Navigating the Business of the Future: 15 Things You Need to Know to Thrive in the Future

The world is ever changing. In the coming decades, businesses worldwide will need to adapt to changes in demographics, consumer values & behavior, and technology. The key to effectively dealing with these shifts is identifying and understanding driving forces behind change and adjusting business plans to match the emerging future. It is imperative for organizations to think about the future in order to stay profitable... and in business!

Join us for a 90-minute audio conference as Futurists Chris Carbone and Christopher Kent share their years of research and analytical experience working for Fortune 100 companies, as they discuss 15 critical driving forces of the future. Topics to be addressed include: Aging, Family, Asia, Immigration, Culture, Time, Monetization, Ethics, Transparency, Personalization, Networking, Health, Creativity, Women, and Simplicity. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain why organizations need to think about the future, and how this can be done successfully.
• Identify the 15 trends that will influence consumer behavior and affect businesses worldwide over the next decade.
• Provide examples of what is driving these trends, how they are playing out around the globe, and where they're going.
• Explore the implications of these trends for business.

Presented By:

Christopher Kent
Futurist
Social Technologies

Christopher Kent is a writer/analyst with more than ten years' experience tracking emerging public policy and social policy issues, primarily with Stratfor (Strategic Forecasting), a leading geopolitical-intelligence service. At Stratfor he identified and charted the development of issues pertaining to the environment, energy deregulation, agriculture, forestry, and food safety.

As a futurist with Social Technologies, Christopher contributes regularly both to the firm's flagship multiclient projects, Global Lifestyles and Technology Foresight, and to custom consulting projects. His domain expertise spans topics such as consumer and industry trends in the energy sector, the future of China, consumer lifestyles in Europe, and the impacts of microcredit in World 3. He also oversees Social Technologies' internship program.

Christopher has an MA in the history of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance from the University of Toronto, and an undergraduate degree in history and English from Marquette University.

Chris Carbone
Futurist and Director of Research
Social Technologies

Chris Carbone oversees Social Technologies' Futures Consortium initiatives. He has worked in futures research and consulting since 1996, serving a variety of corporate and government clients. He has contributed his talents to a diverse set of multiclient and custom futures research and consulting projects, and has researched and authored dozens of reports and scenarios. Areas of inquiry in the past few years include future technologies, opportunities in the automotive industry, and the future of global consumer lifestyles.

Before joining Social Technologies, Chris worked for the futures firm Coates & Jarratt as a researcher and analyst.

Chris has an MBA from Johns Hopkins University with a concentration in marketing, and received his undergraduate degree in history from Gettysburg College.