In our hyper-connected culture of touch screens, smart phones and ironic fashion, the act of trend-spotting has become a science unlike any other.

Trends pulse through many veins of society, from technology and fashion to financial and dietary—trends inform and perpetuate the taste of the masses.  Having the ability to forecast a trend just before it becomes fashionably popular in a given market can mean big successes for an individual idea or even a whole industry.

Why Waste Time on Trendy?
While it may seem like a clichéd act harkening back to high school years spent trying to be the first kid to wear Nike Air Jordans’ or use ICQ messenger, genuine trend spotting is a valuable tool.   The fact is, trends are more than just accidental explosions of popularity; they are reasonably calculable offshoots of human desire. Once you are able to track and foresee trends, there is no limit to the ideas and avenues of profitable innovation that you can seize.

For instance, when the desire for affordable, fast dining outside the home first appeared in the late 1940’s, a few trend-spotters were quick to respond.  Spawning burger and fried chicken stops across America, the fast food nation trend as we know it was conceived, and those originally inspired trend-setters are still pumping out McProfits today.

How Can Trend Spotters Help You?
It boils down to the pattern whereby tracking trends generates inspiration and insight into consumer culture.  And, if you are able to harvest trends before they become mainstreamed and mass produced, not only will you find yourself ahead of the curve, indeed, you can be the innovator of the next successful IPad, American Appareal, Facebook or something even better.

TrendCity
It is in this haze of trends that the TrendCity project becomes obviously necessary.  Ultimately, TrendCity will become the go-to website for groundbreaking trends pertinent to Canadians.  Our website will act as a hub of inspiration for thought leaders and trendsetters in Canada.

By bringing together leading trendsetters we can create the ultimate online community of Canadians to share their insights on the current trends in their area of expertise.  TrendCity members will be able to maximize their networking potentials and feed off the inspiration of other like-minded “Trendies”, while benefiting from exclusive access to groundbreaking trend reports and guest lectures.

TrendCity is currently a work in progress, but we are actively seeking to grow a team of talented Trendies to populate our community.

If you are always ahead of the curve and constantly forecasting future trends (whether it’s science, the arts, design, business, film, technology, education, etc.), send an email to: andi@agentwildfire.com and brag about your trend-talents.

Great talk by June Cohen from TED on its evolvement from conference to platform to spreading ideas. Here are some of my key LOK takeaways:

- when content was distributed free - ticket prices for events went up 50%

- 700 talks watched 250 million times

- magic in the videography - start strong, multiple cameras

- distribution - 50% of content shared on TED.com, 14% on Youtube, 21% on podcasts

- evoke contagious emotions - elevation/awe/lifted above yourself, touched emotionally - brought to tears of laughter, learned something new “aha moments”

- Hans Rosling makes statistic entertaining and sexy - much like our Measurement is Sexy event

- sponsor of high quality, targeted audience is usually a key direction

- keep it small and nimble 5 to 50 people - growth in staff

- trust wisdom of crowds - 4,000 volunteer translators in 77 languages (Bulgaria is a small but addicted TED audience) - radical openness can work

- Interactive transcripts

- entrepreneurial, local TEDx events - 1,000 events in 70 countries

- TEDx Volcano - awesome improvisation and being where the relevance is

Here’s my keynote presentation from Infopresse I gave last month “Social Media and the Food Industry” .

The toplines:

- 16 insights

- 6 reasons why your company should lead this effort

- 9 Essentials to get this world right

- 20 great food examples

Let me know your thoughts and and other great industry examples or insight.

An invite and referral-only gathering of style-conscious tastemakers, innovation brokers, culture-savvy trendspotters & seriously connected ringleaders who live, work, play & think ahead of the mainstream.

the big idea:
The future is already here, it’s just not widely distributed yet. Less than 4% of the population are true trailblazers of culture - the people that develop incredibly creative or innovative stuff or the people that spot the best stuff first. They are incredible allies for brands trying to build crowdsourced content and creative, sparks for innovation research and seed ambassadors for new launches. TrendCity is the first Canadian-focused network of thousands of these early-adopting people.

elements:
Email newsletter and Insight Blog - exposure among leading Canadian people, places and things
“Wall of Orange” Trendspotter Network - a database of informed early market movers
“Wall of Purple” Tastemaker Network - a hothouse of creative talent and ideasparks
Trend Reports - periodic and customized reports on marketplace and cultural trends
TrendCity Beta Testers - feedback from informed market tastemakers
TrendCity Launching Pad - twice-yearly live event platform for launching products
TrendCity Consulting - workshops and private events on creative ideas and insight on what’s next

benefits:
- superior concept research
- advance testing group
- seeded tastemaker and trendspotter exposure
- innovation stimulus
- seeded and credible ambassadors
- marketplace insight

scope:
- Geography - Canada - Major Cities
- Timing - All year - April and September events, November professional event
- Scale - 5,000 qualified trendspotters/tastemakers

the right partners:
- New launches
- Buzz industries –i.e. entertainment/fashion
- Tech, gadgets, hardware and wireless
- Innovation and insight chasers
- Premium brands and exclusive products
- User-generated content seekers
- Non-traditional exploratory techniques

contact:
Agent Wildfire - Canada’s Word of Mouth Experts www.agentwildfire.com 416-255-4500

the big idea:
The web is filled with “dreck”, wouldn’t you want to find the best of the web all in one place, customized to your interest. And wouldn’t you want you brand sitting in or next to that content too. Although global sites exist, there is yet to be an aggregated best of the web for Canadians, that’s The Influencers in the Know. Tune into our curated web, find out what the influencers are reading and discover special announcements. Content also linked to TheInfluencers.ca

the benefits:
- Cutting edge web exposure/sponsorship for innovative brands
- Target selective influencer audiences
- Promote relevant events
- Conduct blogger outreach
- Provide sponsored, seeded content
- Recruit influencer network
- Optimize search engine rankings

scope:
- Geography - National
- Timing - Fourth quarter 2010
- Scale - 1000s of influencers exposed

the right clients:
- an early adopter, passion-driven audience
- a new launch or campaign
- an upcoming event
- a breakthrough product/product feature
- a content rich, taste-appealing web destination

url:
www.theinfluencersintheknow.com

contact:
Agent Wildfire - Canada’s Word of Mouth Experts www.agentwildfire.com 416-255-4500