MODERATOR NOTE: IIR Future Trends Conference

From: Cliff Kurtzman <moderator_at_o-a.com>
Date: Mon 22 Sep 2003 10:01:15 -0500

We are pleased to welcome IIR's upcoming 8th annual "Future Trends:
Visionary Information for Business Now" conference as the sponsor
of Online Ads this week. The conference will be held from November
17-19, 2003 at the Palms Hotel, South Beach, Florida. See:

   http://www.o-a.com/futuretrends


Now in its 8th year, Future Trends has become one of the leading
forums for marketing professionals looking to identify major ongoing
trends to enhance their product, brand, consumer and marketing
initiatives. Each year, these trend seekers gather for actionable
information to keep pace with the competition and walk
away with the ability to employ cutting edge ideas to offset
incredibly fast and highly saturated market conditions.

The event consists of a one day workshop followed by a two day
conference. The lead off speaker for the conference is Michael
Tchong, who many Online Ads list members will know from his
ICONOCAST venture. Michael will provide a 360-degree view of the
world's hottest trends, based on a report to be released this fall
called Trendscape 2003.

Other sessions include:

* Color and Material Forecast 2004

* Customer Experience in the Age of Ambient Intelligence

* The Future of Consumer Behavior

* The Big Picture: How to Raise your Gaze and See Beyond
    the Daily Grind by Considering Long Term Cultural Trends

* Neuton Creates New Energy: Selling True Category Innovation
    to Baby Boomers and Active Seniors

* Beyond the Obvious - Translating Unmet Consumer Needs to Clothing

* Understanding the Relationship between an Awareness of a Macro-
    Trend and Innovation

* Understanding The Impact Current Events Have on Consumer Behavior
    and How to Use Your Knowledge of 'Today' to Make Better Business
    Decisions 'Tomorrow'

* Enabling the Future by Building Better Relationships

* Discovering Trends 'In-Between Places': Turning Radical Ideas
    into Profitable Innovations

* The Trackers Way: Following the Path from Weak Signals to
    Strategic Influence

* Scenario Planning: Waking Up Your Organization to a Wider and
    Deeper Scanning of the Business Environment

* Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: Sizing the Opportunity
    Associated With a Trend

* Trends Sculpting Exercise: Building New Trends from The Social
    Clay Around Us

* The Trend Commandments: Turning Cultural Fluency into Marketing
    Opportunity

* Keeping up with GenY: What is Socially Safe Behavior Today? What
    Will it be Tomorrow?

* Are We Kidding Ourselves?: How to Successfully Sell Trends to
    Higher Management and Put them Into Action for Profitability

The two pre-conference workshops are really interesting. In one
workshop, you can join two cultural anthropologists on a voyage
of discovery into the colorful mix of people, restaurants, shops,
hotels and ambiance that is South Beach. Tracking trends is
like learning to read - there are clues everywhere. The process
is not literal - it involves learning to see and understand,
then interpreting: telling a story that your customers will
identify with.

In this experiential workshop, you learn by doing and having fun.
The day starts with a briefing that will cover the basic "How To's"
of ethnographic immersion and tracking skills. Then the workshop
is divided into teams which receive 'top-secret' missions: small
group assignments (similar to a scavenger hunt) that will send
each team out to explore the South Beach environment both broadly
and for particular kinds of trends. The workshop covers:

* Basic theory and principles of ethnographic immersion
* How to explore an environment that is very different from
         your everyday routine
* How to work your way up the ladder of inference from
         direct observation to action
* The skills of tracking, including slowing, looking down,
         and expanding perceptions
* How to use this approach to generate new insights and
         creative thinking
* How to read the clues that signal new trends

The second workshop that you can choose deals with "Getting Inside
Scenarios: A Tool for Understanding Your Future."

No matter how successful we are today we ask ourselves the
question: "What can we learn and do that will make us more
successful in the future?"

Scenarios can give us a starting boost on the answer. It's the work
you have to do to make yourself smarter about the decisions you
will have to take. Plus scenarios tell a story and therefore they
communicate. They show people the changes that are coming in ways
you could never make them understand by just telling.

In scenarios, we create pictures of the worlds we will live in next
year, next decade, next century. If we are in the business of
creating and designing or marketing, we need that advance knowledge
of the world where people will pick up and use our new product or
idea. Scenarios are one of the best tools for acquiring the
capability of business foresight.

Scenarios can be brief and tightly focused on a business problem or
they can be complex and paint a broad picture of the future. In the
workshop, attendees will cover the principles and steps of scenario
building. They will explore our assumptions about the future and how
they help or hinder our ability to scope out future directions. They
will use scenario tools to build some scenarios. Then a post-scenario
critique will delve into what to do with scenarios and how and when
to use them to your best advantage. They will make available some
simple scenario tools that each person can use to gain insight into
their business opportunities and uncertainties.

Check it all out at:


   http://www.o-a.com/futuretrends


Cliff Kurtzman
moderator
Online Advertising Discussion List
http://www.o-a.com/
281-480-6300





Received on Mon Sep 22 2003 - 10:01:15 CDT