At face value, this tall, elegant blonde in black might seem a bit distant, intimidating even, in pictures. But when economist and futurist Bronwyn Williams speaks animatedly with her hands about topics she’s passionate about, the impression quickly changes.
As Chief Commercial Officer at Metanomic, this stylish strategist combines her skillset in economics and trend forecasting to work on pricing and valuing virtual goods and services.
Bronwyn explains that her current work at Metonomic involves ‘developing AI-powered run-time software tools to price and optimize value creation and retention in the Metaverse.’ This, she comments, will benefit ‘anyone who wants to understand where value comes from in the digital realm, and how to multiply it.’
As an economist by training and a futurist by trade, Bronwyn describes the Metaverse as ‘a gradual evolution of digitization merging with the analogue until we cannot see where one ends and the other begins.’ Her comment −that ‘following the rabbit hole down where value comes from leads one naturally towards the absurdity that is the metaverse −,’ is as forthright as it gets.
She believes the terms web3 and Metaverse have become ubiquitous, commenting we are clearly in a hype cycle, at the point where ‘no one knows anything, but everyone is an expert.’ She is, however, undeniably an expert in economics and forecasting future trends, with peers praising her clear grasp of the forces shaping today’s business environment and her ‘unique, and accurate perspective of the future.’
Bronwyn, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, holds multiple degrees − including a Bachelor of Commerce, Master’s in Applied Economics from the University of Bath as well as various post-graduate business qualifications from the University of Oxford and London School of Economics and Political Science.
In addition, she’s a Foresight Lead and Trend Analyst partner at Flux Trends, described as the ‘leading trends research company’ on the African continent. Here, she identifies, researches and consults with political and business leaders on new consumer and business trends.
Besides being a media personality and popular keynote speaker, Bronwyn also co-authored a book The Future Starts Now. Described by the publishers as ‘a comprehensive history of tomorrow,’ it features contributions by leading global futurists exploring groundbreaking innovations, current trajectories and technologies that may shape our future.
In a candid online interview in July 2022 (The Futurist’s Sunday Sermon), Bronwyn confessed she’s ‘not a natural optimist at all and is actually very cynical by nature,’ settling instead on being ‘a reluctant pragmatic optimist.’
There are reasons, she remarks, ‘why central banks put out forecasts to tame us and actually curate our behavior.’
“You start to realize that being an optimist is almost then a moral duty because if you are a pessimist, all you’re doing is accelerating the odds of bad things happening.”
As for how the Metaverse will impact our lives and the world, Bronwyn says it already has, and predicts the trajectory will continue as ‘there are already digital stores of value (personal credit) even if you don’t own any NFTs.’
Insofar as key trends playing out in the crypto space, Bronwyn is apparently not a fan of NFTs, having described them in an online interview ‘as more noise than substance.’
Instead, she believes it’s ‘far more interesting to look at deeper things that are less pretty or exciting,’ expecting that dals will become more prominent in the next two years.
With her love of smart designs, new ideas and the individuals behind them, Bronwyn notes she’s on a mission to ‘understand the world and create a better future for all of us who live in it.’
And what advice would she have given herself earlier along the way? “Stop talking and reading and start DOING.”
As for others wishing to learn more about Web3 and the Metaverse, Bronwyn recommends personal conversations with players in the space because pretty much anything written down is either already out of date or written by “experts” who are more like one-eyed men in the land of the blind.
Yet, despite Bronwyn describing herself as very cynical, she’s excited to see what breaks in the future. And she’s keeping her sights firmly on being ‘in the business of making sense out of chaos and bringing the future into focus for individuals and organizations.’
“Personally, my mission is to get more people invested (literally) in the future – skin in the game is the ultimate pragmatic optimism – a moral duty when one realizes that our expectations directly shape our reality.”
Perhaps Bronwyn’s sharp insights and pragmatic optimism is best revealed in a final remark:
“New technology, just like old technology is essentially amoral, neither good, nor bad, but entirely dependent on the individual humans that employ it.’
Website: metanomic.net
