As innovator you need to look ahead and prepare your organization for the future. Not an easy job, knowing the world is changing at an increasing pace. What’s going to happen? How will my market change? What new technology is out there? How are target groups changing? And what impact will it have on us?
In my new book ‘
The Innovation Expedition’, web search professional Marc Heleven of
www.7ideas.be shares with us 18 top international trend sites where you can find a lot of answers on future change.
Springwise
Springwise scans the globe for the most promising business ventures, ideas and concepts that are ready for regional or international adaptation, expansion, partnering, investments or cooperation.
Trendwatching
One of the world’s leading trend firms,
trendwatching.com scans the globe for emerging consumer trends, insights and innovations.
Trend Hunter
Trend Hunter is the world’s largest, most popular collection of cutting edge ideas, crowdsourced by 85,462 Trend Hunters.
MoreInspiration
MoreInspiration lets you discover innovative products and technologies from all possible domains.
Trends@alltop
The purpose of
Alltop is to help you answer the question, ‘What’s happening?’ in ‘all the topics’ that interest you. You may wonder how Alltop is different from a search engine. A search engine is good for answering questions like, ‘How many people live in China?’ However, it has a much harder time answering the question, ‘What’s happening in China?’ That’s the kind of question that we answer.
NOTCOT
NOTCOT Inc is a growing network of design sites currently including NOTCOT.com and innovative community contributed sites
NOTCOT.org+ NotCouture.com + Liqurious.com. NOTCOT is a visual filtration of ideas + aesthetics + amusements.
CoolBusinessIdeas
CoolBusinessIdeas.com is a blog about brand new promising business ideas around the world. Follow them in the hunt for the latest business concepts!
PSFK
Over 1,000,000 readers from the design, digital, marketing, media and technology industries come to
PSFK each month to read and share the emerging ideas.
Trendcentral
Powered by the research, insights and global trendsetter network of
The Intelligence Group,
trendcentral® focuses on what’s new and what’s next in the realms of lifestyle, fashion, entertainment and technology. Over the years, trendcentral has forecast the arrival of cultural phenomena well before they entered the mainstream, ranging from branded designer jeans and vampire films to videoblogging and Twitter.
World Future Society
The mission of the
World Future Society is to enable thinkers, political personalities, scientists and lay-people to share an informed, serious dialogue on what the future will be like.
David Report
David Report is an influential blog and online magazine that since 2006 writes about trends in the intersection of design, culture and business. Our readers share our interest and curiosity in everything from art, architecture, culture, design and fashion to food, innovation, music, sustainability and travel.
JWT Intelligence
JWT Intelligence is focusing on identifying changes in the global zeitgeist so as to convert shifts into compelling opportunities for brands. They have done this on behalf of multinational clients across several categories including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food, and home and personal care.
TED
TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.
Lidewij Edelkoort
From her creation of innovative trend books and audiovisuals since the 1980s to lifestyle analysis and research conducted for the world’s leading brands today, Lidewij has pioneered trend forecasting as a profession.
Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies
The objective of the
Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies is to strengthen the basis for decision-making in public and private organisations by creating awareness of the future and highlighting its importance to the present.
TrendOriginal
Cool Hunting
Cool Hunting is synonymous with seeking inspiration. Our global team of editors and contributors sift through innovations in design, technology, art and culture to create our award-winning publication, consisting of daily updates and weekly mini-documentaries.
Mashable
Mashable is the largest independent news source dedicated to covering digital culture, social media and technology. Mashable’s 20 million monthly unique visitors and 4 million social media followers have become one of the most engaged online news communities.
Wishing you wonderful trend hunting!
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Gijs van Wulfen is a LinkedIn thought leader on innovation. He recently published : "The Innovation Expedition, A Visual Toolkit to Start Innovation". Available at Amazon.comorAmazon.co.uk.
A few months ago, we heard rumors that Google was planning something big in robotics. We also heard that Andy Rubin, the engineer who spearheaded the development of Android at Google, was leading this new robotics effort at the company. Rubin, we were told, is personally interested in robots, and now he wants Google to have a major role in making robotics happen. Not just robotic cars, but actual robots. Today, an article in the New York Times has revealed more about Google's plans: according to the article, the company is funding a major new robotics group, and that includes acquiring a bunch of robotics startups, quite a few of which we're familiar with.
