Every year, the entire WEB teams attends the annual World Future Society conference, and lucky for us, this year it’s in Vancouver.

On Saturday, July 9th, Jared and I (Erica) will be presenting on “Cultural Shifts Among Global Youths: Part II” — last year we highlighted everything from the growing importance of social networking sites and virtual reality to shifting communications styles and feedback mechanisms to important demographic trends such as skewed sex ratios, an aging population and changing household formation.  This year, we’ll be leading another robust discussion on an entirely new set of trends that are currently impacting the future of our youth.  We’ll be shedding light on the social, demographic and technological shifts occurring in both today’s global youth and future generations.

Also on Saturday, Arnold and Edie will be presenting on “The Six Hottest Technologies Shaping the Future: And What They Will Do For You and Your Organization.”  They will talk through the six greatest technological developments that will lead the way to an even newer world, and how they will affect your life, both personally and professionally.  What are the implications of these disruptive transforming technologies, and how will they shape the future?

Between the holidays, the New Year, eating way too much and traveling way too much…we are back and ready to start 2011 off with a bang!

Today, Jared is speaking to to the ultrasound division of GE at a conference in Phoenix, and Edie is speaking to Walmart in Arkansas.  A great way to start the year.  We’ll continue to keep you posted on new programs, talks, online content, etc.

Happy 2011!

Check out the press release below which announces our exciting new partnership with GfK Roper Consulting:

GfK Custom Research North America announced today a strategic partnership between its trend consultancy division, GfK Roper Consulting, and futurist firm, Weiner, Edrich, Brown, Inc. (WEB).

This partnership will bring together consumer trends insights that GfK Roper Consulting provides to its clients through its various services, including flagship programs Roper Reports® US and Roper Reports® Worldwide with insights from WEB.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with WEB to further provide our clients with the tools that they need to understand, manage and profit from change,” says Holly Heline Jarrell, group managing director of GfK Roper Consulting. “By combining forces with WEB, we are providing a new level of insight on the future that marry our rich consumer perspective with key social, political and economic trends impacting business. We believe this powerful combination will enable our clients to anticipate and understand the future in an unparalleled way.” Edie Weiner, president of WEB, further comments, “We are delighted to be able to partner with GfK Roper Consulting and thus bring together two premier organizations to provide our clients with a greater understanding of what is happening in the world today and what will be happening in the world in the future.”

The first collaborative effort from this strategic partnership will focus on the current global economic climate and the opportunities that it presents, and is planned to launch in mid-November.

About GfK Roper Consulting
A division of GfK Custom Research North America, GfK Roper Consulting is comprised of GfK’s syndicated consumer trend services — GfK Roper Reports® US, GfK Roper Reports® Worldwide, GfK Roper Green Gauge and the GfK Roper Youth Report — which monitor consumer values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors in the US and more than 25 other countries. GfK Roper Consulting’s mission is to help clients turn insights into inspiration and foresight into advantage worldwide.

About GfK Custom Research North America
Headquartered in New York, GfK Custom Research North America is part of the GfK Group. The GfK Group offers the fundamental knowledge that industry, retailers, services companies and the media need to make market decisions. It delivers a comprehensive range of information and consultancy services in three business sectors— Custom Research, Retail and Technology and Media. The no. 4 market research organization worldwide operates in more than 100 countries and employs over 10,000 staff. In 2009, the GfK Group’s sales amounted to EUR 1.16 billion. For more information visit www.gfkamerica.com. Follow us at www.gfkinsights4u.com or on Twitter @gfkamerica.

This morning, Jared spoke in Atlanta at the annual NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores) conference.  He  spoke about psychographic shifts among consumers for an audience that is generally comprised of convenience/petroleum retailers and retail product suppliers.

Here are some highlights from his talk:

On the surface, the current recession might seem similar to past recessionary cycles, but the true impact this time around is striking. Unlike past cycles where the pendulum returns to the middle, there has been a reset that has resulted in a true transformation. By better understanding the ethnography, lifestyle, life stage and macro changes to consumer behavior, you will be better able to meet the new needs of your transforming customers.

He also touched on the 8 growth areas of the emerging Metaspace economy; the shifting pricing strategies brought on by consumer psychographics, and trends relating to transportation, social media and youth.

Locally and globally, we continue to see that the nature of jobs is profoundly changing, and what we do in order to earn our incomes, and how we do it, will never be the same.  Importantly, none of this will ever again conform to what were the norms or rules or expectations across companies or through the years.

Today, I (Erica) had the pleasure of participating in DeVry University’s first In-Demand Careers Conference. This timely event examined where information security, healthcare management and accounting is moving in the future.  I spoke to the audience about the galloping pace of change, and how a slew of new technologies are ushering people out of their jobs, and changing the way we work and live. While many people view the current economic climate as a recession, we view this as a period of transformation.  We are moving from the world as we have always known it to a radically new one – and with it comes an urgent need for new ways of doing business, structuring organizations, and living our lives.

At the event, I spoke about how careers will never be the same as they used to be, and will look very different in the years to come. The idea that there are definitive beginning, middle and end stages to an individual’s life is also shifting.  People are now more likely to quit work and go back to school or retire and then take up a new career than ever before; life is less and less likely to follow a linear path.  There are also no career paths any more in one place or one industry, and there is no longer any guarantee that the job will even be there as long as a year later.

It will become increasingly important for universities, such as DeVry, to teach a new generation about data security and risk, and help students identify and address the real-world challenges of IT security in new and innovative ways.

It’s that time of the year again…when the summer heat hits, you know the World Future Society conference is approaching.  This morning, Edie, Arnold, Erica and Jared packed up the car and headed to Boston for the 3-day conference.

More than 1,000 futurists from around the world will gather to address what tools and strategies we’ll need to envision—and build—desirable futures that are truly sustainable.

On Friday evening, Edie and Arnold will be presenting on the “Unemployment Conundrum“:

The current global economic transformation involves worrisome concerns about both short- and long-term employment, unemployment, and underemployment. It is an enormously complex subject. Issues range from stubbornly persistent unemployment in many developed countries to labor shortages in others to lack of training and education for a new economic reality tolack of economic development to profound transformations in how and where work is done. It has become apparent that traditional economic thinking and policies are increasingly ineffective. There is an urgent need for new thinking in order to make economies everywhere in the world more sustainable and provide rewarding work for a still growing population.This session will provide an overview of the global employment/unemployment situation. It will also present suggestions for new ways of seeing it. The presenters have worked on and spoken on these subjects for decades.

On Saturday morning, Erica and Jared will be presenting on “Cultural Shifts Among Global Youths“:

We are currently in a period of transformation. Our current systems, our current ways of living, our societal norms and our social groups are all being redefined.  This time of profound change is creating a host of cultural shifts among our global youth, and is causing ripples which can be felt in the workplace, in our homes, in our institutions and in our own lives.  A new generation of young people, combined with advancing technologies, will profoundly alter the landscape of the workforce and emerge with different skills, jobs, careers and ways of organizing work and life. New subcultures of technologically-adept young people have not only evolved across the globe, but also represent a new, robust and powerful market.  Witness, for instance, the impact immersive online communities and virtual worlds have had on the developed, and to some extent the developing, world.  This panel will explore and help shed light on the social, demographic and technological shifts occurring in both today’s global youth, and future generations.

We are looking forward to another good conference!

The number one economic, political and even social issue today – everywhere in the world – is jobs.  As the various parts of the global community come out in different degrees from the recent severe recession, the recovery in too many places is not accompanied by hoped for declines in unemployment and underemployment.

Why is that?  And why are so many “experts” confused about it?  Because, friends, it’s not just a recession; it’s also a TRANSFORMATION, one that is having a profound global impact on what jobs there will be in the future and who will fill them.

Edie Weiner and Arnold Brown will make a special featured presentation on this momentous issue at the World Future Society conference in Boston this summer (July 8 – 10).  They will illuminate the trends and developments that have created the current crisis.  And they will look ahead at what will happen over the coming years – and what could happen, depending on decisions that both governments and individuals make.

This morning, Edie Weiner provided the opening keynote for the Global Spa Summit in Istanbul, Turkey.

Here are some highlights from her talk:

“The world has gone through several fundamental transformations in history: from the Agricultural era to the Industrial era to the Post-Industrial era to our current age, called the “Emotile” (this is also covered in-depth in WEB, Inc. book The Insider’s Guide to the Future).  She calls it that because the current growth industries are about our emotional wants and needs, and the way we operate — from work to communications to household formation — is highly motile.

But we are going through another profound transformation, and we are entering a new era. Edie calls this the Virtual Economy, with all of the new value propositions deriving from an altered dimensionality, and that dimension is space.  This transformation holds a great deal of possibility for redefining sensuality, wellness, leisure, luxury, comfort, belief systems, travel…in short, there are numerous implications for the spa world. This opening session laid out the transformation and many of its consequences,  especially as various businesses and industries contemplate the opportunities and challenges in this first phase of the 21st century.”

Tomorrow, Edie will sum up her thoughts throughout the two days of the Summit, and leave attendees with the ones she feels hold the most promise for the expansion and success of the spa industry. Despite much of the gloom and doom in the world, much of it real and warranted, she will highlight the opportunities that lie ahead in not only being financially successful, but also how people can make a positive impact on their clients, their societies, and even the world at large.

Today, Edie Weiner, Jared Weiner and Erica Orange are heading to Turkey for the 2010 Global Spa Summit.  This year’s Summit will examine the spa and wellness industries in relation to outside industries and will explore ideas and opportunities for the future. The agenda will discover bridges to new markets, health and wellness tourism, technology and social networking, architecture and design, all in the context of looking toward the future.

Edie will be the opening keynote speaker for the Summit:

Leading our venture into the future is well-known futurist Edie Weiner, President of Weiner, Edrich, and Brown. One of the most influential “future-focused” analysts, Edie helps high-profile organizations understand complex social, economic, political, and technological transformations. And with the 2010 Summit theme of “Bridges Worth Building,” Edie will empower spa and wellness leaders to identify the right bridges to build, whether to new industries, markets, customer bases, or regions.

Click here to check out the press release issued by the GSS announcing Edie’s keynote.

We look forward to the Summit, learning more about Istanbul, and experiencing some wonderful culture, food…and perhaps even spa treatments!

The future is a hotter topic than ever. We at WEB have been writing and lecturing about the emerging Virtual Economy for over 5 years, preparing our clients to see the fundamental shifts it is ushering in regarding value propositions, product and service offerings, social and political trends, and technological advances. Now that the economy appears somewhat robust, we see many more executives looking for resources to help them prepare for a very different world to come. Our business has benefited by that, and aside from an increase in our consulting work, in the first third of this year I have headed out for many interesting talks.

It began in January, working in Abu Dhabi for the Department of Economic Development, helping the senior leadership of the Dept. realize their strategic vision for the country. Then off to Davos, to keynote the Financial Times opening dinner for the world Economic forum. In February, I was the closing speaker at the Imagine Solutions Conference in Naples, Florida, which is a new TED-like conference developed by the Searching For Solutions Institute.  A few other trips later, and I was not only keynoting the first WBENC (Women Business Enterprise National Council) Salute and summit, but running many of their other sessions there in D.C. as well.  Over the next month, I will be doing a number of talks, including a guest lecture at the U.S. Army War College, the keynote for the Global Spa Summit in Istanbul, and the keynote for the WLE (Women’s Leadership Exchange) Virtual Summit. And then, on June 23rd, I will be honored by NOW NYC (the largest NOW chapter in the country) with their 2010 Woman of Power and Influence Award at their annual Gala here in New York. It’s too early to talk of all the things already on the calendar for the second half the year.

Of course, none of this includes our regular ongoing work with our clients, which continues to be exciting and groundbreaking. We are finding that our client companies are more eager than ever to move on with their challenges and opportunities, and to tap our understanding of the forces that will change their future. We all love the work we do, and now that we have harnessed multiple forms of communication with all of you, we expect that you will be hearing all kinds of interesting things from us in the months to come. Jared Weiner and Erica Orange are taking the lead in bringing our work to life for you, and I hope you are enjoying their blogs, tweets, and enhanced website offerings. Arnold Brown and I are excited about having this new generation of leadership in WEB, and the feedback from many of you so far has been wonderful.

Please remember that despite all the gloom and doom in the world (and much of it is warranted), there is  till a lot of good going on. The world and all of its aspects are fundamentally changing. And the new opportunities for all of us, as enterprises, regions, organizations and individuals, only multiply with time. Getting on with the business of life is sometimes difficult, but always rewarding. It’s all part of the journey into tomorrow. As we always say, the future will happen with or without you. So join us in trying to make it a better place to be.