions.eu/lisbon-addictions-2019/tracks/futurize