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Brush with the future

Preeti Mehra

Remember `Future Shock', the book that became a talking point in the 1970s? Well, its author, Alvin Toffler, who followed up with best-sellers such as `Powershift' and `The Third Wave' is in India this month as the keynote speaker for Xerox's learning in itiative, DocuWorld India 2001.

The event, being held in Mumbai on September 19, will showcase the latest in digital printing technologies and solutions. And Toffler, who has had the historical privilege of identifying world trends and relating them to the future, is slated to share hi s knowledge with CEOs, senior executives in the fields of IT, marketing and finance.

Apart from being a futuristic visionary, Toffler in conjunction with his consulting firm, Toffler Associates, and his wife Heidi Toffler, works on a range of topics including Internet policy and the implications of digitalisation in fields such as travel and transportation. The author also believes that Internet can be used effectively to reduce poverty and serve as a missing link between micro-capital and micro-trade.

Toffler's vast experience may perhaps be the key to his ability to forecast the future and link it to the practices of tomorrow. Apart from being a visiting professor at Cornell University, visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation and a Washington correspondent, Toffler spent five years as a factory worker in an auto plant, a steel foundry, and other units in heavy industry.

At DocuWorld India 2001, Alvin Toffler will focus attention on the latest in digital technology. ``When it comes to identifying what's coming next, there is no one as widely respected as Alvin Toffler,'' says Pedro Fabrega, Chairman and Managing Director , Xerox ModiCorp Limited, the man responsible for bringing the author to India.