LinkedIn, a business social network, advises people with events. By now LinkedIn 'reads' over 8000 events worldwide. You can select events based on industry, data and (traveling) distance. You can see who organizes the event, who's speaking and leave comments. Speakers get to see the event on their profile too. You can also see which colleagues and contacts are going. That might be the most important.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

People are herd animals; they do what others do. And they let themselves be led especially by their immediate environment. That’s true for both less-educated and well-educated people. That’s just how we work. Here, LinkedIn uses this principle flawlessly. Slowly, LinkedIn seems to be turning into a real career coaching brand: a brand that coaches you with your personal development. News, books, events, LinkedIn has it all. Soon LinkedIn will start to help students with their career start. Then high school students with their follow-up choices. Currently in only a few languages, but soon exactly in the language you need, that helps you best. This is a step in that direction.

Related trends

• Coaching brands
• Tribal

The HTC T829 is the first cell phone in the world that has WiMax, wireless technology which makes it possible to reach data speeds of (in theory) 70 Mbps (Megabit per second) with your cell phone. In comparison: HSDPA reaches a maximum of 14 Mbps, but most European broadband connections don't get further than 3.6 or 7.2 Mbps.

With this new phone VOIP calling is the most normal thing in the world:

The HTC MAX 4G supports GSM calls using a SIM card from any Russian network operator and when both callers are Yota subscribers, the call will automatically be routed as a VoIP call over the Yota Mobile WiMAX network.

Yota is the VOIP supplier.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Calling someone is slowly becoming a part of traffic. Instead of calling beside the internet, speech is becoming a natural part of the virtual world. In time we’ll be able to use speech in the virtual world to call our friends, priced as if they’re only a kilometer away. That’ll soon be the most normal thing in the world. Even for the regular Joe.

The business model for telecom operators will be revamped completely though: the data line will become the basis, rather than calling or texting. They can earn extra money by giving you access to third party services (read: regular websites) that ask an access fee per minute, like webcam sites already do. You might pay 10 cents per minute and the operators take 1 cent. Still 1 cent. Still a model.

Wikitude gives you real time information about the display of your cell phone when you're pointing it at something. This is possible because the GPS knows where you are. Anyone who spots an interesting castle, for example, will be shown when it was built.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The media-evolution is becoming more and more clear. We can ask questions with everything we see. Just to whom? The traveling guide may be able to tell you everything about the history of your environment, but a brand that knows everything about nature might know exactly what you can eat and what you can’t, or which animals live there and are threatened with extinction. And yet other types of brands can tell you what you’d like to do around there. No one brand knows everything about you, know your interests in every area like the back of your hand. This is how multiple brands are created, multiple coaching brands, brands we can ask questions. This is a very clear step in that direction.

Related trends

• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

Fuji FinePix Real 3D technology makes it possible to create 3D images directly on the camera. They can be watched without the use of special glasses. To do this the camera has two lenses which are combined into one. You can also still make 2D photographs. With the two lenses the quality of the 2D photo can be enhanced or an extremely panoramic picture can be taken. Cameras using the technology will be for sale in 2009.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

People think in 3D, think in images, think in the special placement of objects in regard to one another. Like we order nature around us. We’re getting technology that plays on this more and more often. We were used to making a 2D picture and printing it 2D. Now we’re making a 3D picture and can print it in 3D at home (such a printer only costs 5000 euros by now). In the long term, we’ll create 3d video and we let be played by programmable matter. Then we can replay everything completely. The way it was. The nostalgic human in tiptop shape.

Related trends

• More 3D
• More nostalgia

Using the radio, the tv and the internet we're trying to gain experiences in a place on earth which doesn't match its physical environment: it's an experience made possible by an artificial addition. In a way electricity, the light bulb, is an example of this already. It allowed us to do things which we physically wouldn't be able to do at that time, like looking at one another. Only the moon made that possible. And before that it held for candle light and fire in general. In principle light moves us in time (day/night) and all developments in the media/virtual world move us in space. Although it's possible to travel over larger periods of time. It's not quite clear yet; it's still just a twist.

My Health Coach for Nintendo DS combines a virtual, personal fitness trainer and a professional nutritionist. Your movements are measured by a pedometer. You connect it to your Nintendo DS and keep track of your daily movements. You create your own profile based on age, weight, length, body movement, etc. Based on your BMI and lifestyle a personal program is put together for you.
Then you fill in your own goal which ten training sessions help you reach. Based on this data the program also supplies tips for a balanced diet.
To read your goal, you only need to play 10-15 minutes a day and to keep the game fun you can set yourself challenges. For example: 'don't use elevators or escalators all day long' or 'sit in the Lotus-position for 15 minutes' or 'eat two bowls of vegetable soup', etc. The result of the exercises and eating habits are converted to graphs. This allows you to see whether your lifestyle has really changed after a few weeks or months.
My Health Coach has a one time fee of €39,99.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Now all we need to do is connect and synchronise everything. Soon you’ll hear directly in your ear piece which movements are good for you right at that moment. Get up! Health brands are with you all day long, and, dosed, know exactly the right way to coach you.

LinkedIn, a business social network, is integrating people's reading lists. For each book you can indicate 'I want to read it', 'I'm reading it now' and 'I want to read it'. You can also indicate whether you're using the Kindle, Amazon's e-paper device.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

In a next step you’ll connect your Amazon account to the LinkedIn account. Then the books you’ve purchased will appear automatically. When you indicate that you’ve read it, Amazon will ask for your review, which will then appear on Amazon.com and, more importantly, will be shown prominently to your business partners. This allows LinkedIn to help you more with books that help develop your career. This is a step in that direction.

Using M&M Custom Print you can now make your own M&M's. You can choose from 22 colours, add text and even print photos.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

We’re leaving the standard product ever further behind. Now that the media allows brands to listen to the customer again (like they did before the mass production era) the marketing P of Product will also be personal again. This is an example of this.

The 62,500 readers of the Dutch digital magazine Goede Tijden have a chance of hearing their own ringtone composition in Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden. Readers are given all creative freedom: they can compose, sing, rap or mix. All submitted ringtones are immediately shown in the GTST mobile shop. A top 10 will be compiled from the most popular ringtones and a professional jury will eventually choose the winning ringtone. The ringtone itself will then be heard in the popular Dutch soap series Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Television series are like games with real actors in them. Who looks at it like this just sees a co-creation production. Soon we’ll be able to design are own worlds, houses, furniture, cars while the actors walk around in them. And if they open a chest of drawers it’ll turn out that we’re in there. Or a new game will start. It’s all running through one another. Ever more fun. Ever more creative.

Related trends

• Experiences

Go-Tan, manufacturer of Eastern food products, has supplied the bottles of Wok Essentials found in supermarkets with a hanger with a QR (Quick Response) code. With a cell phone the QR code (a 2d barcode) can be scanned. Then your cell will display a webpage with a recipe and the matching shopping list. Go-Tan claims to be the first to use QR codes like this in Dutch supermarkets.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Products are losing their anonymity. In times past the baker knew exactly what bread he sold you. After that we had a period in which producer (the brand), consumer and the individual product knew an anonymous existence. Now we’re seeing the return of the dialogue with the product as focus of the conversation. Go-Tan is given a wealth of information just from measuring the moment the question is asked. In a next step a mobile application will start that explains us how to make the recipe in images and sounds. And then we can ask another question (‘can I use brown sugar instead of regular sugar?’) and we’ll be given an answer immediately. This is a step in that direction.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue

MyHeritage, of of the world's most popular genealogy websites, is now available in nine additional languages. The new languages are Danish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Lithuanian, Malaysian, Arabic and Persian. MyHeritage is helping over 26 million people in the world to stay in touch with one another and helps families research their history in a fun and easy way.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The biggest brands of the coming century operate world-wide per definition, but speak exactly the language of the consumer. Currently as just the national language, but later as exactly the language that each individual customer uses. So that they feel most understood. Using the local language is a good start for this.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue

The popular MMORPG World of Warcraft now counts 13 million players. It debut was in the US in 2004. World of Warcraft was recently launched in Russia and Latin America, and is currently available in eight languages. In addition to North America and Europe, the game is played in mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Chile, Argentina, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

13 million. Soon we’ll get games we’ve walked around in with 1 billion and in the long term even 5 billion people. But what’s a game when reality and virtuality mix completely?

PSA Holland, the association of professional speakers in the Netherlands and Belgium, shows a testimonial of each speaker with the reason why the author thinks other speakers should be a member of the union. Each member has a special field for this on their account page. The home page and each deeper page show an example of the testimonials entered there. Giving a commitment to a brand in such a way and broadcasting it like this is something I've never seen before. An example every brand should follow.

Each member chooses their own style. For example, Chris van Vleuten says:

Speaking is a trade skill and a trade can be taught. To learn you need teachers and good examples. Both of these can be found in the PSA Holland. The most important thing to be found in the PSA Holland as trade union: inspiration and involvement!

Chris takes an energetic angle; other speakers may choose a different one.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

All brands, whether you’re called Google, Wehkamp, Xbox, Mexx, Albert Heijn, MarketingFacts or Postbank, can implement this tomorrow and expand step-by-step. Each brand that has a log-in function already has a basis. As soon as you know a little more about the customer you can make testimonials more specific immediately: ‘people from your home town, your gender (call it something else, of course), of your age say x about our brand’. And if you’re really smart: friends say. The Facebook application Beacon gave the first push in that direction (see here).

Controlling this will be the big challenge for large brands. What will people say about my brand? Does it fit our position? I won’t describe it here in detail, but the time of this thinking is slowly but steadily ending. Nevertheless we’re still dealing with the old thinking which is still deeply rooted in companies, governments and NGOs. By the by it’ll get even more exciting when you can react to testimonials. Or when people change their opinions after many years of fidelity. Perhaps you’ll need to make a change log for testimonials. And if you link that up with your CRM database, the party’s complete. Openness, openness, openness, that’s what it’s about in brands new style. Enough to do in this fun time.
I’m curious who’s next.

Related trends

• Brand coming out

Using Mcast.fm (Dutch) you can listen to internet audio in the train, car or on your bicycle through your regular (mobile) phone. This allows you to listen to programs that interest you. For example to background information for the financial crisis, technology or the environment in the world. By calling +31 (0)30 711 5670 or +32 (0)808 0159 the user is dropped right into the news. By pressing 6 the item can be skipped and the next one will start. You can go back 30 seconds with 1, pause with 2 and go back to the beginning with 4.

Anyone who registers on the site will immediately receive a text message with the request to save the number on the cell phone. Then you can make a playlist based on your area of interest (so not on loose items) on the website. Downloading and synchronizing podcasts or audio files is, as such, unneeded.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how news coaching brands are slowly brought to live. Soon we’ll make a car phone call to ‘Momi’. Momi appears and greets us, we ask ‘is there any news?’ and Momi begins. Based on our reaction (whether we say ‘d’oh’ or ‘continue’ or ‘tell me more’) we get the news on our profile, but above all our profile will become ever sharper. This is how Momi can become our new buddy: the brand that keeps us up-to-date. And if Momi also has a nice image to go with it, we can say ‘save that for when I get home’ where the dialogue will happily continue through, for example, the television. This is a clear step in that direction.

American Express, a credit card company, is becoming a regular bank. The company has received permission to do this. This allows the company easier access to new funding.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

You lend money to people you trust. You trust people you know. You know people when you’ve experienced something together with them. When you’ve been together for a prolonged period. The idea of a credit card, loaning based on no relationship at all, is based on nothing. The new financial system that’ll come will be based completely on trust. People are only allowed to spend money if they have it. People are only allowed to borrow when there’s a guarantee or trust. And a bank might not always know you well, but the bank can have relationships with people who have trust in you. Banks will start to use such relationships. Banks will start to facilitate networks in which mutual trust is shown. And that trust will be the basis for lending someone money.

That spells the end of credit cards and credit card companies. This development is shown here.

President-Elect Barack Obama of the US launched a new website last Thursday. On change.gov visitors can make suggestions for the new American government. "The story of the campaign and this historic moment has been your story," the website says. "Tell us your story and the issues that matter most to you. Share with us your concerns and hopes. – the policies you want to see carried out in the next four years." Users can also use the website to send in an open application for a job with the American government. There's a blog, an upcoming event (Obama's inauguration on January 20th) and the agenda is explained. Further more people can leave their email address and zip code for a newsletter.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This shows how the world is changing fundamentally. A beautiful example of how organizations, whether they’re NGOs, governments or commercial brands are becoming more open. In this case Obama also takes a next step: he really wants people’s input. How he’s going to organize all that input time will tell. Perhaps he’ll moderate the ideas (without removing what he chooses), group them and send concrete questions to the people together with volunteers or paid help. This way, in the long term, he can use the site to gauge people’s opinions. And if he does something with them (he’ll have to), you can take this ‘gauging’ as ‘voting’.

And if Obama takes it another step further he can call for people to do something. Not just listen to what he’s supposed to do (he just makes decisions anyway), but facilitate what others will do. That means a change in democracy.

Well done, Obama! My compliments.

Related trends

• Brand coming out