Bringing possibility to life
As part of our ongoing series of ‘takeaway’ blogs from speakers who presented at our 2025 conference in Reading in January, today we’re sharing some top tips from collective imagination champion Rob Hopkins.
Power of imagination
Rob is the co-founder of Transition Network and Transition Town Totnes and author of several books including ‘From What Is to What If: unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want’ and ‘The Transition Handbook’.
Delegates said his presentation was fascinating and it inspired some very interesting conversations afterwards.
Six key takeaway points
Here are six key takeaway points from Rob that garden centre members might like to discuss with their teams:
- Narratives of dystopia and collapse, while they may well be very possible outcomes, are self-defeating as narratives to mobilise people to avoid them. We need, instead, to become so much better at creating ‘Memories of the Future’, powerful stories that bring possibility to life. We need to become so much better at the cultivation of longing.
- Recognising that the times we live in are the end of the oil age and the beginning of something far better is a vital way to see what’s happening around us.
- Garden centres could act as a vital driver for the shifts we need to see, supporting city-wide de-paving initiatives, urban reafforesting schemes and biodiversity projects, as well as acting as hubs for the wider transition work needed, such as supporting community energy companies.
- Garden centres can be places that fill us with possibilities, introduce us to new ideas. Might it be that every trip to the garden centre feels like we are stepping into the future that turned out OK?
- Around every garden centre, in those communities, are community energy projects, community ownership initiatives, community gardens, new local economy initiatives. What might it look like if garden centres took a really active role in supporting those things?
- And finally, what if all garden centres decided to stop selling pesticides and herbicides tomorrow morning? It could be done. And to do it without waiting for legislation to force them to do it, but to act in a unified way, deciding instead to really push biodiversity and wildlife plants, would be such a bold and audacious statement.
All about Rob
Rob is an Ashoka Fellow, has spoken at TED Global and at several TEDx events, and appeared in the French film phenomenon ‘Demain’. He holds a PhD from the University of Plymouth, as well as two Honoris Causas and is a Director of Totnes Community Development Society.
He hosted the podcast ‘From What If to What Next’, runs ‘Imagination Catalyst’ training for a wide range of organisations, and has collaborated with musician Mr Kit on a project called ‘Field Recordings from the Future’, due out in 2025. In November 2022, he was made an Honorary Citizen of Liège in Belgium by the city’s mayor.