Global Conference on the Future

“The First Global Conference on the Future” was held in Toronto, July 20-25, 1980. It was sponsored jointly by the World Future Society and the Canadian Futures Society.1

Marshall McLuhan was given an award for his outstanding futures writings. He was in declining health at the time and as he struggled to the front to receive the award, his son Eric had to assist him. (Looking Back on the Future, 157)2

McLuhan died 5 months later on New Year’s Eve.

  1. The 59 page brochure for the conference is available at the Internet Archive:
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  2. Looking Back on the Future by Fred G. Thompson (1992) describes the conference in Chapter 18, ‘The Great Global Conference of 1980’, 153-159:

    Thompson was a friend of McLuhan and at the time was Director of Communications Studies at Bell Northern Research in Ottawa. ↩