Werkplekzoeker.nl allows flexible workers an easy way to find an alternative working or conference space like a café, a restaurant or some other public occasion. There are also offices which offer 'an empty desk for (part of) the day'. The idea of the site is 'for and by users': everyone can come up with work space and share their experiences regarding them.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

In the network economy that’s being created, everything is about flexibility. Currently ‘working long-distance’ means reading mil, writing documents and other computer work. In a year or ten we’ll be actively working with our colleagues in the virtual world. They’ll be life-sized and we’ll have creative sessions that completely dwarf the e-mail exchange or chat conversation we have today. While you’re at home, on your vacation, or at a flexible working location. Werkplekzoeker fits neatly into this development. Currently the model seems to be financed by ads, but soon Werkplekzoeker will be paid per reservation. Or for amount.

Related trends

• Network economy

David Nott, a British doctor without any experience with amputations, has saved the life of a boy in Congo thanks to instructions he received in text messages.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The development of the virtual world in combination with cheap devices and solar energy is one of the biggest developments in the world. It’ll ensure that knowledge which is currently only available in the west will be available in even the smallest of villages as needed. This is just a simple example. Currently text messages, soon mobile internet with video. Now in a place where electricity is already found, but soon in all sorts of places where it’s never even been near.

TomTom is launching a free Online Route Planner. With this travelers can plan a route before leading and receive exact traveling and arrival times which take into account current and historical information regarding traffic flow during the day. HD traffic with 500 billion historical speed measurements of roads across the world is integrated too.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands are disconnecting from screens and enter the dialogue through every possible one. That dialogue goes on. Where a conversation ends on one screen, it continues on another. Currently for two screens (nagivational system and computer screen), soon for every screen you can imagine. You just call ‘TomTom’. You’re recognized immediately and the dialogue is continued. This is a nice example of this development.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue

T-Mobile offers business clients discounts and group discounts (Dutch) when they develop a long term relationship: the longer you're a client, the higher your discount. This loyalty discount can go up to 6%

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

It’ll be increasingly more difficult to get new customers in the medialandscape that’s developing. When it used to be the rule that it’s five times as difficult to get a new customer than it is to keep an existing one, this ratio is only going to get worse. Finding new customers is going to get increasingly more difficult. Because of this brands are forced to do their utmost to keep existing customers. With service, but also with price. This is a nice example.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue

Two iPhone application, Trein (Train) and iNap, will start to work together. Using Trein you can see up-to-date time timetables for your stations, you can look up disruptions and construction work and plan train journeys that are remembered. iNap wakes you up (gives you a signal when you reach your final destination). The integration means you only need to tell it your final destination and you'll get a signal when you need to get off or switch trains.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how the travel coaching brand is slowly shaped. Currently as an iPhone application, but soon you’ll plan your journey from every possible screen. And if you need to take a cab ride too, you’ll be helped with that too. Whether the brand is called ‘Trein’, ‘iNap’ or something else, eventually there’ll be a buddy for traveling from A to B across the whole world. A buddy we’ll be happy to pay for. That’s the big development.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

In 2050 the labor force in Africa will have tripled to 1.12 billion. This is evident from the World Migration Report (Dutch).

At EZ My Styling, a Japanese company, consumers can upload a photo and then try out different hair styles.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Ever more brands are starting to personalize their advice. Eventually we’ll have an exact 3D replica of ourselves and we can try all sorts of possible hairstyles, clothes and accessories. We can make our virtual self walk, exactly how we walk, and then ask our friends how it looks. While you’re lying on the couch. This is an example in that direction.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue

There are over 200 million immigrants in the world. That's about 2.5 times as many as in 1965. That's what's been concluded in the World Migration Report (Dutch) released by the International Organisation for Migration.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

We’re taking away more and more hurdles for people to travel across the globe and find a new spot. Security, costs and language barriers. Or the lack of contact with the home front. It’s all becoming increasingly easier, and this trend shows that.

Related trends

• De-nationalizing

Erwin van Lun's Mensmerk.nl and ErwinVanLun.com's category structure has been radically revised. The most important reason for this change was the continual confusion at the term 'personal brands'. I use this term to describe a new type of brand that burrows itself into a specific area, knows all about it, then study the individual consumer and guide them in their area. This was often confused with 'presenting yourself as a brand' under the term 'personal branding'. That's why I made a call to people in the TrendUpdate that led to an interesting discussion. As a result from now on I'll use the term 'coaching brand'. At the same time I've made more changes to make my work as a futurist and trend analyst clearer at a first glance.

Social business brand LinkedIn makes searching for people easier. As soon as you type a letter, the names from your network appear automatically. If you make a typo (for example when you search for 'Edwin van Lun' LinkedIn offers the suggestion: Are you perhaps looking for 'Erwin van Lun', 'Edwin van Loon' or 'Edwin van Lit'?)

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands do everything they can to understand our language. And just like in a human dialogue, half a word is enough for them. People also often don’t hear half of what’s being said, but our brain glue everything together seamlessly. Slowly we’re learning to automate this. Soon well just call to the car ‘Call Vincent, please!’, that’ll be enough. If there’s any doubt about which Vincent the return question ‘Which Vincent?’ will come automatically. This shows nicely that brands are also starting to get to know our personal network better and keep this in mind in their communication.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue
• Tribal

Statistician Peter Grünwald of the Dutch CWI (National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science) has calculated that up to now 107.5 billion people have been born. The current population of 6.7 billion is 6% of all the people who've ever lived.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

If we presume that the maximum will be reached around 2050 and humanity will start to shrink afterwards, would the amount of people stop at 250 billion in a few hundred years?

VisibleBody allows people to travel through the human body in 3D. The demo starts with the skeleton and then allows you to turn layers on and off separately, like the digestive track, the nervous system, organs, lungs or blood vessels.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

There are two developments in this example: a media development and a brand development:

• The media development shows that, in the virtual world that’s being created, we map everything that walks on Earth (in general: exists, drives, moves etc, and also what’s beyond that). Third parties will later be able to add layers to this model (although it’s not yet supported by creator Argosy Medical). For example, photos, documentaries about operations, exceptions or treatment methods. And of course: commercial entities that offer services to the body. Don’t just think of surgeons, but also of masseuses, physiotherapists or beauty specialists.
• At the same time a possible health brand is being created. This type of brand studies health, knows everything about it, what’s for sale in the world, and know everything about it. This is a generic model of a human being, but soon it’ll be exactly our body. And every time a change occurs (for example, we start to stand differently thanks to a visit to the physiotherapist) that’s taken into account. Or a new filling in our teeth. We can see the impact of every change immediately. And our life expectancy. What would happen to our body if we lost ten pounds? That’s the domain of health coaching brands and this could be a start for VisibleBody.

We could put this development directly beside Google Earth (or Visual Earth). So that you can, for example, come into immediate contact with a specialist anywhere in the world if you have an SL distortion. And the EPD can be connected to this effortlessly. Worldwide, immediately. Enough chances for marketers to link up new services. (Now we just have to wait for the APIs )

Related trends

• Brand worlds

Restaurantsite Urbanspoon now has an UrbanSpoon iPhone application which recommends a random restaurant in your immediate area by shaking the iPhone. To make this possible the application uses the GPS and movement sensors that are a standard part of the iPhone. This lets you experience a sense of surprise by a random choice.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

A few developments are hidden in this.
Firstly, brands are going into a dialogue with consumers and use their eyes, ears and antennae to do this. It’s not just about what the consumer clicks, types are presses, but also what’s said, how they look and how they move. It’s all feedback in the conversation and brands are slowly learning to deal with this. It might seem like a gadget now, but soon all brands will do it.

Secondly, there’s another trend hidden in this. Coaching brands, new brands that can find anything across the whole world, can surprise the consumer. But then knowing what the consumer doesn’t want. That’s the next step: that you can exclude what you don’t want. Just like with a master chef: just do something as long as it doesn’t contain blue cheese or coriander. This is also true for music, for media, for vacation destinations, for books.

iNap is an iPhone application that wakes you up when you reach your destination. The application costs $0.99 and is available in the Apple Store.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands will guide us, coach us. Later on we won’t have to pay attention to anything. When we wake up on the train, we’ll be told whether we have to get off at the front or the back of the carriage, which elevator we need to take, and that there’s a cab waiting for us at the door. It’ll eventually go so far that we can give our coat to a robot who’ll store it for us. The navigational system is an effective example of today. These are useful successors. But the real work has yet to come. Fodder for Pamper Planet.

Related trends

• 2050-2100: Pamper planet

CarCade is a concept game you play on your laptop while in a car. A camera filming the environment is mounted on the wing-mirror and the moving image is used in a space-shooter-like game (think of Space Invaders of yore). The game responds to the behavior of the car.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Virtual and physical world mix. Currently complicatedly through a laptop, soon through special glasses or afterwards in our contact lenses.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, better known as MGM, will be the first big movie studio which places 'full-length' movies on YouTube. Currently the movies are older ones and episodes of television series from the past which still have to be converted into a format suitable for YouTube. Viewers can watch these movies for free thanks to advertising.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Currently for free, but soon we’ll gladly pay for movies. Because with paying customers YouTube can finally do what it was created to do: entertaining people. And with all possible content ever created. That’s why YouTube is a home entertainment coaching brand in the making. Currently predominantly on the PC, but in a few years 95% of YouTube’s content will be watched on the big screen in the living room.

Related trends

• Coaching brands