ATLA Futures
An immersive lab where bold ideas become shared futures
The future doesn’t have to be guessed.
It can be designed, shared, and lived.
ATLA Futures is a two-day intensive workshop that helps communities create immersive simulations of the future they want. By “community” we mean any group with a shared stake. Anyone, anywhere, can partner with ATLA to organise an ATLA Futures event. Host it publicly for a town or neighbourhood, or privately for an organisation, project, or cause.
Think of it as a hackathon, but for reprogramming how we think.
How it begins: Individuals share their initial visions for what they want their community to look like in the future.
How it ends: Communities showcase immersive visions of change—prototypes that make future possibilities visible, discussable, and ready to influence real-world decisions. These may include models, short films, illustrated stories, animations, virtual reality immersions, video games, or more.
Not just another design sprint. Not just another workshop. ATLA Futures changes mindsets - fast.
ATLA Futures sparks movements that reshape the trajectory of communities and becomes a birthplace of hope, grounded in tangible steps towards a new way of living.
At scale, hundreds of events around the world can shape a practical, positive wave of global thinking. Yet, its strength is that it does not depend on scale: every event moves the needle, one person and one community at a time.
Builds empathy across diverse participants
Aligns people behind a clear objective
Develops practical skills and expands belief in what’s possible
In a world facing climate crisis, systemic inequality, and deep uncertainty, ATLA Futures offers not escape, but encounter. It brings people together not to dream passively, but to prototype active, plural futures rooted in local knowledge and shared purpose.
How it works
Participants begin by sharing bold visions of the future, moving beyond the limits of “what’s always been done.” Themes emerge, teams form, and imagination expands into possibilities that feel both daring and worth building.
Expert facilitators and mentors guide teams to uncover blind spots, question assumptions, and strengthen trust. This stage creates emotional alignment, ensuring people connect not only to the project but to each other.
Ideas are translated into tangible artefacts; models, films, VR simulations and more that make the future visible. These prototypes become powerful tools for sparking dialogue, influencing strategy, and inspiring aligned action.
By the end, futures are not just imagined — they’re built, shared, and ready to influence today’s decisions.
Why ATLA?
The ATLA team combines expertise in community development, leadership, strategy, sustainability, storytelling, and facilitation. Together, we bring the skills needed to design, deliver, and scale ATLA Futures.
For hosts and clients, ATLA offers two clear skillsets:
Event management expertise - guiding everything from planning to delivery.
Facilitation expertise - leading participants through a tested, transformative process.
Local partners contribute venues, outreach, and logistics, while ATLA ensures quality and impact.
Pierre Heistein
Pierre is the creator and strategic lead of ATLA Futures. With over 15 years’ experience advising Fortune 500 leaders and founding social impact initiatives across sustainability, gender, and education, he bridges global strategy with community-led innovation. He has designed and facilitated participatory workshops internationally, including multiple StartUp Weekend events in Argentina. Pierre brings the business acumen, systems thinking, and visionary drive to grow ATLA Futures into a scalable model for collective transformation.
Ellie House
Regeneration and neighbourhood renewal specialist. Former CEO of person-centred charities, including Feeding Coventry. Named one of 15 Cultural Leaders of Coventry City of Culture 2021 for her creative leadership. Ellie brings decades of experience working at the intersection of social justice, creativity, and place-based regeneration. As a former charity CEO and regeneration lead for multiple UK local authorities, she has led transformation in some of the country’s most marginalised neighbourhoods. Her deep understanding of systemic barriers, and the power of collective imagination to challenge them, shapes ATLA Futures as a tool for community-led change.
Ben Cook
Ben is a filmmaker, educator, and social documentarian with a passion for stories that change how we see the world. His work explores the lived realities of housing, migration, food systems, and mental health often told from the margins. At ATLA Futures, Ben leads on creative methodologies: turning abstract futures into visual, emotional, and shareable artefacts. He brings creative translation, deep listening, and the ability to turn community visions into powerful cultural artefacts, whether film, illustration, VR or sound.
Dr Alastair Smith
Alastair is a global educator whose career spans academia, development, and sustainability innovation. His work has supported communities from Wales to the Andes to reimagine economies, resources, and governance. At ATLA Futures, he brings rigour to the workshop’s design, ensuring each process draws on tested methodologies, from systems mapping and scenario planning to participatory ethics. He connects the big picture with local realities, embedding futures thinking within social, environmental, and cultural complexity bringing the ability to scaffold local action with global relevance.
Sue Stockdale
Sue is a polar explorer, leadership expert, and executive coach who specialises in helping people thrive in unfamiliar terrain, whether geographic or organisational. As the first UK woman to reach the Magnetic North Pole, she embodies the spirit of courageous inquiry and practical resilience that underpins ATLA Futures. With over 20 years of experience advising senior leaders in FTSE 250 and Fortune 500 companies, Sue brings world-class insight into how individuals and teams navigate ambiguity, build trust, and lead transformational change. She supports the mentor training model, ensuring participants are not only creatively inspired but also psychologically supported as they step into the challenge of imagining and shaping their futures.
Eveline van den Heuvel
Eveline is a neuroscience-trained specialist in human transformation who brings deep expertise in how people adapt, evolve, and expand their sense of what’s possible. A pioneer in e-mental health and co-designer of the world’s first Mind Spa for Rituals, she blends scientific insight with intuitive practice to help individuals and teams embrace change at the deepest level. At ATLA Futures, Eveline supports the emotional architecture of the programme, ensuring participants are not only intellectually stimulated but also psychologically grounded as they navigate ambiguity, imagination, and future thinking. Her work helps create the conditions for genuine transformation, from within.
Why it Matters
From climate resilience to corporate change, this model helps you tackle complex challenges.
ATLA Futures doesn’t just generate ideas — it builds agency.
For participants: it sparks confidence, skills, and the sense that they can shape change.
For communities and organisations: it aligns people around bold visions and practical steps.
At scale: it creates a global wave of events that seed hope, collaboration, and innovation.
At its most powerful, ATLA Futures becomes the birthplace of movements that can reshape entire communities — one immersive vision at a time.
HELP ATLA FUTURES GROW
As we move from strategic vision to scaling, we are looking for a few key forms of support.
Catalytic funding to complete the toolkit, mentor training, and evaluation work that will set a strong foundation.
Host partners who want to bring ATLA Futures to their community by providing a venue, local outreach, and an organising team, while we provide the facilitation and tools.
Sponsors for the first round of pilots, helping to cover the practical costs and share the case studies that follow.
Communications partners who can help spread the awareness of ATLA Futures widely so that we can reach more communities.
Our first global series of ATLA Futures events will refine the model, build facilitator training, and grow a recognisable brand. With your support, this will become a self-sustaining movement.
Coordinated globally, delivered locally, and accessible anywhere.
All images courtesy of Twindl Ltd
© 2025 ATLA Community. All Rights Reserved.
images courtesy of Twindl Ltd
