Register Now! MiniTrends 2014: Insight, Innovation & Strategy – Sep 26, Austin, TX
May 31, 2014
We cordially invite you to attend the premier event for innovators, futurists, technologists, trendsetters, and blue sky thinkers, the 3rd Annual MiniTrends conference, MiniTrends 2014: Insight, Innovation & Strategy.
Scheduled for September 26th, 2014, in beautiful downtown Austin, TX, this unique conference is in its third successful year of leading the conversation about innovation. Hosted by award winning author and renowned futurist, Dr. John Vanston, this one day event gives you the insight you need to stay innovative and to thrive in a rapidly changing business environment.
The day begins with an inspiring keynote by highly regarded futurist David Pearce Snyder describing the forces driving that environment, followed by keynote and feature presentations and expert panelists. All speakers are focused on getting you up to speed with the concept of minitrends and how you can use that knowledge to skyrocket your success into the future.
You’ll be provided lunch as well as have the opportunity to mix and mingle with conference attendees and speakers in an after-conference reception.
You Will Gain:
INSIGHT: Discover what is coming up for your industry; be open to new ways of looking at things, and find strategies to innovate within your company!
CULTURE: See how in creating and nurturing a supportive culture for innovators to discover and apply innovative ideas, can be your “secret sauce” in seizing new markets and opportunities, and ultimately improving your bottom line.
STATEGY: Get the advantage of a MiniTrend Mindset and Strategy by attending this unique conference in innovative hot-spot Austin, Texas with direct interaction with Industry experts.
If This is You, This Conference Is A MUST!
• Analysts: Business, Marketing, Competitive, Market Acceptance
• Development Managers: Technology, Strategy, Product, Delivery
• Strategists: Technology, Business, Product, Partnerships, Channel
• Research Managers: New Product, Technology, Science, Materials, Methodologies
Register now for MiniTrends 2014 and leave with a Concrete Strategy to
keep your organization innovative and successful!
Take Advantage of Early Bird Rates!
Attendance includes Continental Breakfast, Breaks, Lunch followed by Reception!
MiniTrends Conference: “Go for the booty and discover new, uncharted lands”*
November 12, 2013
I was honored to participate in this year’s MiniTrends Conference, an exciting gathering based on exposing that sweet spot where new and established businesses can find the tools and directional choices to profit and inspire themselves and their employees.
The message that making money does not require tossing out your social responsibility was uplifting and contagious. The conference attendees I met were especially eager to learn more about being successful while making a positive difference.
We heard excellent keynotes by Jani Byrne, Gary Hoover and Dr. John Vanston that provided the structure of the conference.
A total of 17 speakers presented and all of their slides can be found at http://minitrends.com/minitrends-2013-slides/
Carrie Vanston, MiniTrends Conference Director, was her usual self: a powerhouse of preparedness and always carrying a smile.
As for me, I was pleased to be invited to be the moderator for Expert Panel Two: “Taking the Plunge: What you can learn from those who have initiated successful, value-driven businesses.”
The enthusiastic panelists were all knowledgeable and spoke from strong entrepreneurial backgrounds.
- Andre Angel, Co-founder/CEO at TangoTab; Co-Founder/Chairman, WorkMeter; Co-founder, Servoyant, LLC; Co-Founder/Chairman, CODEKKO Software
- Jeffrey Fry, Principal, Help Find Care; Chief Executive, Profit Prophet; Director/CMO, MainGain; Board Member, baqpak; Executive Dir, Firefly Funds; Executive Dir, SHINE Night; President, SEDA RICO, LLC
- Christopher Justice, Chief Executive Officer at Sparksight, Inc.
- Stacy Zoern, CEO, Community Cars
- Trust your gut.
- Listen and change your course when needed.
- It’s not about YOU. Remove your ego.
- Fail often. Test and try.
- Be flexible.
- Choose your team wisely.
- Manage your stress, your health is important.
I can’t wait to continue the conversation at next year’s conference.
—Steve Pearson, Lead Strategist and Founder of The Pearson Strategy Group, LLC.
*My favorite take-away was Jeffrey Fry’s adjustment to a Steve Jobs quote: “[Being an entrepreneur] is like being a pirate…go for the booty and discover new, uncharted lands.”
This blog post originally appeared in Pearson’s Strategy News.
MiniTrends 2013 Conference – Thank You & Presentation Slides
October 30, 2013
Thank you to everyone who helped make MiniTrends 2013: The Integration of Profit & Social Responsibility such a huge success! The conference slides are up!
Conference Chair Dr. John Vanston and I 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 the connections we made and all we learned!
A special shout-out goes to our Keynotes Jani Byrne, Gary Hoover, and John Vanston whose excellent presentations provided the structure of the conference. We also greatly appreciate our wonderful Sponsors and Partners, Planning Committee, and Advisory Board for their integral role in making this such a valuable and fun event.
Let’s use the LinkedIn MiniTrends Group to continue to network and keep the energy going until MiniTrends 2014. Please feel free to share thoughts and your own minitrends, experiences, and resources with other members of the LinkedIn MiniTrends Group.
We also have a Facebook Page that we welcome you to “like.” We will be posting pictures from the conference and will let you know when they are up. Twitter is @MiniTrendsBook, #minitrends.
We also encourage you to sign up for our MiniTrends Blog.
Thanks for everyone who handed in evaluation sheets! We appreciated the feedback. Please let us know if you have any more input on how the event went. We welcome ideas from attendees and blog readers on what you would like to see next year.
Hopefully everyone has had a chance to take a look at the MINITRENDS book you received at the conference. A quick read of the Preface (Page xxi) and Chapter 10 (Pg 185-186) gives a good overall theme of the book.)
Please let us know progress you make with minitrends, particularly those using concepts from the book and conference. We use examples in our talks, guest blogs, and/or they may be speaking subjects for you next year.
Also please let us know if your organization or one you know would be interested in meeting with us to find out how we might help bring a MiniTrends Mindset to your organization through presentations, workshops, and/or other in-house services.
We are excited to have you in our MiniTrends Circle! We look forward to continuing the connection. In the meantime, please feel free to contact John, Helen Mary, or me with any thoughts or comments.
Warm regards,
Carrie and the TFI/MiniTrends Team
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
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.
MiniTrends is Event Partner for July Green Drinks Event, July 30, 6-8 pm, Austin, TX – Free MiniTrends 2013 Registration Drawing
July 28, 2013
We are excited to be Event Partner for July Green Drinks Event, 6-8 pm, July 30, at the Rattle Inn, 610 Nueces Street, Austin, TX. The event is hosted by our friends at Net Impact Austin and Austin Green Drinks.
We are providing a FREE registration to our 2nd Annual MiniTrends 2013: The Integration of Profit & Social Responsibility (Oct. 2-3) and a copy of our award-winning MINITRENDS book for a drawing at the event!!
The event will celebrate the Green Workforce in Austin. Everyone is welcome, especially those interested in all things green and sustainable wanting to meet others with similar interests to meet the challenges of a sustainable future.
Employers, employees, summer interns and fellows can have fun while reflecting on current and future projects and discussing potential opportunities. This event provides an opportunity to welcome summer interns to Austin, appreciate their great contributions and maybe even tell them why you love working in sustainability in our fine city.
The following are promotional partners that extended invitations to their employees, interns, fellows, and students:
City of Austin, Office of Sustainability
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Public Citizen of Texas
Austin Community College, Environmental Stewardship Program
Environmental Defense Fund
The Sierra Club, Lone Star Chapter
Where: Rattle Inn, 610 Nueces Street, Austin, TX 78701 (map)
When: Tuesday, July 30th 6pm -8 pm. Come at 6pm for mingling, networking and happy hour specials.
The Austin Green Drinks Happy Hour series creates opportunities to meet with other accomplished environmental, sustainability, and clean tech professionals in an informal atmosphere; after all, that’s how the greatest ideas are born. Austin Green Drinks attract professionals who routinely initiate innovative ways to meet the challenges of a sustainable future.
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.
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!