⏩ The Future Normal: Fast Forward
💰 $100k highlight clips; 🔬 virtual science labs; 🔥 Chinese ecommerce; 🏙 wooden skyscrapers and more...
The second edition of this experiment: a much shorter email, featuring a handful of Future Normal news stories.
Do let me know if you find it useful! Each item not only shows us what’s around the corner, but also a truth about trends and innovation.
Even better: please do share these insights with someone who can run with them! The future is ours to build, together.
Would you pay $100,000 for a 13-second basketball highlight?
🔮 #FutureNormal // Digital collectibles are either The Next Big Thing, or just the latest bubble for bored stay-at-home speculators. NBA’s blockchain-based Top Shot platform means fans can now ‘own’ non-fungible (i.e. unique, verified) highlights that can be traded like sports cards.
💡#TrendTruth // Virtual status symbols are absolutely a thing (witness the billions spent in the avatar economy). Humans will always be obsessed with –– and value –– scarcity.
Labster raises $60 million to bring virtual science lab software to the world
🔮 #FutureNormal // It’s hard not to get excited about the potential impact of “a million-dollar lab, just a click away”. How many more students might embrace STEM subjects when they can perform truly immersive virtual experiments at almost zero cost?!
💡#TrendTruth // Digital transformation is about improving the customer experience. 3D virtual malls. Not interesting. 3D virtual labs that are faster, cheaper, and better than the physical alternative? Now we’re talking!
Berlin approves a 322-foot (98-meter), 29-story timber skyscraper
🔮 #FutureNormal // Okay, wooden skyscrapers might not become totally commonplace…but dive into the article and you’ll see that (other than its truly awful name) the WoHo Tower represents a very welcome Future Normal: sustainable, affordable, locally-centered, flexible, cross-generational, and community-focused.
💡#TrendTruth // None of these trends are ‘secrets’. However, while it’s easy to paint a beautiful picture in the press release, the reality is always more complicated. Let’s hope they can deliver.
If Work is Going Remote, Why is Big Tech Still Building?
🔮 #FutureNormal // Despite the massive surge in remote and hybrid working during the pandemic, there will still be a gravitational pull back to the office as restrictions ease.
💡#TrendTruth // People want the ‘One Trend To Rule Them All’. The truth is there are always multiple conflicting trends at play simultaneously, and there’s no one answer. It’s about finding the right combination of mutually reinforcing components – culture, strategy, brand, business model, vision, etc – that work for your organization.
👋 Join us on Clubhouse!
This newsletter is where we’re writing the book in public.
Your tips and comments are already helping shape the content, but now we’d love to take this to the next level and hear your thoughts directly. Last week we had a great conversation around virtual humans, this week we’ll be touching on virtual status symbols, and other Future Normal news stories.
Join us live on Clubhouse, today at 1530 EST, 2030 UK & 2130 CET.
👉 Add it to your calendar here
World first: 2021 will see the majority of Chinese retail spending happen online
🔮 #FutureNormal // Mind-blowing but also totally unsurprising.
💡#TrendTruth // Just as economic power is moving to Asia, so too is the center of gravity when it comes to trends & innovation. O2O New Retail, super apps, social, mobile payments, livestreaming…Asia’s today is the Rest of the World’s tomorrow.
Americans are consuming more foreign content than ever
🔮 #FutureNormal // Despacito. BTS. Parasite. Casa De Papel. Roma. Trade wars or no trade wars, cultural globalization is a juggernaut that’s only accelerating. Global digital platforms & increasingly diverse populations are reshaping the cultural landscape.
💡#TrendTruth // We’re have more in common than divides us. Great stories & music resonate across borders.
That’s all this week. Thanks so much for reading.