A good friend of the Financial Services Club has launched a kickstarter project for her Future of Money TV Series.
Heather Vescent is one of a small group of visionary people involve in finance, and I've just joined her as a backer of the project. However, with only 70 hours to go, will she make her target of $35,000?
To help her get nearer, here's the lowdown and if you want to find or fund the project you can get over to Kickstarter and put in some dough!
What is Future of Money Television Series?
The FUTURE OF MONEY Television Series is an informative and entertaining six-part one-hour Docu-Series that we plan to complete by fall 2014. The series explores the evolution of money in six major aspects: Payment Transactions, Banking, Bartering, Credit Lending, Money Making and International Monetary System.
The show travels the world interviewing experts on financial innovations about the future of money. Together, we time travel with our audience — through futuristic reenactments of plausible scenarios based on facts and theories supported by top intelligence and academic research. Viewers get a vital glimpse into the future: how we will pay for things, how we will make money, how we will preserve our wealth, and the effects on our security and privacy.
The Premise
“We live in abundant times. The future can be even more abundant, if we allow it to be.”
The future of money, according to many pundits, is bleak. More often than not, news outlets report that the economy will crash and that our monetary system will become obsolete. Talk about doom and gloom! Those stories evoke feelings of fear and anxiety. People are afraid of the unknown; worried about scarcity, and anxious about the future — hence, creating economic stagnation and a resistance to change and innovations that can make the world a better place with better distribution of wealth.
The knowledge of financial evolution is critical for the world to prepare for and take advantage of future changes.
FUTURE OF MONEY TELEVISION SERIES has these goals:
- Increase optimism about future and change
- Catapult innovation and evolution of money through empowerment
- Encourage worldwide economic growth with technological diversity
“A global study of financial evolution. Not only are we exploring the history and evolution of money, the series itself will create history by affecting the evolution.”
What makes the FUTURE OF MONEY TELEVISION SERIES so unique and important?
- First we choose to use television as the forum to reach a general audience around the world, not just financial insiders.
- Second, the show explores the subject of money from a positive, honest and balanced perspective.
- We connect the dots from different perspectives around the world and stitch them into a big picture that viewers can understand. We want people to see how innovations and changes positively fit into their lives.
The take away is a positive, empowering knowledge of an ABUNDANT future.
The Creator – Heather Schlegel
Heather Schlegel is a trained futurist and an expert on the future of financial transactions. Heather recently consulted at SWIFT (the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Transfers), spoke at SXSW, TEDxZwolle, Sibos, and received numerous awards from the Association of Professional Futurists. Her recent credits includes:
- The Human Problem, 1st Place, Association of Professional Futurists, 2013
- “The Next Money” in The Atlantic, 2012
- “Virtual Currencies” interview in Stealth Publication, 2011
- “The Future of Money” in Infomilio, Sibos, 2011
Heather is the producer and creator of 4 short films, including “Fly Me to the Moon;” nominated for Most Important Futures Award by the Association of Professional Futurists, 2012; “Flowers for Grandma;” “Innotribe Startup Challenge Documentary” and “Slices of Life.”
Those shorts which were funded by Innotribe at Swift are the origin of this TV series we want to produce. When people don’t have a vision of the future, they are afraid of what the future could hold. With these visual explanations in film format, we saw a transformation in viewers -- they see these innovations as a positive force in their future and can look forward to the future instead of being afraid of it. We want this positive transformation to be experienced throughout the world through this television series.
What We Are Raising Money For?
An international distributor greenlit the project in May and has agreed to distribute the series internationally, IF we can deliver the expert interview footage. I'm asking YOU to greenlight the project.
This is why we are here to ask for your support. This Kickstarter funding goal will allow us to film the first major milestone of the series: 50 interviews of global experts from different fields – esteemed economists, journalists, bankers, innovation and business leaders, and well-known authors. We plan to arrange and film the interviews in five cities: San Francisco, New York, Hong Kong, London, and Los Angeles.
We will use the full proceeds to hire local film crews. Any funds raised beyond the $35,000 goal will be used to edit the interviews and the development and production of the series.
Why We Need Your Backing?
We need your backing to help greenlight the project. The $35,000 will help us achieve the first milestone of the series. The interviews themselves are an important global study in financial evolution.
Once we have the interview footage, not only are we able to obtain further funding to produce the full series, we also will be able to have the series distributed worldwide on television and made available to colleges and libraries nationwide.
On the other hand, if we don’t reach the goal, the series will never happen. Your backing is critical for us.
FUTURE OF MONEY TELEVISION SERIES brings POSITIVE energy into the discussion about money, ushering in a new paradigm of financial experiences. This is a catalytic social-economic project that helps the world understand and propel financial innovations.
Please invest in a positive vision of the future.
Thank you for your consideration,
-Heather
Special thanks to JenKev Productions for creating the awesome video.
Special thanks to Patrick J. Collins for the inspiring music.
Longtime thanks to the Innotribe team for being early visionaries, funding and supporting the original shorts.
Risks and challenges
Learn about accountability on Kickstarter
As an independently produced project, we have all the risk and challenges for film and TV production. However because I’ve produced several short films that the TV series is based on, I know how to bring all the important elements and talent into this production efficiently and ensure production quality. So we know that we are not shooting from the hip! Additionally, while the biggest challenge for film and TV production is lack of distribution, we fortunately already have the distributor’s greenlight on the project and backing in arranging international distribution once it’s produced. It already has much better chance of success than most projects.
As this Kickstarter campaign raises funds for our first major milestone - the interviews, the risk for the interview is the shooting timeline – we have to coordinate in five cities with all the important experts we want to interview. We have a planned list of experts and most have agreed to participate in the project. And we don’t want to compromise the quality of the study by missing important voices. We appreciate your patience if we miss the schedule by a few weeks. Be rest-assure that we will deliver your kickstarter premium.
The biggest risk is if we are unable to produce the series after we produce the interview footages. However I know you support us because you see the vision and the importance of knowledge of our economic future. All that will not be lost. The interviews are themselves a very valuable study of global financial evolution and innovation. If the TV series is not produced, the interviews will still be made available as a documentary. We are right now working our hardest to assemble the talent team and raise funding for the full series production. Please support us and tell your friends and friends’ friends who believe in a positive future to support us as well. Thank you.
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
