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)

MiniTrends 2012 Conference – Early Registration Extended – Downtown Austin, Oct. 17-18

September 21, 2012

We are pleased to extend our Early Registration until Oct. 3 for MINITRENDS 2012: A Conference on Translating Emerging Trends into Business Opportunities scheduled Oct. 17-18 at the Omni Austin Hotel Downtown!

Come join us in Downtown Austin to hear twenty distinguished business leaders and forward thinkers discuss how to start new ventures or 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 how you can find profitable emerging trends of your own!

With its entrepreneurial and fun spirit, Austin is the ideal place for entrepreneurs, decision makers, innovative thinkers, investors, and/or job seekers to find strategies and insights to create or grow their own organization or find new avenues for job skills.

Our schedule and list of distinguished speakers keeps growing. Some highlights of the schedule include:

• Dr. John Vanston, Chairman, Technology Futures, Inc., showing how to use MiniTrends to succeed in the “Age of Imagination.”
• World-renowned Futurist introducing the “New Normal” and the opportunities in the decade ahead
• High-tech trailblazer Byron Reese, CIO at Demand Media, assuring us that emerging trends will bring a coming “Golden Age of Humanity.
• Entrepreneur Andy Fish discussing about how his new venture, Formula Austin LLC, is taking Austin by storm by plugging visitors into Austin’s culture and business scene during the U.S. Formula One Grand Prix, now here in Austin.
• Dr. Luis Medina, CEO, Tech BA describing how Mexican and other international technology companies define and successfully implement their business plan to enter the US market.
• Lani Rosales, popular blogger and COO of hit online magazine AGBeat.com sharing trends that offer great opportunities in the business and social media arenas.
• Rick Smyre, discussing innovative new trends in governance, economic development, leadership, and education/learning inherent in his growing Communities of the Future program.
• David Smith, CEO, HBMG, outlining important technology trends of the future.
• Dr. Peter Zandan, Global Vice Chairman of Hill+Knowlton and Angel Investor, gives the ins and outs of investing from his perspective.
• Several other inspiring speakers assisting attendees in launching their own innovative and profitable “MiniTrend Adventures.”

Come and learn how you too can launch your our MiniTrend Adventure! And please help spread the word to those you think would benefit from this important future trends conference. (See below for share icons that send out this page to your social media contacts. Visit share this for possible text.)

MiniTrends 2012 Conference – Keynote David Pearce Snyder – Oct 17-18, Downtown Austin

September 9, 2012

• An Entrepreneur wishing to identify, assess, and exploit attractive new business opportunities
• A Decision Making Executive, Director, Manager, or Professional in a Small or Mid-Size Business wanting to gain advantage by recognizing and utilizing emerging trends
• An Innovative Thinking Executive, Director, Manager, or Professional in a Larger Business aspiring to distinguish yourself by your special insights and perceptiveness
• An Investor interested in uncovering attractive new investment opportunities
• A Job Seeker wishing to define employment opportunities

• 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
• A preview of MiniTrends that thought-leaders see developing
• Experience, knowledge, and wisdom from innovative leaders sharing how they use emerging trends to start new ventures or grow established organizations
• Tactics to identify untapped business opportunities from converging trends
• 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!
• BONUS!! Copy of award-winning book MINITRENDS: How Innovators & Entrepreneurs Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends.

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.

Keynote Speaker: David Pearce Snyder, Consulting Futurist; The Snyder Family Enterprise, Contributing Editor, The Futurist
David has been in the forecasting business for over 30 years, during which he has built an impressive track record with a wide range of clientele, while compiling a multi million item data base of trends and projections. He has been Contributing Editor of The Futurist magazine for over a quarter century and given thousands of seminars on strategic thinking. David has edited/co-authored five books, and written hundreds of studies, articles and reports on the  future impacts of new technologies.

Keynote Speaker: Byron Reese, Chief Innovation Officer, Demand Media
Byron brings his vast technical understanding to illuminate how today’s technology can solve many of our biggest global challenges. He speaks with the unrivaled authority of an accomplished high-tech trailblazer, inventor, and entrepreneur, and the wisdom of a life-long historian. Reese has served on both public and private boards of directors, has started several non-profit organizations and has just completed the forthcoming book, Infinite Progress: How Technology and the Internet Will End Ignorance, Disease, Hunger, Poverty, and War.

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.

Michael Bettersworth, Associate Vice Chancellor for Technology Advancement, Texas State Technical College (TSTC)
Michael founded TSTC Forecasting to identify and analyze new technical competencies needed by employers in order to improve student employability through curriculum alignment with market demand. TSTC Forecasting has published many studies on emerging technologies and occupations. New studies are currently underway in big data, unmanned aerial systems, and social media.

Andy Fish, President, Formula Austin, LLC; President and CEO at LISA – Legislative Information Services of America
Andy Fish and Anne Fish started Formula Austin LLC last year to plug visitors into Austin’s culture and business scene in the days before and after the U.S. Formula One Grand Prix, now here in Austin.  Formula Austin aims to link visitors up with authentic Austin experiences and has partnered with 42 local businesses, professionals and musicians to offer a large variety of activities.

Dr. August E. (“Augie”) Grant, J. Rion McKissick Professor of Journalism, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina
Augie is a technology futurist who specializes in research on new media technologies and consumer behavior and market opportunities for emerging technologies. He is Editor of Communication Technology Update and Fundamentals, now in its thirteenth edition, which is used extensively in industry and has become one of the top-selling textbooks in the field of Communication Technology.

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.

Dr. Luis Medina, CEO, Tech BA — an Initiative of the Government of Mexico partnering with the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas
Luis has an extensive career as an entrepreneur in the business world as well as in academia both in Mexico and the US. As CEO of Tech BA he has interviewed, selected, trained, and helped  many Mexican technology companies define and successfully implement their business plan to enter the US market in a variety of segments.

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.

Lani Rosales, Chief Operating Officer, AGBeat.com
AGBeat is one of the fastest growing digital magazines in the entire industry. Lani became the Editor-in-chief of AGBest in 2010, and was recently promoted to COO.  AGBeat condenses news information on technology, business, social media, startups, real estate, economics and more, so the reader doesn’t have to. Formerly focused strictly on marketing, Lani was named one of Real Estate’s 100 Most Influential, as well as 12 Most Influential Women in Blogging.

David Smith, CEO, HBMG Inc.
As a noted futurist, technologist, and business leader, David brings more than 30 years of experience in digital convergence, strategic planning, and emerging technologies.  He has assisted in creating and implementing plans for Fortune 100, emerging companies, universities, and government agencies. David is responsible for the global strategic planning, product development, and business execution at HBMG.

Rick Smyre, President, Center for Communities of the Future; Owner, Strategic Concepts, Inc.
Rick is an internationally recognized futurist. Over the last fifteen years he has pioneered the concept of “community transformation” and has keynoted and presented at over three hundred events in the US, Scotland, England and Canada. His present focus is on developing networks of people and organizations interested in the emerging concepts of Transformational Learning, Master Capacity Builder, and Creative Molecular Economy.

Charles Studer, Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Briggo
Addressing the need for convenience in a fast-paced world along with social awareness, Charles converged robotics, mobile apps, and cloud computing to create a technology that enables customers to store favorite coffee recipes in the cloud, remotely order, and have those drinks produced with robotic precision. Using an ethically source organic Peruvian bean, the first Briggo kiosk was deployed at the University of Texas last fall with plans to extend fully automated kiosks across the country.

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 Asset Valuation Conference, now in its 7th year.

Dr. Peter Zandan, Angel Investor; Global Vice Chairman at Hill and Knowlton; Board member at Next Big Sound, Inc.; Investor at Klout; Sr. Advisor at Public Strategies Inc.; Sr. Advisor/Chairman at EarthSky
As an angel investor, Peter serves as an advisor and strategic investor in early-stage companies. At H+K Strategies, Peter helps direct strategic initiatives and is the worldwide research practice group leader where he provides assistance for clients in the financial services, energy, technology, healthcare and retail industries. His experience as a successful CEO/Chairman/founder of a public company, IntelliQuest, helps inform the advice and counsel he provides.

More speakers to be announced soon!

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

August 13, 2012

Discover, Evaluate, Profit! Join us in Downtown Austin on October 17-18, the place Forbes’ calls the “Best Big City for Jobs,” to listen and participate as business leaders and forward thinkers discuss starting new ventures or growing 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 how you can find profitable emerging trends of your own!

Achieving and sustaining success in the current environment of unprecedented marketplace innovation means being constantly alert to new and exciting MiniTrends that provide business and technological opportunities. MiniTrends offer great opportunities to those alert enough to recognize them, perceptive enough to appreciate them, and clever enough to take advantage of them. Austin is a growing entrepreneurial hub that offers a culture built on collaboration, innovation, and creativity. What better place to find out how you, too, can develop a Minitrend Mindset?

You Should Attend if You are:

• An Entrepreneur wishing to identify, assess, and exploit attractive new business opportunities
• A Decision Making Executive, Director, Manager, or Professional in a Small or Mid-Size Business wanting to gain advantage by recognizing and utilizing emerging trends
• An Innovative Thinking Executive, Director, Manager, or Professional in a Larger Business aspiring to distinguish yourself by your special insights and perceptiveness
• An Investor interested in uncovering attractive new investment opportunities
• A 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
• A preview of MiniTrends that thought-leaders see developing
• Experience, knowledge, and wisdom from innovative leaders sharing how they use emerging trends to start new ventures or grow established organizations
• Tactics to identify untapped business opportunities from converging trends
• 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!
• BONUS!! Copy of award-winning book MINITRENDS: How Innovators & Entrepreneurs Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends.

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.

Keynote: David Pearce Snyder, Consulting Futurist; Contributing Editor, The Futurist

David has been in the forecasting business for over 30 years, during which he has built an impressive track record with a wide range of clientele, while compiling a multi million item data base of trends and projections. David has given thousands of seminars on strategic thinking, edited/co-authored five books, and written hundreds of studies, articles and reports on the impacts of new technologies.

Michael Bettersworth, Associate Vice Chancellor for Technology Advancement, Texas State Technical College (TSTC)

Michael founded TSTC Forecasting to identify and analyze new technical competencies needed by employers in order to improve student employability through curriculum alignment with market demand. TSTC Forecasting has published many studies on emerging technologies and occupations. New studies are currently underway in big data, unmanned aerial systems, and social media.

Andy Fish, President, Formula Austin, LLC; President and CEO at LISA – Legislative Information Services of America

Andy Fish and Anne Fish started Formula Austin LLC last year to plug visitors into Austin’s culture and business scene in the days before and after the U.S. Formula One Grand Prix, now based in Austin.  Formula Austin aims to link visitors up with authentic Austin experiences and has partnered with 42 local businesses, professionals and musicians to offer a large variety of activities.

Dr. August E. (“Augie”) Grant, J. Rion McKissick Professor of Journalism, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina

Augie is a technology futurist who specializes in research on new media technologies and consumer behavior and market opportunities for emerging technologies. He is Editor of Communication Technology Update and Fundamentals, now in its thirteenth edition, which is used extensively in industry and has become one of the top-selling textbooks in the field of Communication Technology.

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.

Dr. Luis Medina, CEO, Tech BA — an Initiative of the Government of Mexico partnering with the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas

Luis has an extensive career as an entrepreneur in the business world as well as in academia both in Mexico and the US. As CEO of Tech BA he has interviewed, selected, trained, and helped  many Mexican technology companies define and successfully implement their business plan to enter the US market in a variety of segments.

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.

Lani Rosales, Chief Operating Officer, AGBeat.com

AGBeat is one of the fastest growing digital magazines in the entire industry. Lani became the Editor-in-chief of AGBest in 2010, and was recently promoted to COO.  AGBeat condenses news information on technology, business, social media, startups, real estate, economics and more, so the reader doesn’t have to. Formerly focused strictly on marketing, Lani was named one of Real Estate’s 100 Most Influential, as well as 12 Most Influential Women in Blogging.

David Smith, CEO, HBMG Inc.

As a noted futurist, technologist, and business leader, David brings more than 30 years of experience in digital convergence, strategic planning, and emerging technologies.  He has assisted in creating and implementing plans for Fortune 100, emerging companies, universities, and government agencies. David is responsible for the global strategic planning, product development, and business execution at HBMG.

 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 Asset Valuation Conference, now in its 7th year.

Dr. Peter Zandan, Global Vice Chairman at Hill and Knowlton, Board member at Next Big Sound, Inc., Investor at Klout, Sr. Advisor at Public Strategies Inc., Sr. Advisor/Chairman at Earth and Sky

As an angel investor, Peter serves as an advisor and strategic investor in early-stage companies. At H+K Strategies, Peter helps direct strategic initiatives and is the worldwide research practice group leader where he provides assistance for clients in the financial services, energy, technology, healthcare and retail industries. His experience as a successful CEO/Chairman/founder of a public company, IntelliQuest, helps inform the advice and counsel he provides.

More speakers to be announced soon!

9 Futurists Give 2020 Digital World Predictions to Mashable

July 11, 2012

9 Futurists give Mashable's Amy-Mae Elliott predictions for the digital future. Image courtesy of S58y. Used under Creative Commons license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en.

We’re always interested in predictions for the future and were excited to be asked by Mashable’s  Amy-Mae Elliott for one of our own in her article “9 Bold Predictions for the Digital World of 2020.” Dr. John Vanston chimed in on how voice quality by 2020 will be so excellent that “Younger generations will hear something that theretofore only older generations remember: the sound of a pin dropping.”

A couple of the futurists’ comments in the Mashable article refer to the massive amounts of information that is increasingly available to everyone. According to Dave Evans, Cisco Chief Futurist, “We are amassing unprecedented amounts of data – a zettabyte alone this year. This data is social and public (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, etc.). Billions of devices (25-50 billion by 2020) will contribute exponentially to this avalanche of data … By 2015, Cisco Visual Networking Index predicts 1 million video minutes will traverse the Internet every second.”

According to Brian David Johnson, Futurist, Intel, “the size of the meaningful computational power keeps getting smaller and smaller. So, as we approach 2020 the size of the intelligent gets closer to zero in size, nearly invisible.”

Those that can use these massive amounts of information most imaginatively will have a very real advantage in the coming years. A good way to winnow through the information is finding minitrends in your areas of interest within the larger emerging trends. We talk extensively about this on this site and in our MINITRENDS book. Also stay tuned for our formal announcement of MINITRENDS 2012: A Conference on Translating Emerging Trends Into Business Opportunities scheduled October 17-18 at the Omni Downtown in Austin.

We are also intrigued by futurist Mike Walsh comments about virtual avatars:  “By 2020 retail virtual avatars – on screens and in holographic projection – will start to become popular.” Perhaps, these virtual avatars will be waiting on us in the not too distant future!

We talk about Virtual Worlds being a minitrends opportunity in MINITRENDS. For the free excerpt from the book, see “Expanding Involvement in Virtual Worlds.”

Cheers,
Carrie

TechCrunch Reveals Advances in Realtime News Technology

March 1, 2011

The “24-hour news cycle” must be on a New Year’s diet, because it’s down to about 24 minutes now. That’s about how long it takes for a breaking news story to circle the globe and get filed away.

Technology trends are fueling the every-shrinking news cycle to match the ever-shrinking attention span of the always-online news addicts. If I haven’t lost you already by exceeding 140 characters, let me quickly show you a couple of tech trends that are feeding the instant news beast.

Instagram Instant Photos

Last Thursday (I realize that’s a long time ago), image-sharing app Instagram made its application program interface (API) available to developers to facilitate the instant sharing of photos taken by iPhone cameras. Now you can snap a picture, apply a hashtag, and upload it. Anyone watching that hashtag, or the location where you took the photo, can instantly see the new image.

The image above shows how the Instagram API works on the website, Foodspotting. Type in a location (i.e., Texas) and a dish (i.e., toast), and Foodspotting will show you all the pictures tagged “toast” that are geotagged from Texas. While this may seem trivial when searching for Texas toast, imagine the same search, updated in realtime by a news portal, for “protest” and “Middle East,” and you begin to get an appreciation for how fast the news is moving.

Equentia Instant News

Earlier this month (the Stone Age in realnews time), Erick Schonfeld, co-editor of TechCrunch, who has been writing about technology since pre-history (before the Web), wrote an update on Equentia, a realtime news service:

[Equentia] indexes 100,000 articles a day across blogs and news sites, puts them through a semantic engine to categorize them into every topic imaginable, and [then looks] at how much social attention each article is getting.

You can customize the search results, of course, by applying filters such as geographical regions, companies you want to follow, preferred news sources, time-span covered, product names and brand names, etc. And the news results are delivered to you along with a Twitter crawl for related subjects.

Instant Updates on Web Pages

Speaking of Twitter crawls, widgets that allow you to show your latest Tweets and Facebook Updates have brought realtime news to plain old Web pages (you remember what those are, don’t you?).

The image above shows a Twitter crawl from the Childhood Obesity News blog. You can almost see the kids getting bigger in realtime.

Web developer extraordinaire, Glen Stansberry, provides a tutorial on 10 ways to integrate Twitter into your website at Tuts+. His tutorial is old news, I realize, but not all of us are hip to the 24-second news cycle yet.

STEVE O’KEEFE
News Editor, Minitrends Blog

Source: “Instagram Unveils Realtime API With Foodspotting, Fancy, Momento, Flipboard, About.me And Others,” TechCrunch, Feb. 24, 2011
Source: “Experiments In Realtime News: The Eqentia Streams,” TechCrunch, Feb. 14, 2011
Source: “10 Awesome Ways to Integrate Twitter With Your Website,” Tuts+, Jan. 23, 2009
Images of Foodspotting and Childhood Obesity News are used under Fair Use: Commentary.

What is Social CRM? Major New Tech Trend Takes Hold

February 15, 2011

If you haven’t heard about “Social CRM” yet, get ready. Predictions are this will be the “technology trend of the year” for 2011.

Simply stated, Social CRM is the marriage of your Rolodex with Twitter. The Rolodex represents your Customer Relationship Management system, or CRM: your database of contacts, clients, prospects, employees, customers, or anyone else your organization keeps tabs on. Twitter represents the social side of these contacts, whether they express themselves on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, through comments on blogs, or other ways online.

When you merge your CRM system with social networking, what you get is an amazing lifecycle understanding of how your customers were influenced to contact you, what they purchased once they did, and how those purchases worked out for them. Imagine being able to ask a customer, “How did you find out about us” and “How is that purchase working out for you” without having to ask — and being able to rely on the answers as honest and real. That’s the power of Social CRM.

Social CRM begins when an organization starts to listen to what people are saying about it online, and posts its own messages through social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Social CRM deepens when organizations go beyond watching themselves to watching their customers, employees, and other contacts. According to CRM expert and Inc. magazine reporter, Brent Leary, “2011 looks to be shaping up as the year companies go beyond focusing on marketing and promotion” with Social CRM.

Leary is on the board of the Customer Relationship Management Association and editor of its newsletter, “Insights.” His article for Inc. magazine reviews a conference on Social CRM at the University of Toronto held at the end of last year. The conference was the inaugural event for the new Center for CRM Excellence at the University’s Rotman School of Management. Leary debriefs several experts on Social CRM including Greg Gianforte at RightNow, Marcel LeBrun at Radian6, Alex Bard at Assistly, and John Bastone at SAS.

Social networking gives organizations the opportunity to eavesdrop on contacts as they reveal their opinions through actions and comments online. Social CRM gathers those tidbits of information and combines them into reports about contacts that are far more elaborate than professional profilers ever could have imagined. Social CRM makes it possible to, among other things, fix a customer’s problem before they even know they have a problem, or before they report it. That’s powerful marketing!

Another excellent article comes from Maria Ogneva at Mashable, a site not known for deep articles. Ogneva has an interest in the subject, as the director of social media for Nimble, a social relationship management firm. Still, Ogneva intelligently lays out the fundamentals of Social CRM:

The social customer may go to Twitter with a question, a user forum with a customer service query, Facebook with a compliment, or Yelp with a complaint. The processes you establish will largely determine your ability to respond quickly and with the relevant information, while uniting all of these interactions under one customer record.

If you think Social CRM is just another fad that will soon disappear, maybe Gartner will persuade you otherwise? In a study released this week, the giant IT research firm predicted that Social CRM sales will exceed $1 billion by 2013. Spending on Social CRM is expected to double this year, from 4% to 8% of total CRM spending.

Chris DiMarco, Web Editor for TMCnet, nails the significance of Gartner’s report when he writes, “The utility to include and target individuals based on information they’ve provided voluntarily on social media sites will likely be necessary to compete in the very near future.” In short, if you don’t get Social CRM, you don’t get the customer. And that’s the simple reason Social CRM is shaping up to be the app of the year for 2011.

STEVE O’KEEFE
News Editor, Minitrends Blog

Source: “2011: The Year Social CRM Goes Mainstream,” Inc., December 27, 2010
Source: “Why Your Company Needs to Embrace Social CRM,” Mashable, May 21, 2010
Source: “Gartner Says Spending on Social Software to Support Sales, Marketing and Customer Service Processes Will Exceed $1 Billion Worldwide By 2013,” Gartner news release, February 8, 2011
Source: “Social CRM to Explode in the Immediate Future says Gartner Study,” TMCnet, February 8, 2011
Image by nerissa’s ring, used under its Creative Commons license.

“Nine Emerging Minitrends to Watch” by Dr. John H. Vanston, MINITRENDS Author & Chairman, TFI

December 28, 2010

Happy holidays to Minitrends blog readers! We appreciate your interest in our Minitrends posts and activities. As we start the new year, there will be many opportunities for those who are alert enough to recognize emerging trends, perceptive enough to realize their importance, and clever enough to take advantage of them. Here I suggest nine Minitrends—emerging trends that will become significantly important within 2-5 years, but are not yet generally recognized—that are well worth examining for possible action by those ambitious individuals who seek to start new ventures or keep existing businesses innovative and competitive.

Unlike megatrends, Minitrends are of a scope and importance to offer attractive opportunities to individual entrepreneurs, decision-makers in small and mid-size businesses, innovative thinkers in large companies, and adventuresome investors. In my new book, MINITRENDS: How Innovators & Entrepreneurs & Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends, I categorize the nine Minitrends below to those most applicable to different-sized groups. (In the book, I also discuss the background, current trends, and business opportunities of each of these Minitrends in more depth.)  I do the same categorization below, but in reality, all provide opportunities to perceptive individuals in all-sized businesses.

Minitrends Particularly Applicable to Individuals or Small Groups of Individuals:

1. Expanding Involvement in Virtual Worlds (Free Virtual Worlds book excerpt available):

Virtual worlds are computer-based platforms that allow participants to engage in a wide range of real-world type activities, e.g., buying and building virtual world property, furnishing virtual world homes and offices, producing and selling virtual world goods, traveling, taking part in virtual world social activities such as parties and fundraisers, and communicating with other participants. Increasingly, virtual worlds are being used for educational purposes, product advertisements, new product modeling and testing, identification of new markets, and uncovering unexpected problems with new marketing programs.

2. Support for People Working at Home:

Although an increasing number of people are now conducting all or part of their work at home, these people often find they miss interacting with others and miss the convenience of facilities, equipment, and administrative support. A number of solutions are emerging to better meet the needs and desires of people working at home, including small offices or meeting rooms that can be rented by the day or the hour; chat rooms where people can meet informally to discuss ideas; semiformal groups that meet regularly to establish person-to-person interactions; and temporary support staffs organized to provide administrative assistance as needed.

3. Expanding Capabilities of Advanced Websites:

Although the World Wide Web had proven to be extremely popular, many believed a more interactive platform that took advantage of the Web’s power to communicate would be desirable (Web 2.0). Programmers are now expanding the capabilities of the Web to substitute computer activities for human activities, particularly activities that are repetitive, burdensome, and uninteresting (Web 3.0). Many believe Web 3.0 will eventually lead to effective artificial intelligence that can interact with humans in natural language.

Minitrends Particularly Applicable to Small and Medium-Size Companies:

4. Increasing Interest in Privacy:

Recent advances in technology, together with an increasing willingness of many to make personal information more easily available are threatening traditional concepts of privacy in terms of messaging, personal profiles, and identity. Techniques for countering these invasions of privacy, such as personal caution, technology aids, and group action are now being developed.

5. New Approaches to Giving and Receiving Advice:

Individuals and organizations commonly seek expert advice when making important decisions. In providing such advice, large consulting firms with large, multidisciplinary staffs, well-structured processes and procedures, huge computer capabilities, and long-standing reputations have traditionally had a major advantage. However, the ever-increasing power and ubiquity of information gathering, processing, and communicating technologies, small and medium-size consulting groups are often able to give more focused, timely, and user-friendly advice than the larger firms.

6. Evolution of Meaningful Maturity:

The twin trends of increasing life spans and decreasing retirement ages have caused a steady increase in retirement years. Because of social, personal interest, and/or financial reasons, many older individuals are either staying in their jobs longer or returning to the workforce. Their ability to utilize their experience, skills, and dedication effectively will depend on their current capabilities, their desires, and open opportunities to those willing to assist them.

Minitrends Particularly Applicable to Large Companies:

7. Advances in Digital Manufacturing:

Advanced digital manufacturing (ADM) processes build complex, custom-made parts by the addition of successive layers of material rather than traditional machining processes that cut, bend, and machine a part from stock material. The processes allow quicker production of prototypes and small production runs at a much lower cost. Recent ADM advances, including improved yield rates, reduced time-to-market, increasing variety of materials, and advances in 3D modeling software, have made ADM processes increasingly attractive to many manufacturers.

8. Increasing Electricity Use in Manufacturing:

The characteristics of electric power, such as high power density, no heat transfer medium requirements, controlled energy distribution, reduced material waste, and less environmental impacts, provide a number of benefits to manufacturing processes. Its use, however, has been limited by its relatively high cost. A number of factors, including advances in control technologies, changing customer needs, global competition, and increasing concern about the environment, are driving an increasing growth in the use of electricity in industrial processes.

9. New Applications of Nanotechnology:

When many substances are reduced to nano-size (100 nanometers or less) they often exhibit very different physical, electrical, chemical, and optical properties from the same substance at macro-size. These new properties often provide very unique and useful characteristics to nano-materials that can be used in a wide range of practical applications, such as cancer treatment, very high strength materials, special electronic systems, and water purification. Improved production techniques, decreased costs, and growing experience and understanding are increasing the practical applications of nanotechnologies

Minitrend involvement can give you a way to separate yourself from your colleagues and contemporaries. It provides a means for materially improving your business situation, your financial standing, and your personal satisfaction. I hope the Minitrends listed above will assist you or inspire you to launch your own exciting, profitable Minitrend Adventure that allows you to utilize your imagination, your logic, your innovative nature, and your basic good sense in the coming year.

Copyright 2011. Please feel free to reprint this article in whole or part with due credit to: “by Dr. John H. Vanston, MINITRENDS Author and Chairman, Technology Futures, Inc.” Thanks!

Technology Trends for Entrepreneurs

December 6, 2010

Android-operated microwave oven, from Touch Revolution video.

Entrepreneurs don’t only create new technology trends, they also use them to take care of businesses. One example is the trend away from using in-house journalists to using freelance journalists to using custom content farms.

An example of an entrepreneur who has successfully mined the Minitrend of content farming is Jonathan Blum. Blum has shifted from a career in broadcast journalism, where he worked for MTV and covered the O.J. Simpson trial for ABC News, among other accomplishments, to a career in custom journalism through his award-winning startup, Blumsday.

Blumsday provides custom content for high-end clients, including CNN and TheStreet. His articles are regularly featured in Entrepreneur magazine. His work earned a Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

One of Blum’s recent creations for Business Insider is a list of the top tech trends for entrepreneurs or, as he puts it,

[…] the top 25 tech tips, trends and megatrends: what’s new now, what will be new tomorrow and what you can expect to grapple with even farther down the road.

I would argue that most of these are “minitrends” rather than “megatrends” — that is, trends that show the likelihood of widespread adoption in the next two to five years and are the byproduct of such megatrends as the spread of the Internet, the growth of mobile devices, or the need for alternative energy sources.

The first minitrend I notice is the increasing use of slideshows instead of text to render the forecasts of pundits. Last week, we reviewed the top 10 tech trends of veteran computer journalist Eric Lundquist, who also presented his picks in slideshow format. We also covered Verizon’s top tech trends, which were presented with video — another Minitrend we expect to see more of in the coming years.

Many of the trends on Blum’s list will already be familiar to readers of this blog. Some of the less typical ones include:

• Touch Kiosks — Blum suggests that using inexpensive touchscreens from companies such as HP and Acer can save a bundle in self-serve customer service.
• Server Simplicity — New products combine “phone servers, e-mail servers, routers, document servers and firewalls into a single low-cost device.”
• Smart Boards for Smarter Presentations — BoxLight and Epson make portable smart boards that take presentations way past the PowerPoint.
• Apps for Your Apps — New apps that run on your household appliances, such as washers and dryers, TVs and microwave ovens. No fooling. Check out the Engadget review.
• Automatic Decision-Making — As computers get smarter, they can do more of our work for us. Entrepreneurs look forward to the day when they can ask the computer to find the 20 best venture capital prospects for a business, then return after a coffee break to find a quality list waiting. Blum points to Google’s Aardvark as an early example of an intelligent assistant.
• Virtual Assistant — Using a bot to represent you at meetings, recording what happens and answering questions by accessing all your computer files, may be more than five years away, but it’s still fun to ponder.

Blum has lots of other tips in his presentation — especially for the eco-conscious entrepreneur interested in energy-saving technologies. I recommend you take his presentation for a ride. It’s a quick trip that really delivers do-it-now ideas for entrepreneurs on the go.

STEVE O’KEEFE
News Editor, Minitrends Blog

Source: “The Future-Proof Entrepreneur: 25 New Tech Trends You Need To Know About,” Business Insider, 11/14/10
Source: Blumsday, undated
Image: Screen capture from Touch Revolution video presentation, used under Fair Use: Reporting.

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