The Rise of Africa
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] This is the 10th in a series of 14 posts expanding on Salzman’s forecasts for 2013 in her annual trends report, a program of global communications group Havas Worldwide. This year’s book, What’s Next? What to Expect in 2013, was published on 12/12/12 and is available at 120MBooks.com. Salzman [...]
The Future of Education: Constant Schooling
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] This is the seventh in a series of 14 posts expanding on Salzman’s forecasts for 2013 in her annual trends report, a program of global communications group Havas Worldwide. This year’s book, What’s Next? What to Expect in 2013, was published on 12/12/12 and is available at 120MBooks.com. Salzman [...]
What’s Next for an Imperfect World?
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] This is the fifth in a series of 14 posts expanding on Salzman’s forecasts for 2013 in her annual trends report, a program of global communications group Havas Worldwide. This year’s book, What’s Next? What to Expect in 2013, was published on 12/12/12 and is available at 120MBooks.com. Salzman [...]
Trendspotting: Debt Sealing
Personal finance will be an “incredibly important” factor for more than half the U.S. (six in 10) during November’s presidential elections. Perhaps that’s because Americans will need the help getting them out of hot water, as consumer borrowing skyrocketed in March—up by $21.4 billion—thanks to auto financing and those locking in low interest rates on [...]
Trendspotting: The Age of Aging
By 2050, 2 billion of us (about 22 percent) will be aged 60 or older—a figure that will have doubled since 2000. In anticipation of our rapidly changing demographics, leaders and physicians worldwide are encouraging an age-friendly age in which seniors are better valued for their contributions, fiscally and otherwise. Of top importance: keeping seniors [...]
Trendspotting: Place in the Sun
Thanks to a flood of cheap solar modules from Chinese manufacturers and the willingness of American installation companies to lease panels to customers in exchange for access to tax breaks or renewable energy credits, the number of Americans jumping on the clean energy bandwagon has more than doubled over the past two years. But not [...]
Trendspotting: Necessary Baggage
In spite of the global financial beat-down, experts have given the tourism industry a sunny forecast, predicting that over the next five years travelers will look to scale back costs without sacrificing the vacations of their dreams. At least one destination is suffering, however: The Olympic torch handover ceremony in May drew some tourists to [...]
Trendspotting: Car Talk
Over the next two years, some 200 new or updated car models will hit the road, but many of them got their first turn in the spotlight during the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition last month. Scheduled to introduce 15 new vehicles into the Chinese market by 2015, Ford debuted several models, including three SUVs intended [...]
Trendspotting: Epic Proportions
Last month marked 100 years since the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the middle of a moonless night. The anniversary kicked off something of a revival: Historians and engineers are analyzing anew what caused the ship’s demise; still others are marveling at the survival stories. And, of course, the much-hyped 3-D [...]
Trendspotting: Hunky Hires
It’s no secret that a pretty face can give job seekers a leg up during the hiring process, but new studies suggest that attractive men have the greatest advantage of all. Possibly that’s because HR departments are staffed predominantly by women, who want to filter out potential competition, but even when it’s men making the [...]
Trendspotting: The Great Vaccine Debate
Measles wreaked havoc in Europe this year with 26,000 cases and nine deaths. A public health official there says she blames the epidemic on ever-lower vaccination rates as more parents grow skeptical about the rumored side effects of some immunizations. Last year in California, 10 infants died in a pertussis outbreak (only one of the [...]
Trendspotting: Home Office
Fewer employees make it out of their pajamas and into an office these days, as the telecommuting trend resonates with many wanting to strike a balance between life and work. Not including the self-employed, 2 percent of Americans now consider home their primary place of work. The trend hasn’t caught on everywhere though; in the [...]
The Future Faces of Hate
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] Since 9/11 (and long before, actually), the world and our nation have been obsessed with a collective hatred of individuals who threaten our ways of life and promote hatred of it. But now that bin Laden, Hussein and Gadhafi are dead, who will be the object of our obscenity-laced [...]
Rumors Gone Wild
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] Behold the velocity of change, where technology has enabled a Mach 11 approach to spreading and receiving information. And as an outcome of all this now-or-now business, the rumor mill is not only buzzing but also shouting down the lane. It’s not at all unlike the virus portrayed in [...]
Gabby Giffords and the Resilience of the Brain
Like the rest of the world, I watched with horror as events unfolded in Tucson, resulting in the death of six people and critically injuring Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. As talk swirled of right-wing conspiracies and out-of-control anger, people of all backgrounds prayed for Giffords and wondered how she could possibly survive after a bullet had [...]
Booting Up
This is the fifth in a series of 12 posts expounding on the 2011 forecasts in the annual trends report from Salzman, president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR and an internationally respected trendspotter. Watch out in 2011 for the return of skin-thickening boot camps to toughen up kids and employees for the rigors of the [...]
Net Gain
This is the third in a series of 12 posts expounding on the 2011 forecasts in the annual trends report from Salzman, president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR and an internationally respected trendspotter. There’s a loss-of-faith crisis, and it’s as movement-ready as the one that led Jerry Rubin to pen the Yippie manifesto in 1968. [...]
Generation Real-Time
Originally posted on the Huffington Post. A few years ago I was publicly fretting over the arrival of millennials—young people in the generation after X—in the workplace. I described how these new adults would bring with them a sense of entitlement, a need for constant praise, a habit of multitasking to the point of distraction [...]
How Young People Are Changing the World
Originally posted on the Huffington Post. The opinions of young adults—which today have solidified into values—are not to be ignored. Not only are people in their 20s powerful voices within their communities, but they’re also consumers. These first adults of the millennial generation (roughly, the people born between 1981 and 2000) are bellwethers for a [...]
Looking (Back) into the Future
In my last post I shared The Futurist magazine’s top trend forecasts for 2010 and beyond. Admittedly, some of it seems a little out-there, from brain-to-brain telepathy to extraterrestrial life. But one person’s science fiction is another person’s getting to the future first. The Futurist has a compelling track record—its editors have been compiling the [...]
Copenhagen: A Missed Opportunity for the Planet
Copenhagen was a failure. Despite going into it with fairly measured expectations, the agreement, or lack of it, is a massive disappointment and a costly missed opportunity for the planet. What we needed from the Copenhagen summit was a global, binding and fair climate agreement, and we came out of it with none of those [...]
Dusting Off My Crystal Ball
It’s trend season again, and I’ve been working on compiling my top trends for 2010. In doing that, I looked back at my predictions from five, 10 and 15 years ago, and I’ve been struck by all I saw coming (if I do say so myself). Stay tuned for what to expect in 2010. In [...]
