I hate trend predictions.
Almost every one I typically read about marketing or business or social media frustrates me. Mainly this frustration comes from the obviousness of their content. As meaningless headlines declare the arrival of such commonly discussed technologies as mobile phones or wearable technology – anyone in business trying to actually plan for the future is usually left on their own to figure out what these so-called “predictions” of the future actually mean.
For the past four years, I have been curating an annual trend report that aims to dig deeper. I call it the “Non-Obvious Trend Report” and each edition is published in December for the coming year and includes a year’s worth of observations and curation of interesting examples, stories and research.
In this talk, I share a bit more about the approach that I use to gather the information behind these trends, and the method I use to research, curate and eventually write about them. In the process, I share a few reasons why I think most trend predictions are lacking value and what I hope readers and audience members can take away from my report instead.
Enjoy watching this introduction and in case it whets your appetite to see the actual trends, you can see the full 2014 Trend Report completely for free at www.15trends.com.
THE BACKSTORY: Most trend predictions in business suffer from the same problem … they are too obvious. In this opening from Rohit’s popular 2014 Business Trends keynote, he shares his secret to discovering new trends that will affect business in 2014 and beyond. This talk is updated every year in December when the next year’s trend report is published. This report has been published every year for the past four years and has been read more than half a million times. Previous and current reports are available at www.15trends.com. This talk was presented as an opening keynote at the Potomac Tech Wire Social Media Outlook 2014 Conference in Tysons Corner, VA.
WHAT IT SHOWS (FOR EVENT PLANNERS + SPEAKING BUREAUS): If you are seeking a Futurist or Trend Expert for your next event, Rohit’s approach to defining and presenting business trends is unlike most other speakers. He not only talks about his process for research, and shares key trends – but also outlines clear step by step advice on how audience members can use these trends in their own business. Trends can be customized by industry, feature plenty of real life examples and the overall presentation is a fast paced and actionable talk that gets attendees thinking and works best as an opening keynote talk for a day long internal event or a multi-day business conference.
Full day Strategy Retreats and Innovation Days based on this Trend Report are also available. These events allow Rohit to host larger private groups, lead strategic planning, and provide advice on applying these trends to current business challenges.
To watch more videos, visit Rohit’s full channel at https://www.youtube.com/rohitbhargava.
