Futurist links up with council for Wodonga 2050 vision brainstorm

Nearly 100 people gathered on Thursday, November 16, for the forum that was organised by Wodonga Council and guided by Melbourne futurist Simon Waller.

It was part of public consultation on the city's Wodonga 2050 plan being compiled by the council over coming months.

Speaking afterwards, council chief executive Matt Hyde said there was a lot of discussion on aged care, health, education and artificial intelligence.

"With AI it's those opportunities (it presents), it's very newsworthy at the moment, there's a lot of interest in it and we're starting to see some components come through and the community were interested in how we can enhance that and get more knowledge and use that for the future for the benefit of our community," Mr Hyde said.

"Also how do we train and develop people to be able to use this technology and is the technology going to be used for good and how do we protect people's privacy."

Mr Waller urged those contributing to Wodonga 2050 to think beyond immediate issues such as potholes or cost of living.

"When you think of a timeframe like 2050 the realm of possibility is very, very big and I think that's actually the power of these types of sessions, that we're actually asking people to explore a very vast space," Mr Waller said.

"The big risk actually is that we're too safe and we see the future as just an extrapolation of yesterday, we play out the problems that we're experiencing at the moment, I know those are many, things like cost of living pressures, but then we actually miss the bigger opportunity of what happens over those next two and a half decades.

"It's not just the Wodonga that we might grow up in, but that our kids will grow up in and our grandkids might grow up in and how their needs might be quite distinctly different from what we see today."

Mr Hyde said Wodonga 2050 was building on a 2033 vision.

Feedback will be collected online until June 7, 2024 with a final version to be signed off on by the council elected at next year's municipal poll.

Wodonga 2050 postcards and information packs are being distributed with forms asking people to list their ideas for changes and suggestions for improvements.

The session at the Huon Hill hotel on Thursday, November 16, was attended by mayor Ron Mildren and deputy mayor Libby Hall.

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