TRENDSACTIVE – International Trend Interpretation Agency

Fairminds Gespreksstof - now available!

Fairminds Gespreksstof – now available!

TrendsActive developed a table runner for Fairminds, a fair trade co-creation platform in the Netherlands. Fairminds asked TrendsActive to create a giveaway for World Fairtrade Day. The table runner, Gespreksstof, is now available at WAAR-shops and Wereldwinkels and has been based on the trend connected society. In our connected society, it is becoming more and more difficult to disconnect and leave our phones off. Whether it is at the office, during the car ride home, in a restaurant with friends or during a holiday, we cannot switch off (an earlier post about this can be found here).

With this in mind, we designed a table runner for Fairminds. Our dinners and conversations are getting more digital and we can use some help to relax, have a nice meal, drink some wine and chat away. Without the constant distraction of our smartphones. The table runner is filled with conversation starters, funny facts and even mini quizzes. Because what suits better with a great wine and a nice dinner then a good conversation?

*Fairminds is a fair trade co-creation platform in the Netherlands. It aims to get young consumers (18-28) to participate in fair trade consumption, to co-create with fair trade producers and to activate others to start consuming fair trade products. TrendsActive has been working with Fairminds for a while. For example, TrendsActive developed their brand identity, name, marketing communication, strategy and online platform and worked on projects such as The Best Rice Dish and the DYO Papercraft.

Tags:
CONNECTED SOCIETY

posted on April 29, 2013

Summly helps filter the abundance

Digitalization has fundamentally changed society. We are connected to everyone and everything and we are constantly ‘on’. Information is available and accessible at any place and time. Even when we don’t want or need it. The availability of information has a lot of benefits, but the amount of content that is launched at us every day through our social networks, news sites and mobile devices can be quite overwhelming. The abundance of content has led to overwhelmed and stressed consumers that have trouble finding relevant content.

Lately, there have been several attempts of filtering information and offering this information to consumers in manageable amounts. One of those initiatives is Summly, an app that simplifies information (and was build by a seventeen year old high schooler). Summly uses a natural algorithm that summarizes news messages in sentences with less than four hundred characters. Since it’s release, the app has been downloaded more than one million times. The app has received an award for Apple’s Best Apps of 2012 and has recently been acquired by Yahoo!.

Even though the growth in availability of information caused by the internet is great, there is a growing need in filtering the abundance. The popularity of Summly and other programs alike, shows that consumers are looking for help in filtering the enormous amount of information and content they receive on a daily basis.

Tags:
CONNECTED SOCIETY

posted on April 25, 2013

Executive program: Interpreting and applying trends

Program starts in October 2013

Executive program: Interpreting and applying trends

Together with the Utrecht School of Governance, TrendsActive has developed an executive program focused on the interpretation and application of trends. The main goal of this program is to show essential developments in different perspectives and to make these developments practical and applicable to your own organization and work.

The executive program ‘Interpreting and Applying Trends’ gives politicians, managers and decisionmakers insight in current social issues and the meaning of these issues in their sector, organisation or department. During the executive program there will be a continuous interaction between academic knowledge transfer and the practical application of this knowledge.

The program teaches participants insight in essential societal developments and trends that will remain important for many years ahead. The participants will also learn how to apply the knowledge on their own field with the help of experienced consultants and moderators. The first edition has been very succesful. Participantssay they ‘can now see through the important changes in society’ and ‘look at economical, social and societal systems and developments with a new and refreshed view’.

After a successful first edition that will end this May, the second program will start in October 2013. If you are interested in following the course or would like to receive more information, please contact us at kees@trendsactive.com. The brochure with more information on the contents of the program can be found by following this link (in Dutch).

posted on March 22, 2013