Free MiniTrends RISE Conference Session – Austin, TX, Tues., May 14, 4-5:30 pm

May 10, 2013

RISE Conference 

Presents a free session with

MiniTrends: How to Discover & Profit From Business & TechnologyTrends

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.)

_______________

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:

 

Turn on Automated Alerts to Tune Out Information Overload When Monitoring Trends

December 12, 2012

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

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 2012 Conference – Tomorrow – Oct. 17-18, Austin, TX

October 16, 2012

MiniTrends 2012 Conference – Only Five Days Left – Oct. 17-18, Austin, TX

October 12, 2012

Age of Imagination With MiniTrends – GigaOm Blog – Dr. John Vanston

October 6, 2012

Dr. John Vanston is giving a great opening presentation at MiniTrends 2012: A Conference on Translating Emerging Trends into Business Opportunities entitled “Succeeding in the Age of Imagination with Minitrends.” John gives a preview of the talk in his GigaOm guest blog In the Age of Information, Small Trends have Big Impacts.  We highly suggest you read it.

MiniTrends 2012 Conference – Early Registration Ends Today

October 3, 2012

BONUS!!! All participants will receive the award-winning book MINITRENDS: How Innovators & Entrepreneurs Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends.

MiniTrends 2012: A Conference on Translating Emerging Trends into Business Opportunities

Wednesday, October 17, 1:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. & Thursday, October 18, 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. followed by conference reception until 7:15 p.m.

Early Registration: Only $395.00 until October 3 (then $495.00)

MiniTrends 2012 – Early Registration Ends Oct 3 – Register Now

September 28, 2012

Discover, Analyze, Profit! Longtime Austin-based Technology Futures, Inc. (TFI) is hosting an important conference, MiniTrends 2012: A Conference on Translating Emerging Trends into Business Opportunities, on October 17-18, 2012 at the Omni Austin Hotel Downtown, Austin, Texas. Early Registration ends Wednesday, October 3!

Don’t miss out on this extraordinary price for a conference with such an exceptional depth and breadth of speaker talent. Register now before the October 3 Early Registration deadline and save $100!

Twenty all-star business leaders and forward thinkers will discuss how you can start new ventures and grow established organizations through attention to MiniTrends–emerging trends that will soon become important, but are not yet widely recognized. Find out what future trends and convergences they see on the horizon and, just as importantly, how you can find profitable emerging trends of your own.

Fun and entrepreneurial-spirited Austin offers the ideal location for entrepreneurs, decision makers, innovative thinkers, investors, and job seekers to learn and network with others, while finding strategies and insights to create or grow their organization or find new avenues for job skills.

The regular price of $495 is a steal for a conference of this caliber, but with Early Registration by October 3, you pay only $395. (Promotional box is immediately above big “Register” button.)

In addition to our many other exceptional speakers, our Keynote Speakers are:

• Award-winning author and and Chairman of TFI Dr. John Vanston showing how to use MiniTrends to succeed in the “Age of Imagination”
• World-renowned Futurist David Pearce Snyder introducing the “New Normal” and its opportunities in the decade ahead
• High-tech trailblazer Byron Reese, CIO at Demand Media, assuring us that emerging trends will bring a “Golden Age of Humanity”

BONUS!!! In addition to information, ideas, and insights to participants for discovering, analyzing, and profiting from minitrends, all participants will receive the award-winning book MINITRENDS: How Innovators & Entrepreneurs Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends.

MiniTrends 2012: A Conference on Translating Emerging Trends into Business Opportunities

Wednesday, October 17, 1:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. & Thursday, October 18, 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. followed by conference reception until 7:15 p.m.

Early Registration: Only $395.00 until October 3 (then $495.00)

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