A Special Price + 9 More Reasons You Should Be at MiniTrends 2014

September 5, 2014

MiniTrends 2014: Insight, Innovation & Strategy is coming to you on
Friday, September 26, in Austin, Texas. 

MiniTrends Community Special:  20% Off Discount

10 Reasons You Should Attend MiniTrends 2014: Insight, Innovation & Strategy

1. Insights for Innovation

Insight: the ability to understand people and situations in a very clear way.

Becoming adept at discerning MiniTrends will first give you insights into innovation. This ability to understand people’s wants and needs, and the underlying causes of change will allow you to see how to achieve a high return on effort, essentially letting you see a path of doing more with less and in turn working smarter not harder.

• Examine the predictable forces that are reshaping our business and technology environment.
• Learn 20 knowable future trends that you must be prepared for.
• Understand how the MiniTrends Concept can be key for continuing success.
• Use this foundational foresight to build an innovation thought-process and strategy throughout the conference day.

2. Innovation Skills

Innovation: the act or process of introducing new ideas, devices, or methods.

With these new insights on possible innovations, you can begin to act on and process these new ideas in the development of new products or methodologies, thus allowing you to get an unfair competitive advantage or as VCs like to say, “game the system.”

• Discover seven approaches for identifying minitrends.
• Learn eight resources to find where minitrends hide.
• Appreciate the vital role of leadership in promoting an innovation culture where employee creativity becomes the innovative “heart” of the organization.
• See how appreciating all stakeholders, not just stockholders, is the “secret sauce” of success.
• Find and share minitrends of your own with fellow attendees.

3. Innovation Strategy

Strategy: the skill of making or carrying out plans to achieve a goal.

Finally, by combining these new, undiscovered insights with derived innovations, you can increase your acumen in making or carrying out plans of action to achieve your new strategic goals.  In other words, by attending MiniTrends 2014 you can become that “Rock Star” everyone talks about!

• Accelerate your innovation and process development.
• Find the exogenous drivers and constraints that can help with decision making.
• Leverage minitrends in market strategy development.
• Use minitrends in making a market for a new product or service.
• Benefit from personal interaction with conference speakers during special session.
• Bring back ideas and strategies for you and your team.

4. Direct Interaction with Speakers and Expert Panelists

All-star visionaries and thought-leaders will give you the insight and tools you need to stay ahead of the curve and remain innovative in a rapidly changing business environment.Speak directly with the speakers about your own personal interests and ideas during a scheduled session just for this purpose.

5. Individual and Small Group Hands-On Exercises

Individual and group activities at MiniTrends 2014 will help you generate ideas, consider their potential as minitrends, develop partnerships, and leave with actionable plans.

6. Great Networking Opportunities

Meet, mingle, network, and share ideas with marketers, analysts, development managers, strategists, research managers, and others during continental breakfast, breakout groups, breaks, discussions, provided lunch, and the MiniTrends 2014 “power-hour” reception overlooking beautiful Lady Bird Lake.

See what all the excitement is about! Watch the video or visit our testimonial page and find out what our past MiniTrends Conference say!!

 

7. FREE copy of Award-Winning MINITRENDS book

—Your Own MiniTrends Resource

As a special value add, you will receive your very own description of the MiniTrends Concept to take home—the award-winning book MINITRENDS: How Entrepreneurs & Innovators Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends by Dr. John Vanston and Carrie Vanston.

A $19.95 value!

8. Meet our Sponsors and Partners

We appreciate our Sponsors and Partners who share our vision of helping business leaders thrive by combining foresight with a creative culture honoring all stakeholders.

9. Enjoy Tech-Friendly and Beautiful Austin, Texas!

Austin is a thriving, cosmopolitan city and one of the leading high-tech hubs in the U.S. With more than 120,000 people employed by more than 4,400 technology firms, we have the techies, the entrepreneurs, the innovators, the investors, and so much more. And we’re the Live Music Capital of the World! What better place for a cutting-edge innovation conference?

Our MiniTrends 2014 meeting and reception overlooks beautiful Lady Bird Lake. The Holiday Inn Austin Lady Bird Lake (800-593-5676) is in a wonderful location to experience Austin’s major attractions. The hotel has direct access to the lake’s hike & bike trails and is a mile from Austin’s famous 6th Street entertainment district.

10. Special 20% Off Discount for Our MiniTrends Community!

Discount Code: Special20-2013  brings the regular price to $292  or Small business/Government/Academia to  $208.  Students still can come for $65. (Please register as soon as possible so we can have accurate catering numbers for the hotel!)

Join us at MiniTrends 2014: Insights, Innovation & Strategy on Friday, September 26, 2014, 8:30 am–5:30 pm, followed by reception. The full day conference includes continental breakfast, lunch, and evening “Power-Hour” reception. Attend this important event to insure you and your company remain successful and profitable in a constantly changing world.

Take Advantage of MiniTrends Community Special 20% Off Discount

Please feel free to let your friends, colleagues and social networks know about this valuable offer!

Contact TFI at info@tfi.com or (512) 258-8898 or visit Minitrends 2014 for more information.
www.MiniTrends.com/MiniTrends-2014

 

Meet John & Carrie at WorldFuture 2014 in Orlando

June 17, 2014

MiniTrends’ leaders Dr. John Vanston and Carrie Vanston are excited to be conducting a day-long Pre-Conference Master Course at the World Future Society’s annual conference WorldFuture 2014: What If? Our Master Course, MiniTrends and Macro-Change: Turbo-Charging Your Future, also includes our co-presenter and long-time partner, the highly-esteemed futurist David Pearce Snyder and will be held on Thursday, July 10 from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm.

This inspring day begins with David describing the changing world and the forces driving it. He helps you see the future through a matrix of many emerging trends – MiniTrends – that reflect the macro-changes that you must anticipate to be successful as the future unfolds.

John and Carrie, authors of the award-winning book MINITRENDS: How Innovators & Entrepreneurs Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends, then provide you with the foundation for a strong MiniTrends process with seven ways for you to find, analyze, and profit from important minitrends and their potential business opportunities.

Participants will leave this course with an understanding of:

We hope you will join us in Orlando for WorldFuture 2014: What If? and our Pre-Conference Master Course: MiniTrends and Macro-Change: Turbo-Charging Your Future.

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 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

Dr. John Vanston At Lions Club on MiniTrends as Foundation, Oct 17, Austin, TX

October 16, 2013

WorldFuture 2013: Master Course: Succeeding in a New Normal World – July 19, Chicago

July 12, 2013

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:

 

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!

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.)

___________________

 

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.

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