Top 10 reasons to attend MiniTrends 2013 – Oct 2-3, Austin, TX
September 26, 2013
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MiniTrends 2013 New Keynote IBM Director Dr. Jani Bryne — Oct. 2, Austin, TX
September 20, 2013
Dr. Jani Byrne, Director of Global Mid-Market Marketing at IBM, joins MiniTrends 2013 as Keynote
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Jani Byrne, Director of Global Mid-Market Marketing at IBM, has joined us as Morning Keynote at Technology Futures’ 2nd annual MiniTrends 2013: The Integration of Profit & Social Responsibility. She will be speaking on “The Next Generation IT Innovations and What’s in it For You.”
Dr. Byrne is a visionary who marries deep technological innovations and insights with a profound understanding of human and market psychology. She is an extraordinarily passionate thought leader who can also simply “get stuff done.”
In her present position, Dr. Byrne is responsible for end-to-end marketing strategies and plans for Mid-Market and Large Enterprise clients, across IBMs hardware / software / services portfolio, leading IBMs focus on Managed Service Providers worldwide. Previous positions have included Director of Strategy, where she created industry-leading strategies impacting IBM STG’s direction and activity, and Director of the IBM Venture Capital Group, where she was strategic liaison to the global Venture Community resulting in significant net profit to IBM.
In addition to her long distinguished career at IBM, Dr. Byrne is a Board Member of The Seton Fund at the Seton Family of Hospitals and Board Member of Austin Chamber of Commerce Technology Partnership.
Conference Chair Dr. John Vanston, Chairman of Technology Futures and author of the award-winning book, MINITRENDS, notes “With Dr. Byrne’s broad knowledge and experience relating to past, current, and future trends, she brings a great deal of value to conference attendees looking for practical ideas and opportunities relating to their areas of interests. We are excited to learn more about ways we can find and take advantage of MiniTrends she sees on the horizon.”
Dr. Byrne, entrepreneur whiz Gary Hoover, and 19 other visionaries & thought-leaders will share leading-edge business ideas and what they see as MiniTrends–big opportunities not yet widely recognized–at MiniTrends 2013 on October 2-3 at the Holiday Inn Town Lake in Austin, TX. Please join us!
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Austin-based Technology Futures, Inc. is celebrating its 35th year of providing top-quality custom studies and technology forecasts on key trends to a wide variety of commercial, government, and academic organizations since 1978.
Entrepreneurial Whiz Gary Hoover Keynotes MiniTrends 2013, Oct. 2, Austin, TX
September 3, 2013
We are thrilled to have Gary Hoover as our Keynote speaker at our 2nd annual MiniTrends 2013: The Integration of Profit & Social Responsibility. He will be guiding us on “Making a Difference Through Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership.”
Gary is a serial entrepreneur renowned for his founding of the first large scale retail bookstore, BOOKSTOP, and the business information products firm Hoover’s, Inc. He recently incorporated his fifth startup, Bigwig Games, to produce business and social science strategic simulation games for the iPad and other tablet devices. He is presently Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin.
Gary travels the world speaking about how enterprises are built and how they stand the test of time. He is the founder of Hoover Academy where he teaches hundreds of students how to be successful entrepreneurs and he is author of “The Art of Enterprise.” In 2009, he was the first Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship, McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
He is the epitome of entrepreneurial spirit, forecasting and optimizing marketplace trends with successful, revolutionary businesses both for himself and for budding entrepreneurs to follow in his footsteps.
His formal and on-the-job education includes studying economics under the tutelage of three Nobel Prize winners, serving as a securities analyst for Citibank on Wall Street, being a buyer for Federated Department Stores and leading acquisitions and strategic planning for the May Department Stores Company.
He created BOOKSTOP, the leading-edge book superstore that helped revolutionize the nature of book shopping in America. After just seven years, Gary and his partners sold it to Barnes & Noble for $41.5 million cash when it became a cornerstone for their industry-dominating superstore chain.
Subsequently, Gary created what is now known as Hoover’s, the world’s largest Internet-based provider of information about enterprises. In 1999, Hoover’s went public and, in 2003, the company was purchased by Dun & Bradstreet for $117 million.
In 2009 he launched www.hooversworld.com, a blog which includes reviews of books, ideas, and places from Gary’s iconoclastic angle. He continues to add new ideas to his list of business ideas, now numbering over 230.
In 2010, Gary began teaching students of all ages Entrepreneurial Thinking through his own Hoover Academy; more than 300 people have since graduated from his programs and benefited from his online video courses.
Takeaway: See a sample of Gary’s inspirational presentations at “Hoover’s Keys to Successful Enterprise: #7 Unique Vision and #8 Passion,” given while he was Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship at UT Austin.
Then join us at MiniTrends 2013 as Gary and 18 other visionaries and entrepreneurial thought-leaders share leading-edge business ideas and what they see as MiniTrends–those big opportunities not yet widely recognized.
Plus network, learn, and trade ideas during meals, networking and break-out sessions, and the conference reception. Invite friends and increase the network of those of us making a positive difference in this world.
WorldFuture 2013: Master Course: Succeeding in a New Normal World – July 19, Chicago
July 12, 2013
Join us for our Pre-Conference Master Course: Succeeding in a New Normal World on July 19 with David Pearce Snyder, Dr. John Vanston, and Carrie Vanston
The World Future Society’s annual conference WorldFuture 2013: Exploring the Next Horizon brings together the world’s premier minds to discuss the long-range future of science, technology, humanity, government, religion and many other topics.
MiniTrends’ leaders Dr. John Vanston and Carrie Vanston are co-presenting with top futurist David Snyder at the Pre-Conference Master Course: Succeeding in a New Normal World on July 19, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 pm. (The additional fee is $245.)
This session describes the New Normal, the forces driving it, and how you can use the MiniTrends Concept to discover and profit from emerging trends within these forces. These minitrends offer opportunities to be successful personally and professionally, while making a postive difference in this changing world.
The session increases understanding of the principles and practices covered and allows participants to take advantage of the experiences and insights of the group.
Highlights: What Attendees Will Learn from this Session:
- How forces are predictably reshaping our demography, economic structure, technology advances, and decision-making processes.
- How these forces can assist participants in identifying and taking advantage of emerging trends and attractive business opportunities.
- How participants can apply the information, ideas, and insights presented in the class as guidance for business, personal career, and investment decisions.
Presenters:
David Pearce SnyderConsulting Futurist;
The Snyder Family Enterprise
Contributing Editor, The Futurist
Dr. John VanstonChairman, Technology Futures, Inc.
Conference Chair, MiniTrends 2013: The Integration of Profit & Social Responsibility
Carrie VanstonMedia & Mktg Director, Technology Futures, Inc.
Conference Director: MiniTrends 2013: The Integration of Profit & Social Responsibility
Co-Author, MINITRENDS: How Innovators & Entrepreneurs Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends
We hope you will join us in attending WorldFuture 2013: Exploring the Next Horizon and signing up for our Pre-Conference Master Course: Succeeding in a New Normal World.
Oct. 2-3: MiniTrends 2013: The Integration of Profit & Social Responsibility
June 21, 2013
Second Annual MiniTrends Conference
MiniTrends 2013: The Integration of Profit & Social Responsibility
October 2-3, Holiday Inn Town Lake, Austin, Texas
Discover, Profit, Do Good!
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
8:30 am – 5:30 pm, Reception 5:30 – 7:15 pm
You CAN be profitable and socially responsible. This event exposes that sweet spot where new and established businesses can find the tools and directional choices to profit and inspire themselves and their employees in whatever their line of business.
Join us in Austin, the place Forbes’ calls the “Best Big City for Jobs,” to listen and participate as all-star business leaders and forward thinkers reveal how to start new ventures and grow established organizations leveraging MiniTrends.
By understanding MiniTrends—emerging trends that will soon become important, but not yet widely recognized—you will discover effective ways to balance capitalism with complementary social values and philanthropy in your business.
Find out what future trends and convergences are on the horizon and, of equal importance, how you can find profitable emerging trends of your own integrated with socially responsible values.
Austin is an exciting, growing entrepreneurial hub that offers a culture built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and caring. What better place to find out how you, too, can develop a Minitrends Mindset!
You Should Attend if You are a Value-Driven:
- Entrepreneur wishing to identify, assess, and exploit attractive new business opportunities
- Decision Making Executive, Director, Manager, or in a Small or Mid-Size Business wanting to gain advantage by recognizing and utilizing emerging trends
- Innovative Thinking Executive, Director, Manager, or Professional in a Larger Business aspiring to distinguish yourself by your special insights and perceptiveness
- Investor interested in uncovering attractive new investment opportunities
- Job Seeker wishing to define employment opportunities
What You will Gain:
A creative mind-set and resources for finding and taking advantage of emerging trends and opportunities relating to your own area of expertise and interest.- An understanding of how to integrate profit and socially responsible purpose and value in your business.
- A preview of MiniTrends that thought leaders see developing.
- Experience from innovative leaders sharing how they use emerging trends to start new ventures or grow established organizations for profit with attention to all stakeholders.
- Tactics to identify untapped business opportunities from converging trends in the business and social arenas.
- Interaction with speakers and fellow participants to learn, mix, and share ideas.
- Strategy and insights to create or grow your organization and, in the process, find your bliss.
- An opportunity to enjoy the Live Music Capital of the World!
What Attendees Say
Speakers:
Conference Chair: Dr. John H. Vanston, Chairman, Technology Futures, Inc.
John founded TFI in 1978, building the Austin, Texas-based company into a leading authority in custom research and technology forecasting. His MiniTrends concept, designed to increase creativity, innovation, and success, is summarized in MINITRENDS: How Innovators & Entrepreneurs Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends. The book has received several Best Business Book awards and excellent reviews and endorsements.
Conference Director: Carrie Vanston, Media and Marketing Director, Technology Futures, Inc.
Carrie has many years of experience in public relations, marketing, and sales at TFI and in the entertainment industry. As co-author of MINITRENDS: How Entrepreneurs & Innovators Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends, she brings a distinct real-world quality to MiniTrends activities, particularly in the media communications and social media areas.
Andre Angel, Co-founder/CEO at TangoTab; Co-Founder/Chairman, WorkMeter; Co-founder, Servoyant, LLC; Co-Founder/Chairman, CODEKKO Software
Based in Dallas, Andre is a serial entrepreneur with global experience. His latest venture, TangoTab, is a real-time, online social enterprise business that offers diners discounts at participating restaurants, and donates a meal to the community each time you use the service. “When you eat, they eat.” Prior to Tango Tab, he co-founded, grew and sold numerous high-tech companies including CODEKKO, Experticity, NTR, Elastic Edge, and WorkMeter. Earlier, he was Global Vice President of Sales at Nortel Networks.
Jeffrey Fry, Principal, Help Find Care; Chief Executive, Profit Prophet; Director/CMO, MainGain; Board Member, baqpak; Executive Director, Firefly Funds; Executive Director, SHINE Night; President, SEDA RICO, LLC;
Jeffrey has launched a new type of in-home healthcare service that empowers healthcare service professionals to go into business for themselves while better connecting in-home healthcare needs. Riding the minitrend of baby boomer parents needing innovative ways to care for their parents, this model empowers all stakeholders and drives the cost of home healthcare down. Jeffrey also has been involved in several startups and plays roles in several civic programs.
Bijoy Goswami, Cofounder & Evangelist at ATX Equation, The Bootstrap, Aviri Consulting; Founder, Organizer, Bootstrap Network; CEO, Aviri Inc.
Bijoy Goswami deeply interested in how we steward unique journeys for individuals, organizations, communities and beyond. He sees our unique human capability of building mental models as a vital part of this endeavor. He loves building and sharing simple, yet powerful models, including MRE, youPlusU and Bootstrap.
Christopher Justice, Chief Executive Officer at Sparksight, Inc.; Founder, Justice Pest Services
Christopher co-founded Sparksight® in 2006 and has built the company into a well-respected design agency that specializes in event management, high definition video production and digital marketing. Combining wisdom and humor with common sense, Chris is a master at building better businesses through a combination of face-to-face and online marketing techniques. Christopher is a conscious leader that works hard to have a company that benefits all involved.
Joy Miller, Marketing and Outreach Coordinator, City of Austin Small Business Development Program
Joy is a marketing and outreach professional with over 20 years of leadership experience in process improvement, human resources, and operations. She communicates with and counsels aspiring and existing small business owners in presentations and in personal communications to ensure understanding of City of Austin resources and assistance available to them.
Steve Pearson, Lead Strategist, Founder, Visionex Solutions, LLC
Steve’s passion is accelerating innovation and R&D by identifying emerging, adjacent and disruptive technologies. Companies ranging from Fortune 500s to small startups rely on Steve and his analysts to provide Competitive Intelligence, Innovation Support and Informed Strategic Development. He works with high-tech, electrical, mechanical, energy, construction and transportation industries.
Eve Richter, VP of Community & Partnerships, door64
Door64 is a huge group community of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) industries influencers serving more than 30,000 STEM professionals in the Austin Area. Previous to door64, Eve served as the Emerging Technologies Coordinator in the Economic Development Division at the City of Austin, helping businesses, startups, entrepreneurs and individuals in the tech (and other) sectors to grow and be successful in the Austin community.
Dr. Lawrence Vanston, President, Technology Futures, Inc.
Larry is an expert on the future of telecommunications and its significance to organizations and people. Since 1985, he has been the director and principal author of ongoing reports commissioned by the Telecommunications Technology Forecasting Group (TTFG), presently comprised of AT&T, CenturyLink, Verizon, and Windstream. Larry directs TFI’s popular TFI Communications Technology Asset Valuation Conference, now in its 9th year.
More speakers to be announced soon!
Preliminary Schedule
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Post-Conference Methods MiniTrends Workshop (Optional)
MiniTrends Workshop: How to Discover & Profit From Emerging Trends
Thursday, October 3, 2013, 8:30 am – 12:00 pm
Go the next step to starting your own MiniTrends Adventure by attending this excellent applications workshop. In this session, we discuss basic MiniTrends principles and participants have hands-on opportunities to find, analyze, and profit from emerging trends that also offer a socially responsible aspect. Participants leave with a solid basis for developing their own “Minitrends Mindset.”
MiniTrends Workshop BONUS!! Copy of award-winning book MINITRENDS: How Innovators & Entrepreneurs Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends.
To encourage you to attend this valuable post-conference half-day workshop, we are offering it at an exceptionally low price! Only $75 early bird for general admission attendees! ($100 after Sept. 1.)
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Venue:
The Holiday Inn Austin Town Lake Hotel is a wonderful location to experience Austin’s major attractions. Located on beautiful Lady Bird Lake, the hotel has direct access to the lake’s hike & bike trails and is a mile from Austin’s famous 6th Street entertainment district. It’s also near the State Capitol, University of Texas, South Congress Bridge (home to Austin’s famous Mexican free-tail bats), and the Governor’s Mansion. The hotel offers complimentary shuttles to Austin Bergstrom International Airport and to 6th Street. Book online or call the hotel directly to book very reasonably-priced sleeping rooms. 800-593-5676. For more information about Austin, visit Austin 360 or Austin Chamber of Commerce.
Registration:
General Admission: Wed., Oct. 2, 8:30 am-5:30 pm followed by reception. Early Bird $395 (after Sept. 1, $495).
Non-Profit/Government/Academic Admission: Wed., Oct. 2,
8:30 am-5:30 pm followed by reception. Early Bird $295 (after Sept. 1, $395).
Student Admission: Wed., Oct. 2, 8:30 am-5:30 pm followed by
reception. $90.00.
Post-Conference MiniTrends Methods Workshop General
Admission (Optional): Thurs., Oct. 3, 8:30 am-12:00 noon. Early Bird $75 (after Sept. 1, $100). (Conference registration required.)
Post-Conference MiniTrends Methods Workshop Student
Admission (Optional): Thurs., Oct. 3, 8:30 am-12:00 noon. $15.00. (Conference registration required.)
visit MiniTrends 2013 with any conference questions.
Free MiniTrends RISE Conference Session – Austin, TX, Tues., May 14, 4-5:30 pm
May 10, 2013
RISE Conference
Presents a free session with
and
Carrie Vanston
MiniTrends: How to Discover & Profit From Business & TechnologyTrends
Tuesday, May 14, 2012, 4:00 – 5:30 pm
In this presentation, award winning author Dr. John H. Vanston, Chairman, and Carrie Vanston, Marketing Director, Technology Futures, Inc. discuss MiniTrends — the concept that helps you find and act on great ideas by inspiring a creative mindset and providing a practical process for discovering and exploiting emerging trends that will become significantly important within 2-5 years.
Attendees learn and practice:
- How and where to search for MiniTrends.
- How to evaluate the business attractiveness of a MiniTrend.
- How to develop an effective MiniTrend Exploitation Scheme.
- How to turn the scheme into a profitable business opportunity.
You should attend if you are:
- An Entrepreneur wishing to identify, assess, and exploit attractive new business opportunities.
- An Executive, Director, Manager, or Professional seeking to take advantage of important emerging trends.
- An Innovative Thinker interested in gaining recognition for originality and perceptiveness.
- An Investor interested in uncovering attractive new investment opportunities.
- A Job Seeker wishing to define emerging employment possibilities.
Participants will leave with a solid basis for developing their own “MiniTrends Mindset.”
The presentation is based on John’s more than 30 years of experience in identifying and applying technical, social, and business trends and the book MINITRENDS: How Innovators & Entrepreneurs Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends authored by John and Carrie.
Sign Up for the RISE MiniTrends Session Now!
Directions: Go north on Hwy 183, take the Lake Creek Blvd. exit and do a u-turn under 183, go a short distance and turn right into the Lake Creek Office Complex (just past Chase bank). You will run directly into the meeting room building which is in the center of the complex. Meeting room entrance is on the left side of the building. (Note: there are 2-3 steps at the entrance of the building.)
RISE is a non-profit program whose cornerstone is its annual “un-conference” — scheduled May 13-17 this year — in which seasoned entrepreneurs and experts volunteer to host small-group sessions on any topic of their choice at any location of their choice throughout Austin. Sessions are free and limited to 25 to promote a highly collaborative experience.
MiniTrends Book – Great Gift for Innovators and Entrepreneurs
December 18, 2012
Find, Analyze, Profit! Still looking for that perfect gift for that innovative person in your life? There is still time to purchase the award-winning book MINITRENDS: How Innovators & Entrepreneurs Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends by Dr. John H. Vanston with Carrie Vanston.
MINITRENDS helps you find and act on great ideas by inspiring a creative mindset and providing a practical process for discovering and exploiting emerging trends that will become significantly important within 2-5 years.
The MINITRENDS book is now available through Amazon as a printed or ebook version.
Readers learn:
- How and where to search for minitrends
- How to evaluate the business attractiveness of a minitrend
- How to develop an effective MiniTrend Exploitation Scheme
- How to turn the scheme into a profitable business opportunity
Based on author Dr. John H. Vanston’s more than 30 years of experience in identifying and applying technical, social, and business trends, the book shows:
- Entrepreneurs how to identify, assess, and exploit new business opportunities
- Executives, Directors, Managers, and Professionals how to recognize and take advantage of important emerging trends
- Innovative thinkers how to gain recognition for their originality and perceptiveness
- Investors how to uncover attractive new investment opportunities
- Job Seekers how to define emerging employment possibilities
Purchase MINITRENDS now by visiting Amazon.
Dr. Vanston notes, “Many people will be starting the New Year with resolutions to achieve new goals. The MINITRENDS book provides a path for individuals and businesses seeking to start new ventures or keep existing business innovative and competitive.”
In addition to how-to advice, MINITRENDS provides background, current trends, and business opportunities for several attractive Minitrends.
Combining advice, instructions, and examples, MINITRENDS assists the reader in launching his or her own exciting, profitable “Minitrend Adventure” using his or her imagination, logic, innovative nature, and basic good sense.
MINITRENDS is the perfect gift for those you know who strive to become, more innovative, agile, effective, and happy.
Order it today and get it in time for Christmas.
(If you are in Austin, and miss the Amazon’s mailing deadlines, contact us
directly atinfo @ tfi.com or (512) 258-8898 to arrange a pickup at our offices.)
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MINITRENDS AWARDS
–The Pinnacle Book Achievement Best Business Book Award Winner
–An Eric Hoffer Business Book Award Winner
–ForeWord Reviews’ Business Book of the Year Finalist
–USA Book News’ Entrepreneurship & Small Business Book of the Year Finalist
–Dan Poynter’s Global eBook Business Book Award Finalist
MINITRENDS Accolades:
“MINITRENDS spotlights specific ‘minitrends’ and trains people how to recognize them and take advantage of related job opportunities.”
–Yahoo News
“MINITRENDS should quickly become a–if not the–standard work for the futurist’s search for business applications.”
–Joe Coates, Foresight Network’s Futurist of the Year
Turn on Automated Alerts to Tune Out Information Overload When Monitoring Trends
December 12, 2012
Photo Credit: http://technorati.com: http://scm-l3.technorati.com/11/12/12/58393/alert.gif?t=20111212034429
Part Two of a Two-Part Series by Guest Blogger Steve Pearson, Visionex Solutions, LLC
Automated alerts can help you stay competitive with real-time data about very specific subjects, technologies, authors and/or companies. Customizing state-of-the-art reports and automated alerts based on client-specified criteria are essential elements of my business, but there are some out-of-the box resources you may find useful.
Automated alerts can reduce your scanning time by notifying you about newly published information. For example, Google Alerts monitors a large portion of the web and emails you anything it considers relevant. Of course, you may not agree with Google’s version of “relevant” and you‘ll still spend valuable time scanning and sorting.
Fortunately, there are other many automated alerts. Setting each one up to deliver quality information and avoid overload is important.
Technical Alerts deliver bibliographic information regarding newly published research papers, dissertations and conference proceedings – if it meets your specified criteria. The data for these alerts originate from databases such as Compendex, which is one of the largest in the scientific field, currently indexing 1,031 journals from around the world. These alerts use the bibliographic information to provide tailored results.
Patent Alerts are keyed to patent and patent application information from around the world. For example, many companies like to know when a key competitor files patent applications or receives a granted patent.
RSS Alerts are different from RSS Readers because they allow you to “mine” the RSS streams of your choice for keywords that you consider important.
Web Page Alerts are simple in concept but they are extremely useful since they monitor a specific url for changes. Anytime the page changes you will receive a notification and that notification will allow you to view the new page changes highlighted. These alerts are especially valuable for monitoring product announcements from competitors, really long governmental pages or working groups.
Table of Contents (TOC) Alerts send you the TOC information for specific publications, typically weeks or months in advance of the publication date. These alerts are valuable not only for their speed but also because you can quickly glance through each TOC and purchase only those publications that are appealing. (And save money on subscriptions and/or memberships.)
Social Alerts typically monitor sites like Facebook, blogs and Twitter for keywords.
Government Alerts help keep you apprised of recently published research sponsored by the Federal Government and announcements of new solicitations of bids.
Business and Market Alerts are great because companies are constantly marketing themselves by making product announcements. Further, most market research companies will announce their newest reports covering specific industries or companies.
Trademark Alerts allow monitoring of specific company’s applications, monitoring your own trademarks for potential infringement or monitoring for key terms that you define.
Domain Alerts monitor new domain name registrations so that you can learn about new and potentially problematic names.
Many companies find that the best way to control their time and expense with Alerts is to hire an intermediary that not only has access to the services that charge money but also knows how to set them up properly.
Guest blogger Steve Pearson is a consultant helping companies accelerate innovation and product development. Through his firm Visionex Solutions, LLC, he delivers competitor-busting research with tools and reports he has developed over his career as an engineer, trainer and analyst.
Steve specializes in intellectual property management, technology identification and market assessment and takes pride in applying lessons from his broad background to help those in the electrical, mechanical, energy, construction or transportation industries. Visit his site for more information.
Put Aggregators to Work for Quality, Timely Info When Trend Searching
November 29, 2012
Part One of a Two-Part Series by Guest Blogger Steve Pearson, Visionex Solutions, LLC
Photo credit: www.mapthis.net: http://mapthis.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/searching-for-info.jpg
I was truly inspired by the recent MiniTrends 2012 Conference and collected many ideas for improving my business and for passing along to my clients.
After reading the MINITRENDS book, I’d like to share some additional technical and patent resources that might help others as much as they help me in my business providing research for product development and innovation.
Google is popular, but not a good source for piecing together trends: access to a large amount of content dumped in your lap through a single portal is not efficient.
Fortunately, there are information resources that provide broad data in a bibliographic form that facilitates finding the information you desire. There are three general groups of these resources:
- business/market
- engineering/science
- patents/patent applications
Of course, many of these specialty resources require fees, but they can be invaluable for businesses and researchers needing timely and accurate information.
Some options:
Business news typically consists of new product announcements, merger and acquisition news and management changes. Many executives find it valuable to monitor their key competitors or the top executives in those companies. There’s a wide breadth of providers in this category and some are free. A good place to start is doing a Google search, probably for a specific company’s name, and then filtering the results by clicking on “news” in the grey colored font immediately below the search box. (More on automated news alerts in Part 2 next week.)
Technical resources provide focused information related to newly published research, dissertations and conference proceedings. Consider Inspec which monitors roughly 5,000 scientific and technical journals plus some conferences and dissertations. These originate from around the world but often have an English abstract.
Technical services can be a pricey, but consider the savings the first time you rethink your current or upcoming R&D efforts based on information that your competitor may not know.
Patents and patent application aggregators collect updates from international patent offices and store this bibliographic information in their databases. Many countries make this information available to the public, but the ease of use varies dramatically.
For instance, the USPTO maintains its own search engine for finding relevant intellectual property, but there are several limitations:
- The information is focused solely on the U.S.
- Searching granted patents and patent applications is done through separate search windows
- The results shown to your inquiry will often require a lot of time to review.
- PDF file export is not available.
A better choice for many is Google Patents as it also covers Europe, is fairly simple to use, provides results that are easier to navigate and allows you to export PDFs.
So, why not use Google Patents for all of your work? There are drawbacks as well:
- It doesn’t cover the remainder of the world
- It’s difficult to drill down to the specific patents and applications that are most relevant to your need
- It’s difficult to do trend analysis
Many companies find that the best way to control their time and expense is to hire an intermediary to decipher these resources and conduct research as needs arise.
Next week: Where to Start with Automated Alerts
Guest blogger Steve Pearson is a consultant helping companies accelerate innovation and product development. Through his firm Visionex Solutions, LLC, he delivers competitor-busting research with tools and reports he has developed over his career as an engineer, trainer and analyst.
Steve specializes in intellectual property management, technology identification and market assessment and takes pride in applying lessons from his broad background to help those in the electrical, mechanical, energy, construction or transportation industries. Visit his site for more information.
MiniTrends 2012 Conference – Thanks for Making it a Success!
November 15, 2012
Thank you to all who supported and attended MiniTrends 2012: A Conference on Translating Emerging Trends into Business Opportunities on October 17-18 in Austin, Texas! We enjoyed interacting with everyone and appreciated the contagious enthusiasm. The speakers were fantastic, the synergy between attendees exciting, and the overall response great. Now let’s build on it!
We want to give special thanks to all of our outstanding speakers. A special shout-out goes to our Keynotes John Vanston, David Pearce Snyder, and Bryan Reese whose excellent presentations provided the structure of the conference. Please spread the word on their speaking talents and availability.
Let’s use the new LinkedIn MiniTrends Group to continue to network and keep the energy going until MiniTrends 2013. Please feel free to share thoughts from the conference and your own minitrends, experiences, and resources. (We may plan a MiniTrends networking and/or educational event or two before the next conference to keep the momentum going.)
We also welcome you to “like” us on our Facebook Page. We will be posting pictures of the conference, luncheon, and reception soon.
Please let us know of any progress you make with minitrends that you might uncover and take advantage of, particularly those using concepts from MiniTrends 2012 and the MINITRENDS book. Feel free to send us your ideas and progress or participate in our social media avenues. We are always looking for good examples, and if we use your minitrend, we’ll be sure to give you credit!
Again, thank you for all those who attended and supported MiniTrends 2012. We are looking forward to staying in touch with you until MiniTrends 2013 and welcoming some newcomers, too!
MiniTrends Recent Posts
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- The Ultimate Quesiton – Do You Validate? World Champion Speech by Lance Miller
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MINITRENDS: How Innovators & Entrepreneurs Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends
by Technology Futurist John H. Vanston, Ph.D. with Carrie Vanston
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