What do mobile millennials want from cities

What do mobile millennials want from cities?Do driverless cars signal the end of the teenage rite of passage? Will 3D printers destroy intellectual property? And will collaborative consumption evolve into communal living? Emergent Solutions’ Holly Ransom ponders the big questions.Ransom (pictured), who will be speaking at The Property Congress in October, is chief executive officer of Emergent, a consultancy that “works with leaders, organisations and governments globally who want to set the benchmark and be frontiers of change and innovation”.Something of a futurist, Ransom has inspiring insights into the emerging trends and technologies that are reshaping Australia, and the property and construction industry.”While we’ve witnessed an extraordinary pace of change for some time, the degree of digital sophistication that’s just around the corner is still beyond our comprehension.”What does 3D printing mean for how we design and build? What does it mean for intellectual property? And for consumerism if anyone can print their own Gucci bag? The implications of these new technologies are incredible.”In this rapidly changing world, it’s hard to picture what our cities will look like in a decade, much less or 100 years.”What are the assumptions we are making now about the wants and needs of people and communities in the future? Will people want more communal living as digital engagement encourages people to interact? Or will we want less?”Already, we can see younger people can’t afford their own homes, so they have to think loosely about the idea of home ownership. This is driving the imperative of what communal living could look like – which may not be the home behind the white picket fence anymore.”As we continue to hurtle along the information highway, the anonymity of the internet has evolved, and Ransom says people are beginning to make more conscious choices about how they engage with their community.”We’ll need to think differently about how we build public places – and it’s not just about inclusive technological infrastructure, but also how we build hubs of activity and ideas.”Global connectedness is changing everything. Where once it was six degrees of separation, now we have 3.8 degrees.”Millennials see themselves as global citizens. What does this mean for permanence of place? Will people still feel that strong pull to the place they grew up? And if people can work anywhere, what does it take to be in the top 10 world cities?”New rites of passage and experiences will emerge to cater to mobile millennials, Ransom says.”The number of drivers’ licenses have already halved in the United States over the last 20 years, and autonomous vehicles may disrupt what was once a core human experience. What rituals or experiences will we find to replace that?”Collaborative consumption is another phenomenon that started “quite niche” but is now a “significant economic force that is changing consumer behaviour”.”As we grapple with climate change, we’ll have to learn to live more sustainably and that will take a more conscious approach to consumerism.”This means growing the sharing economy and looking at how we use the unmet capacity in our cities. In the future, we’ll see a dramatic transformation in space, and I think we’ll see people embrace tribal living facilitated by extraordinary digital connectedness.”Despite the challenges ahead, Ransom says she is “unwaveringly optimistic” about the future.”The great advances of human history have occurred when people believed in an idea and were able to get others on board – and this has never been easier.”More than 6 delegates at this year’s SOLD OUT event will peer into the crystal ball when Holly Ransom moderates the session on future cities The Property Congress from 20-22 October 2016. www.thepropertycongress.com.au