Futurist Thomas Frey: On December 29th, Verizon announced it would begin charging a $2 “convenience fee” for any customers paying monthly bills with a credit or debit card via the Internet or telephone.
Continue reading… “Power to the People: The Great Consumer Backlash”
Futurist Thomas Frey: The sixth law of the future states, “The “unknowability” of the future is what gives us our drive and motivation.”
The fact that the future is unknowable is a good thing. Our involvement in the game of life is based on our notion that we as individuals can make a difference. If we somehow remove the mystery of what results our actions will have, we also dismantle our individual drives and motivations for moving forward.
Continue reading… “Year in Review: Top 10 Articles on FuturistSpeaker.com”
“High expectations are the key to everything” – – Sam Walton
Futurist Thomas Frey: On a recent shopping trip, I went to three separate stores and had difficulty finding what I was looking for. On each of these occasions I talked with a staff person and they told me about an option that either wasn’t apparent to most customers, or that I hadn’t considered.
Continue reading… “Flooring the customer: Retail 2.0, the rebirth is coming”
A game using augmented reality.
2012 will be a very busy year in all things digital, but there will be just a handful of big, memorable trends. Here are five such movements that are likely to make a big impact in our technologically-enhanced lives.
Futurist Thomas Frey: Understanding trends is more of an art form than an exact science. But for those who can read the tealeaves, and make bold moves, leveraging trends can give them a serious competitive advantage.
Continue reading… “28 Major Trends for 2012 and Beyond – Part 2”
Futurist Thomas Frey: very exciting year ahead. 2012 is a year where many competing trends will collide, and through those collisions we will see new pathways emerge.
Continue reading… “28 Major Trends for 2012 and Beyond – Part 1”
“Artisanal” foods are springing up everywhere.
If you are in the restaurant, foodservice or food manufacturing business you know that no matter how tough the economy is, people still need to eat. In the past few years foodservice entrepreneurs have shown a lot of creativity. You could almost say the recession has sparked a renaissance of restaurant industry creativity. Beyond food trucks, burgers and beer, here are some of the hot food trends for 2012.
35 percent of meals eaten by millennials are really snacks.
If you are a “millennial” (born somewhere between 1980 and 2000), when is the last time that you sat down to eat three square meals a day? Chances are you haven’t sat down for even two or one square meal a day.
Continue reading… “Food trends of the millennial generation”
Futurist Thomas Frey: If you listen closely you can almost hear the armaments of battle being rolled into place. The stage is set with warring parties getting organized and the frontlines prepared. 2012 is destined to become the most turbulent year on record, a battleground of epic proportions.
Futurist Thomas Frey: Today, our best and brightest are drawn to elite colleges like Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, and Yale. As they attend these institutions they are surrounded by some of the most talented people in the world.
Futurist Thomas Frey: Would you buy a product that was advertised as “Naturally grown, completely organic, printed food?”
Twitter tracks your emotions.
A large-scale study of posts on Twitter has found that no matter how grumpy people are when they wake up, and whether they stumble to their feet in Madrid, Mexico City or Minnetonka, Minn., they tend to brighten by breakfast time and feel their moods taper gradually to a low in the late afternoon, before rallying again near bedtime.