Writing this newsletter from a draft I saved end of May (!). But then… projects happened, a fractured arm happened, a vacation happened and we now end up together in something called August. Which also happens to be my birth month and I got the fountain pen above as gift. I was taken to a store in Amsterdam that sells a gazillion fountain pens since 1927 and could choose my favourite one. This near-centennial shop still being here shows how nice it is when some things don’t change that much. 😉

Ok, but what was in the draft of May? Apparently a workshop with civil servants from the Dutch province and municipalities of Zuid-Holland where we dropped our concept trend analysis about female friendly public spaces. ⬇️

If you would like to do something like this yourself, the general flow for a 3-hour workshop is:

🛠️ Create a presentation of your trends and make it understandable for people who were not involved in the process. Showing a variety of signals helps.

📣 Present one trend at a time. Don’t share all at once, this is too overwhelming.

🤯 Put people in groups and after each trend is presented ask them to brainstorm on ways, ideas, solutions this trend could offer for the topic (female friendly public spaces) in their own line of work. Collect these ideas on worksheets using sticky notes. Repeat for every trend (we had 4 trends).

🥇 Ask each group to create a top 3 of all ideas and present 1 plenary.

You can tweak the flow of course for your specific audience and the amount of trends you have.

The output of this session was used to create a practical guide with ideas for trend activations. In the meanwhile we have delivered the texts for the final trendreport and the practical guide, which made me feel like a student again having to write a thesis. Next up is working together with the graphic designers, which seems to be quite restricted in creativity for governmental reporting. 😅Everything will be shared in public in November and via this newsletter.

Ok, onwards! I have collected so many interesting sources of inspiration in the past months that I could create weekly ones for the rest of the year. So you might encounter me in your inbox a bit more frequently, all depends on what happens in the meanwhile…. 😛

/ Els

👋 Elsewhere is read by 2300+ people, including new subscribers Sophie, Ricardo, Monica, Jakub, Annelies, Lyka, Miguel, Mark and many more. Welcome!

Heard elsewhere

❝ There isn’t one answer, there are thousands, and you can be one of them.❞

Octavia E. Butler, science fiction writer

Train more!

Want to get inspired and update your exploration skills in 2026? Join me at the following event:

🇳🇱 Masterclass on exploration: November 2 in Amsterdam as part of the 5-day DesignThinkers Bootcamp. With participants going from all corners of the world this is a truly immersive training experience where you’ll learn the foundations of Design Thinking.

👩🏻‍💻 / 👯 Personal trend coaching: The agenda is open in September, October and December for on-the-job trend coaching. Want to learn the basics of trends research or deepen your trend skills? Let me be your personal guide in the weird and wonderful world of trends. Drop me a message with your learning needs and I’ll get back to you asap.

👩🏻‍🏫 Trend guest lectures: Are you coordinating or teaching a trend module? Don’t hesitate to contact me for a guest lecture based on the trend module for my book combined with real-world examples. Can be done online or offline and adjusted to the time schedule of your study program.

Go elsewhere

🌟 your monthly trend sources recommendations

📝 articles

• Check out the short article created by my book publisher & moi with 5 tips to deal with uncertainty in your trend research.

• Academic paper addressing “Brainrot: Deskilling and Addiction are Overlooked AI Risks”. The researchers investigated a pile of papers from the three biggest AI research conferences of 2025 and found 10 that addressed mental health or cognitive risks, 2 addressed risks of addiction and 0 addressed deskilling. Makes you wonder, right….?

👯‍♂️ initiatives

• A-Corp: Artist Corporation - Not a B-Corp but an A-Corp: a new type of company structure designed for creative people where artists keep majority control, intellectual property is protected by law, and the artistic mission comes first.

• GreenPT - A different take on AI chatting: private by design, sustainable by default, and built in Europe. GreenPT is a GPT-powered chat platform and robust API, running on renewable energy and hosted in Europe for strict data protection. Mmm, let’s see…

• noRecognition - Clothing the cameras cannot see. You can back this initiative on Kickstarter and maybe you can get a tee with an exclusive researched pattern that makes you untraceable by surveillance cams.

🗄️ resources

• The Autonomy Institute - This non-profit UK institute creates data-driven tools and policy to strengthen democracy and build the future economy. Their work is organised into three labs: work futures, public futures & insights and solutions. It covers topics such as shorter work weeks or menstruation at work.

• Totei - a new online and print magazine about “the art of making”. Seems there’s a shift in focus on the process of creating than on the output itself in this age of AI generated stuff.

• Radical Futures - I recently joined an online session with Tracee Worley about the 5 steps of creating dystopias in science fiction and how these relate to real-world dystopias unfolding. Super interesting! Check out the website for some gems like this future game.

🙃 fun stuff

• How it wears - For all fashion lovers: every clothing piece has a composition, this tool reads it. Learn how materials behave, what care they need, and how they age over time by uploading a photo of the clothing label.

• TTYL - With Talk To You Later you can send a voice note to your future self. You record a note and the app randomly sends it back to you in the future. Could be a nice thing to include in a workshop?

🎥 Soviet busstops 🚎

A participant of the workshop I mentioned in the intro shared this intriguing documentary about the design of bus stops in the Soviet era. Makes you think of the design of the everyday and how our views on it change over time. Watch the trailer below 👇 (and Dutchies can watch the full doc at NPO).

🏟 live - trend related - events

🇩🇪 / 🇦🇹 Forward Berlin & Forward Vienna - A creativity festival that is held in various cities. For designers, marketers, artists and entrepreneurs. In Berlin on August 27-28 and in Vienna on October 1-2.

🇬🇧 Ideas Fest - A gathering for founders in the UK on September 9-10 that states it’s the “Glastonbury of Business”.

🇧🇪 Us by Night - a design & creativity festival in Antwerp on September 24-26.

💻 IIEX.ai - A free online conference for the insights and market research industry on September 23-24. I’ve registered and curious to see if there’s also space for critical and ethical perspectives on a.i.

🇩🇰 Softer - This is probably the opposite to the above mentioned a.i.-themed conference. It states it’s the softest tech conference in the world. People meet in the Danish countryside on October 1-3 to exchange on how to create softer digital futures.

🇸🇰 Eastern Design Conference - a design conference held annually in Košice, Slovakia on October 9-10 showcasing designers from Central and Eastern Europe.

🇧🇪 KIKK Festival - Where art, science and technology meet in Namur in Belgium on October 22-25. Website images and info look promising.

🇺🇸 EPIC 2026 - THE conference for ethnography peeps in Chicago on October 26-28. The topic is “Context: Modelling, predicting, and interpreting context to create value for people and business.”

🇳🇱 Dutch Game Week - Including the Dutch Game Week Conference on November 19- 20 Nov in Breda, the Netherlands, brings together studios, investors, and publishers for networking, insights, and collaboration.

Explore more

👀 Activate your senses and train your capability to explore more openly.

See your daily life as a sensory expedition full of opportunities to spot the most interesting and weird things and hone your observation skills.

💥 Your prompt » visit socials, blogs or websites from 3 people who have opposite views of your own. Think of politicians, influencers, opinion makers, etc. How do you feel when browsing their posts and reading their messages?

👾 Ready Player 1? Your challenge starts now, 1 month to complete!

🎥 video - When all is generated

Love the micro shorts by Vera Aalbers. Check out this one called “When all is generated?” 👇

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

// Senior roles

🇺🇸 Senior Trend Consultant Fashion at WGSN in New York, U.S.A.

🇬🇧 Senior Behavioural / Cultural Analyst at Canvas8 in London, U.K.

🇳🇱 Senior Analyst Global Product Strategy at Tommy Hilfiger in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

// Junior/Medior roles

🇬🇧 Research Analyst - Research and Innovation Ecosystems at RAND Europe in Cambridge, U.K.

🇸🇬 Research Assistant/Associate (Data Analyst) at NAFA Cultural Policy Lab (2-year contract) in Singapore.

🇵🇱 Trend Researcher at Astak in Warsaw, Poland.

🇫🇷 Global Strategy and Insights Manager at Danone in Paris, France.

🇳🇱 Strategisch Adviseur at Thaesis in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

// Internships / residencies / fellowships

🇸🇪 Strategy Intern - Culture, Insights & Brand at Patriksson Group in Stockholm, Sweden.

🇫🇷 Strategic Insights Intern at Ykone in Paris, France.

🇳🇱 Strategie Traineeship at Thaesis in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

Sticky statement

👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

Spotted on a public pavement in Amstelveen, the Netherlands.

Thought this might be interesting for anyone not living in the Netherlands.

This is a street stencil about putting on a helmet when biking. This is culturally not a very normal thing to do in NL because we are so used to biking from a young age and think we are pro’s. But with the advent of electric bikes & fat bikes, that go way faster and are causing more people to end up in hospital with head injuries from bike accidents, campaigns are popping up to wear a helmet on all bikes.

I’ve looked it up and it’s apparently a campaign from the Dutch government. The slogan “Zet ‘m op” means “Put ‘m on” and also means “Give it your best”, so it holds a double message. Not sure, but they might have used a more male like head because research shows men are more likely to take risks and end up in hospital more often because of bike accidents. 🤕 Q: Is wearing a bike helmet more accepted in your culture? And what do you think are the reasons?

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

I delivered a masterclass recently on ‘exploring’ for DesignThinkers Academy and the main thing I always have to stimulate in people is…. to think in questions and stay away from solutions. 😅

This might sound simple but thinking in solutions, ideas and opinions is ingrained in our ways of working & in our language in almost subtle, unconscious ways.

➡️ Example: many innovation challenges are framed as ‘how might we…?’ [eg. …stimulate senior citizens to use public transport.] This is a very solution driven way of phrasing. You are probably already thinking of many ways to stimulate seniors. Which is useful in the ideation and prototyping phase but NOT useful at all in the research phase of a project.

The exercise you can do to counter this is to rephrase ‘how might we…?’ into a more explorative research question. Start with removing ‘we’ from the challenge and focus on the experience of your target group, aka humans. [E.g. “How do senior citizens experience public transport?” Or even more open: “How do senior citizens experience travelling?”]

Another solution to stay away from solutions [😉] is to start your innovation or strategic project with a Question Storm. It follows the same principles as a creative brainstorm but you can only storm in questions, not ideas. Muhahaaa!

A question storm provides space to criticise the challenge and invites uncertainty and ambiguity into the room, instead of the (implied) certainty of solutions. Soooo, whenever you (and your team) are thinking of solutions too early, propose to Question Storm and change the mindset.

/ Els

👋 Elsewhere is read by 2300+ people, including new subscribers Vikram, Jet, Andrew, Jocelyn, Hugh, Liz and many more. Welcome!

PS: big thanks to everyone who replied to the previous newsletter with examples of signals, interesting experts and other relevant sources for the trends project on female friendly public spaces I’m working on. 🫶

Heard elsewhere

❝ Mistakes are the portals of discovery. ❞

Talking about exploration, how about this phrase from novelist and poet James Joyce in his book Ulysses on the value of our errors and blunders.

Train more!

Want to get inspired and update your exploration skills in 2026? Join me at the following events:

🚨 Last call! Masterclass Researching Trends: Want to learn the foundations of trend research? Join the 3 interactive online sessions on April 8, 15 and 22 hosted by The Research Society Australia and me.

🇳🇱 Masterclass on exploration: June 22 in Amsterdam as part of the 5-day DesignThinkers Bootcamp.

❓Question Storm session: Don’t know how to start a question storm? Check page 96 of my book Dare to Ask 🙃, the resources of the Right Question Institute orrrrrr even better: book a Question Storm session with me for your team or 1-on-1. It also makes a great workshop for your conference or event.

Go elsewhere

🌟 your monthly trend sources recommendations

📚 books:

• Women After Dark by Nourhan Bassam on how cities keep failing women at night time by the way they are designed.

• Women Changing Cities by Melissa & Chris Bruntlett showcases many examples of cities where female leadership transformed public spaces for everyone.

• AQ by Liz Tran about the agility quotient, a new kind of intelligence for a world that’s always changing.

📒 report: Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness. The first time the European Commission takes a stance on this relevant future topic.

📝 articles:

• Possibilities Literacy, an academic paper on empowering learners for an uncertain world. Love that word!

• AI Was Supposed to Free My Time. It Consumed It. Yes, where’s that promised workweek of 15 hours?

🗄️ resources:

• magCulture provides information on indie magazines and magazine-making. Just randomly order one of the magazines on display to get some inspo on your doormat.

• The Tenth Muse is an art discovery engine. Over 120,000 artworks from museums and institutions searchable by feeling, mood, atmosphere, era, and medium.

• Radio Garden, visit the world map and explore live radio from obscure local stations.

🤨 frowny thing: Aaru, an ai-driven company that builds simulation software to recreate the world using a multi-agent approach. They claim to be able to simulate any decision. It says on the website that humans are biased and therefore their answers are not to be trusted. 😵 Slogan: Welcome to the new age of decision dominance. 🤑 or 🤮?

🎥 Join or Die

Every sociology fan knows about Robert Putnam and his epic book ‘Bowling Alone’ which analyses how and why American society got so individualised. The documentary Join or Die shows Putnam’s research journey in an entertaining and highly accessible way. Want to understand why people are feeling lonely and society polarised? Check the trailer and the full doc on Netflix. (Dutchies: also available via NPO Start). 👇

🏟 live events

• 🇳🇱 UXInsight Festival on April 20-22 in Leiden, The Netherlands. Where researchers from all backgrounds experiment, share openly, and learn from each other.

• 🇳🇱 Katapult Future Fest in May 27-29 in Amsterdam. Bringing together a diverse and expanding global network of impact investors, changemakers, and value-driven entrepreneurs.

• 🇫🇮 Futures Conference on June 9-10 in Turku, Finland. An opportunity for meeting, exchanging and debating current topics related in futures studies and foresight.

• 🇩🇰 Future Days on June 10-12 in Copenhagen, Denmark. A gathering for those working at the edges of culture, design, governance, and systemic change.

• 🇬🇧 Birmingham Design Festival on June 10-12 in Birmingham, UK. Forget London, UK’s 2nd biggest city Brummie is showcasing their local design talents.

• 🇩🇪 Creative Bureaucracy Festival on June 11 in Berlin, Germany. Celebrates outstanding examples of innovative public administrations.

• 🇩🇪 Service Design Global Conference in Frankfurt in October is looking for speakers from across sectors to contribute under the theme “Beyond Boundaries: Enabling Solutions That Shape Tomorrow.”

Explore more

👀 Activate your senses and train your capability to explore more openly.

See your daily life as a sensory expedition full of opportunities to spot the most interesting and weird things and hone your observation skills.

💥 Your prompt » visit a different grocery store than your go-to one. Take the time to wander around and use all your senses to explore the store.

👾 Ready Player 1? Your challenge starts now, 1 month to complete!

🎥 video - A Quiet Rebellion

Sobriety is all the rage. Also when it comes to AI apparently, is it a tool or a substance for you? Artist, writer and educator Mel Mitchell Jackson explains in this video why she does not use generative AI tools. Is this the rise of the Luddites? 👇

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

// Senior roles

🇳🇱 Senior Creative Strategist at FutureBrand in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

🇬🇧 Senior Consultant at WGSN in London, UK (maternity cover).

🇺🇸 Design Director Trend & Concept at Target in Minneapolis, USA.

🇿🇦 Social Impact Experts in South Africa at NTU for project-based work in Q3.

🇺🇸 Senior Manager Consumer Insights, Foresight and UX at Samyang in California, USA.

// Junior/Medior roles

🇬🇧 Cultural Analyst at Leo Burnett in London, UK.

🇳🇱 Strategist at L’Oreal Benelux in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

🇬🇧 Junior Trends & Insights Researcher at Creative Artists Agency in London, UK.

🇳🇱 Project Manager Rabo Art Lab at Rabobank in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

// Internships / residencies / fellowships

🇩🇰 3 advisory internships at CIFS in Copenhagen, Denmark

🇳🇱 Artist Residency at Det Digit Art House in Knegsel, The Netherlands.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

Sticky statement

👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

How about some positive nudging? This way of making people think twice before they misbehave is seen at Museumplein in Amsterdam.

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

I’m so excited about the research project I landed for the province of Zuid-Holland, which is the most densely populated state in the Netherlands and includes cities such as The Hague, Rotterdam, Delft and Leiden.

The topic of the trend study is: female friendly public outside space. So I’m going to dive into this over the next months together with my fab team of freelance trendies (Erick Smet, Patrick Engels, Mark Schipper, Noa Pallada & Doortje van Engelen).

This will def influence what I read and spot the coming weeks and thus what ends up in the newsletter. In this month’s edition you’ll already find some examples of what I mean. See if you can spot them. 🙃

Also, I could use your help to explore this super relevant topic. I’m looking for people (preferable living in NL) to interview. So are you or do you know a(n):

➡️ Expert on this theme, such as a scientist, researcher, or policy advisor (e.g. in the field of inclusive spaces, urban planning, gender equality, prevention, the role of men in creating safe public spaces, or the experiences of Black and/or BIPOC women, women aged 65+, young women/girls, and LGBTQIA+ people in public space);
➡️ Change maker, such as an initiator of a local or regional project (e.g. focused on safer public spaces, awareness-raising, or addressing inappropriate behavior);
➡️ Creative, such as a designer, architect, or artist whose work engages with this theme.

…Or do you have tips about existing research, (international) best practices, campaigns, services, or other signals of change related to this topic?

Share your response in the comments 👇 via DM or hit reply to email me. 🫶

Let’s all strive for a more safer en equitable world together!

/ Els

👋 Elsewhere is read by 2300+ people, including new subscribers Monika, Kevin, Beatriz, Irina, Thiago, Debbie and many more. Welcome!

Heard elsewhere

❝ The more you create, the more powerful you become. The more you consume, the more powerful others become. ❞

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits

Trend Talk

When I train people in trend research I often don’t experience the longer-lasting effect this has on them. I was delighted to receive a message from , a participant on my online trend course together with Service Design College.

During this specific training you practice trend analysis on a theme of your choosing. Maureen dove into going offline and analogue and dubbed it “Donescrolling”. 💖

She let me know she got so excited about trend research that over the past months she kept spotting signals and turned her first analysis attempt from the course into a fully fledged essay. And this all in her spare time, wow! This is the dream student of any teacher. ✨

Check out her essay ⤵️ and subscribe to her fab design newsletter The Cursor Mag.

The Cursor | Design and Career

Get in loser, we're going offline

We’re tired. Tired of doomscrolling, tired of being bombarded with slop content and tired of feeling disconnected from each other and ourselves…

Read more

7 months ago · 13 likes · Maureen

Train more!

Want to be like Maureen and update your trend skills in 2026?

• 💻 Masterclass - Researching Trends. Teaming up with The Research Society Australia 🐨 for 3 online sessions on how to research trends this April. Want to learn more about exploring the future via trends? Join the interactive classes. The timings are perfect for Eastern time zones (Aus, NZ, Asia, Middle East) or for very early birds in Europe.

• 🇳🇱 Immersive DesignThinkers Bootcamp for Professional Innovators. In this 5-day highly interactive in-person training you will experience the Design Thinking Process. On the first day I will give a masterclass on exploring. Runs from March 23-27 in Amsterdam at DesignThinkers Academy.

• 👯‍♀️ 1-on-1 coaching. My agenda has some slots for 1-on-1 coaching for individual professionals who want personal guidance in their trend journey. Book an intake to learn more.

Go elsewhere

🌟 trend sources recommendation

📕 book - Invisible Women. Reading this book by Caroline Criado Perez on data bias made me quite angry and also inspired me to focus in my research more on data gaps: what data can I NOT find (about womxn) and why?

📝 report - Eventbrite Social Study Trends. As someone who organises IRL sessions this is an interesting trend report by Eventbrite about off-script energy & soft socialising.

🃏 card deck - Temporal Tactics is a beautiful set of provocation cards designed to help you imagine conscious and equitable futures created by Studio Cone.

🗺️ maps

• superfuture offers urban cartography for global shopping experts since 1999(!). You can find free and paid downloadable city maps to use for your next trend trip.

• åvontuura makes awesome hand-illustrated architecture guides, some also come with stickers!

📗 book - Stilstaan bij de Toekomst, a book (in Dutch) by Thomas D’hooge about slowing down to understand our perspectives on the future and the value of future literacy.

📝 article - I’m not a robot on It’s Nice That about showing behind-the-scenes of processes becomes more valuable for designers in the age of ai. And also for researchers I would argue!

💡concept - Eurostack, the idea of a complete digital ecosystem made & supplied in Europe in response to relying too much on US big tech & data servers outside Europe. Eurostackin’ anyone and reclaim our digital sovereignty?

📝 article - Research as a form of pattern disruption by who managed to write down their research process in a very relatable way, it’s quite similar to my way of exploring! “Like an eager digital forager, I highlight, screengrab, upload, and save with reckless abandon whenever strangeness presents itself.” Just try to ignore the promo for Sublime.

📲 post - seen on LinkedIN ⤵️

🎶 f%ck Spotify music tips

To escape algorithmic traps and resist the exploitation of artists by music platforms such as Spotify, here are some challengers:

• Nina - Here artists and labels receive 100% of the revenue from digital music sales.

• ROVR - Radio reinvented with quality selectors & an anti algorithm attitude.

• Dust-to-Digital - Presenting the world’s hard-to-access music.

• MTV Rewind - Let’s you revisit 40k music videos & commercials(!) from the golden age of MTV. 🥰 The next video that plays is NOT determined by an algorithm.

🤣 fun stuff

• Ragecheck- c/p a socials post in here and it checks if this post was intentionally designed to make you angry.

• DisagreeBot - the opposite of the typical, agreeable chatbot AI experience, as an educational tool for students (and all of us). Built by Brinnae Bent, AI and cybersecurity professor at Duke University and director of Duke's TRUST Lab.

🎥 Curfew

Interesting premise: In a world where men live under a strict curfew to make the world safer for women, a woman’s murder during the night challenges the system. Can Detective Pamela Green uncover the truth? Watching this as part of my new research project and that’s the best thing about doing trend research. 🤣🍿

🏟 live events

• 💻 World Futures Day Young Voices, on February 28 Teach the Future hosts online conversations with youngsters on the future, free registration.

• 💻 The Future of Digital Health, online event on March 4-6 about art, technology, and digital therapeutics (DTx) transforming healthcare.

• 🌎International Women’s Day on March 8, join one of the many events worldwide or march together.

• 🇸🇮 Better Cities Event, organised by Urban Future on March 24-27 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. With lots of talks, guided tours, workshops for urbanists and city leaders.

• 🇳🇱 Impakt Festival on “Techno-Ancestriality” showcasing performances, exhibitions, films, and conversations about the power of traditional knowledge in an innovation-driven world. April 8-12 in Utrecht, The Netherlands

• 💻 International Assembly, an online design and creative conference featuring 6 speakers from 6 continents on April 23.

Listen more

🎙️ podcast

Had a lovely conversation with Kristina May from design agency AM Copenhagen.

As they put it: “This episode is a reminder that design, strategy, and innovation become stronger when we understand the changes around us before we react to them.”

LISTENNNN: ⤵️

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

// Senior roles

🇩🇪 Team Lead Creative Strategy & Cultural Research - Maternity Cover at Zalando Fashion Studios in Berlin, Germany.

🇳🇱 Senior CMF Designer at Philips in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

🇺🇸 Manager, Cultural Foresight Lab at Visa in San Francisco, USA.

🇺🇸 Senior Researcher - Cultural Trends & Intelligence at Netflix in New York, USA.

// Junior/Medior roles

🇦🇹 Social Trends & Culture Creative at LOOP in Vienna, Austria.

🇫🇮 Junior researcher in future-oriented design approaches at LAB University of Applied Sciences in Lahti, Finland.

🇩🇪 Manager Trends & Research Unternehmensstrategie at Atruvia in Karlsruhe, Germany.

🇳🇱 Accounthouder Toekomst voor ons Platteland at Provincie Overijssel in Zwolle, The Netherlands.

// Internships / residencies / fellowships

🇪🇺 Open Call for actors, improvisors and collaborators for Foresight Theatre project by the EU Policy Lab.

🇯🇵 Call for proposals to showcase your work at Design Matters Conference in November in Japan. One of their themes is “future”.

🇳🇱 Marketing and Consumer Insights internship at Unilever in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

🇦🇹 Internship Editorial Research at Red Bull in Elsbethen, Austria.

🇫🇷 Global Consumer Insights Internship at Moët Hennessy in Paris, France.

🇳🇱 Marketing and Consumer Insights internship at Unilever in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

Sticky statement

👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

Thanks for sending this one in, Marie-Michèle Larivée! She made this photo while grocery shopping in Canada.

The Pepsi packaging says vrai sucre = “real sugar” and has a retro look. The nostalgia vibe is strong. And why settle for fake sugar if you once in while indulge yourself with the real deal?

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

If a new year started in your time calendar I’m wishing you lots of love, health & connection for 2026. And if you use a different time cycle, I’m still wishing you the same. 🙃

Talking about connection, the past two years I’ve been focusing more on actively connecting. I felt it could be an antidote to events happening in the wider world, doomscrolling and despair. It seemed a way for me to change things that lie within my ‘circle of influence’. I was reminded of this while reading a book by Rob Hopkins (from 2013!) the other day called “The power of just doing stuff.” Which mainly is a showcase of radical localism and the Transition Town movement. This bottom-up approach of just getting started and see what happens is inspiring to me. And as social scientist Robert Putnam’s research has repeatedly shown: connection is often a better solution to local problems than, for example, increasing surveillance by police or cameras.

Just to give you some examples as inspiration of what actively seeking/creating local connection looked like for me:

• 🏡 Setting up a residents committee in my apartment block (which houses 111 apartments) and organising activities like coffee meetups and street bbq’s.

• 🏸 Assisting as a volunteer youth trainer at my local badmintonclub and finding out about “67”, “clock it” and “tjappies” from eleven year-olds.

• 👩🏻‍🎓 Organising a reunion of my favourite high school class mates who I hadn't seen for almost 30 years.

• 📚 Becoming a member of my local bookstore so it could be turned into a cooperation instead of going bankrupt.

• ⛑️ Being on the board of my Broodfonds, which is a great way for Dutch freelancers to cover financially for potential incapacity to work, all build on trust and community.

• 👚Using ClothingLoop to swap clothes with people from my neighbourhood.

• 👯‍♀️ Organising three Futures Friends events in Amsterdam with Stefanie Schillmöller, although we both loath event planning 😭

Although the above is all unpaid, done in spare time and not always super fun or without friction, it certainly feels rewarding when I see people coming together. I don’t aspire to be a politician or a hardcore activist, so this way I can still change things in a manner that fits me.

Andddd….. this all relates to trends and futures because it’s about thinking of your desirable future (in my case, a more connected one), then taking action and creating the change you want to see.

Maybe something to reflect on yourself:

• What is your preferred way to change things around you?

• What did you kickstart last year that sparked change locally?

• What can you do this year to improve your neighbourhood?

Oh, and I almost forgot that this newsletter is also a way for me to connect with you! So let’s move on to this month’s treasure trove of all things trends & futures.

/ Els

Heard elsewhere

❝ The aim is curiosity, not certainty. ❞

I noted this down but forgot to label the source. ☠️ I think this is mainly what I try to achieve when training people in trend research: become more open, observe with intent and ask loads of questions.

Trend Talk

It’s that time of the year again when all kinds of so-called predictions for 2026 are sprinkled around like fairy dust.

The perfect moment to share my blog again on how to deal with these trend lists and reports. Because do trends really suddenly change at the turn of the year…..??

⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇

How to handle 2026 trend lists

Train more!

Want to get inspired and update your trend skills in 2026?

🙇 Trying to make sense of a changing world and in need of some future tools?

🎓 HO Gent (applied university) is offering a unique masterclass series about Trendwatching on location in Belgium! In 4 afternoons you will learn:

• Essential trend theory

• How to find signals of change

• To turn signals into trend insights

• Integrating trends into innovation processes

🌟 Each afternoon has a theme and an expert who will elaborate on the theme & work together with you on your organisational or personal trend plan.

👩🏻‍🏫 I’m invited by HO Gent as the expert on the trend research cycle.

👯‍♀️ Hope to meet you soon in Aalst and discuss all things trends! NB: sessions are in Dutch.

More info and sign up

Go elsewhere

🌟 trend sources recommendations

🤲 resource - Creative Commons Signals. Creative Commons is celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2026! CC Signals are a proposed framework to help content stewards express how they want their works used in AI training, emphasising reciprocity, recognition, and sustainability in machine reuse.

🎙️podcast - How to be creative with data analysis. A conversation with the editors of The Handbook of Creative Data Analysis, about the role of creativity in research, its benefits for analysis and communication, and the anxieties and difficulties people might experience around using creative methods for the first time.

🃏 game - Buzzing Futures. A free downloadable interactive discussion game that invites players to explore the future of ecosystems through the lens of pollinators. Developed by the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in collab with UN Global Pulse.

📖 books

• Meer dan Modemeisjes by Nsimba Valene Lontanga. “More than fashion girls” is written by a former student of mine. Follow her! 🫶 She describes how fashion is political and writes in a very personal way about the many voices not being heard in the fashion industry, including her own as a black woman.

• Designing Futures, A guide to exploring, visualizing and negotiating future scenarios by Benedikt Groß & Eileen Mandir. The website comes with handy downloadable templates.

• Artifacts, a visual history of technology from 1965 to the present by Timeless. It’s is a gallery in print taking you on a journey through five eras of innovation.

🖼️ image databases

• COSMOS, dubbed as “the Pinterest alternative for creatives. Your creative sanctuary. Discover, collect and share what moves you.” They know how to sell it! 😭

• SOOT Spiral has an interesting way of displaying the images that come out of your search query. “Designed to make searching feel more like exploring, it turns a single prompt into a layered moodboard within seconds.”

📃 articles

• We should all be Luddites by Courtney Radsch. Super interesting read on tech & society: “To be a Luddite today is to refuse the fatalism of techno-inevitability and to demand that technology serve the many, not just the few.”

• Research Slop by . Thoughtful piece on using in AI in research projects. Gives me hope again that the Head of UX Research for Microsoft AI has written this. 🙌🏻

• ‘I awoke at ½ past 7’ by Elena Mary provides interesting historical context on self-monitoring and journaling showing that the search for optimisation already started in the Victorian age. Diaries were apparently a big hit back then.

• Futures of Everyday Life: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Future Personas in Scenarios by Gerhard Schönhofer, Pauli Komonen, Jan Oliver Schwar and Laura Bechthold. Academic article showing that many scenario reports are quite elitist, stereotypical, and technocratic, often replicating dominant societal narratives rather than fostering substantive shifts in how the future is imagined. The researchers call for more polyphonic scenarios!

⚽️ playful stuff

• PlayPhraseMe. A site for cinema archeologists: “Type any quote, watch the scenes.”

• World Map of Human Ideas. A map that helps to explore the birthplaces of ideas that shaped civilization

• Polymarket. People place bets on events such as if the Iranian regime will fall before 2027, what the bitcoin rate will be and when a new Stranger Things episode will air.

🛠️ practical stuff

• Bmrng.me. Nalden, one of the co-founders of WeTransfer, sold the company and is not amused with WeTransfers’ new policies. So he created this new service to share files privately.

• Vert. An open source file converter with no ads.

🎥 500.000 jpg’s

Artist Eryk Salvaggio / made this music + video after reading a Reddit post from a Stable Diffusion (an ai-tool) user stating “I have generated well over 200,000 images and I have no clue what I am supposed to do with them.” It’s quite mesmerising to watch. 👇

🏟 live events

• 🌍 city events keep launching. This year Vienna, Berlin and Bogota will be on its way. Check Instagram and LinkedIN to stay updated on dates & locations.

• 🇳🇱 Deep tech Day at University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Science on January 28. Discover leading research in areas such as quantum technologies, AI, photonics, nanotechnology, sustainability and synthetic biology.

• 🇳🇱 Brainwash Night - Safe & Sound in Amsterdam on March 12. Tackling the subject of safety with performances, talks en films.

• 🇩🇪 Beyond Tellerand April 27-28 in Düsseldorf. A conference for designers, coders and creatives.

• 🇩🇰 Future Days in Copenhagen on June 10-12. A co-creative space where changemakers, creatives, and professionals come together to imagine ways of navigating our futures.

Explore more

👀 Activate your senses and train your capability to explore more openly.

See your daily life as a sensory expedition full of opportunities to spot the most interesting and weird things and hone your observation skills.

Language can be a signal of change, whether it’s a new term shared via socials, a new word you saw on a poster in the streets or overheard someone saying at the busstop.

/ For example, here are two of my recent ‘found words’: Knowledgemaxxing and Slopaganda.

💥 Your prompt » collect new words online & offline

👾 Ready Player 1? Your challenge starts now, 1 month to complete!

🎥 video - Humans in the loop.

I’m going to give this movie from India by Aranya Sahay a watch this week. Plot line: Nehma finds herself raising a child, and a machine. An indigenous woman from Jharkhand begins labeling data for AI, while raising her children as a single mother. She realises how much she's misunderstood by both of them.

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

// Senior roles

🇪🇸 / 🇮🇳 Head of Research at Revolut in Spain and India.

🇩🇪 Foresight Manager(in)at Handelsblatt in Dusseldorf, Germany.

// Junior/Medior roles

🇳🇱 Trend en toekomstonderzoeker at NVWA in Utrecht, The Netherlands

🇬🇧 Freelance Systemic Researcher at School of System Change in the U.K.

🇪🇸 Strategist at Frog in Madrid, Spain.

// Internships / residencies / fellowships

🇩🇪 Design & Trend Research Praktikum at Continental in Weissbach, Germany.

🌏 Temporalities of AI, call for papers at Max Planck Institute in Rome, Italy.

🇺🇸 Creative Futures: Counterstructures, a residency for creative technologists to prototype new cultural R&D for AI at Mozilla Foundation in NYC, USA.

🇺🇸 Hospital of Emotions, open call for artists in L.A., USA.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

Sticky statement

👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

Recently I was hired to give Dutch cultural context around trends in food & beverages. I thinks this picture sums it all up culture-wise. 😹 Practical, no fuss, all- in-1 machine cooking. The air fryer is a Dutch invention made by Fred van de Weij around 2005, then bought and further developed by Philips. The rest is history…. And yes, Dutchies have no shame in using it for Christmas (‘Kerst’) dishes too. 😜

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

My publisher had great news: there’s going to be a second print of the updated edition of ‘How to Research Trends’! Thanks everyone for buying this re-vamped copy of my trend book. 🫶

The reprint also meant making a tough decision about the cover. The first run has a fluor orange color scheme. (It’s much more fluo than pictured below.)

Big plus: it stands out on the shelf in stores.

Big minus: it’s almost unreadable (especially the text on the back).

Soooo, after talking to the publisher, the designer and to myself inside my own head, I decided to change it. Just got the new print (on the right) and very happy with the result. The new color is called ‘burned orange’. Hope you like it too.

Get your copy

(Not sure which one you’ll get though, as there are some fluo ones still in stock. It will be a kind of labubu-ish unboxing surprise. 😜)

While visiting the publisher we also talked about A.I. and its influence on working as a trends researcher. I shared my vision on offline exploring becoming more important. And training your E.I. (emotional intelligence) by doing field work yourself and embodying your research in a multi-sensory way.

It’s part of the work that can’t be copied easily by using A.I.-tools and also the most fun to do! Now the publisher invited me to write a book about this topic, zooming in on the exploration part of (trend)research in an active, workbook-like style. 🫣

I’m a bit hesitant on dedicating another year on thinking & writing a book. What do you think? Are you interested in learning more about exploring/scanning/observing/sensing? Please be honest and let me know. ⤵️

Enjoy this month’s read/ride!

/ Els

Heard elsewhere

❝ When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can’t eat money.❞

Alanis Obomsawin, filmmaker, singer, artist, and activist

Train more!

Want to get inspired and update your trend skills in 2025? There’s a couple of spots left on my last open training of the year.

💻 Researching trends to navigate the future. Want to learn the foundations of trendwatching and learn-by-doing? Together with Service Design College and BIS Publishers I’m hosting an online course on trend research.

What you’ll get:

Join me and an international group of trend curious folks for 4 online live sessions running from November 17 until December 18. The 2-hour classes are on Thursdays, recordings will be available if you have to miss one. During the course you’ll get access to an online campus area with extra resources (articles, videos, etc). As a bonus you’ll also receive an e-book version of ‘How to Research Trends’.

🌟 Raving reviews:

“Big thanks to Els Dragt for your inspiring facilitation and all the practical insights you shared from your work!” Gloria Biberger.

“I enjoyed the rich and inspiring learning experience. Grateful to have shared this journey with you and the other curious minds!” Jan Mosedale

“Great fun to explore trends with all of you training fellows! 👩‍🎤🧑‍🎤 And thx again Els Dragt for the insightful, motivating and energetic course 🤗.” Katarina Belec

More info and sign up

/ Interested in in-company trainings or on-the-job trend coaching? More info here.

Go elsewhere

🌟 trend sources recommendation

📗 book - The Uncertainty Mindset. Stumbled upon this book by Vaugh Tan which apparently mixes food with the experience of uncertainty. As someone who often likes to order food I don’t know, this seems like a logical fit. Vaugh also created a idk (i don’t know) card game to train you in productive discomfort.

📝 paper - Cool People. No kidding, this really is the title of an academic research paper in which they try to get answers to “What does it mean to be a cool person? Is being cool the same thing as being good? Do the attributes of cool people vary across cultures?”

✍️ article - The future is mundane. This interview with anthropologist Sarah Pink explains why the sensory and embodied experiences of everyday life should take a more prominent role in imagining possible scenarios. Could not agree more!

🎨 expo - I am not an oracle, an interactive exhibition by Impakt in Utrecht until February 1st. Invites you to question the big systems and your own assumptions through art installations that serve as playful, sometimes confronting mirrors.

📂 project- Future Humans. A project by the Berggruen Institute which connects experimenters, creators, and scholars who are shaping how humans of the future will collaborate with natures and technologies. At the center of these projects is a crucial question: What will life become?

🎙️ podcast - Unscripted: who gets to imagine the future? When more people have the time and resources to imagine, we unlock the collective wisdom needed to create the world we all want. Six visionary thinkers paired up to talk about the power of “futuring” in this podcast series.

🪁 fun stuff

• Emoji tracker shows the most popular 1,000 emojis in real-time, both globally and across select countries. And if you want to understand the multiple meanings of all these emoji’s check Emojipedia.

• The scale of life visualises the relative scale of different everyday life events and natural phenomena such as number of beers brewed, emails send or illicit drugs taken.

🎥 movie - Saw the new Wallace & Gromit feature recently, called Vengeance Most Fowl. It’s a super funny take on how smart appliances (in this case a smart gnome called Norbot) can take over your life in unexpected ways. And who doesn’t like a hand crafted stop-motion film once in a while? 👇

🏟 live events

• 🇬🇧 Global Innovation Forum in London on November 19 & 20 with the theme ‘Infinite Horizons’: a call to explore untapped potential, break boundaries and shape the impossible.

• 🇦🇪 World AI Technology Expo in Dubai on November 21 &22 offering a platform for innovation and collaboration for businesses in the AI industry.

• 🇪🇸 OFFF Sevilla in Spain on November 27-29. Provides a journey through the best of the international creative scene, 3-days full of talks, workshops and performances.

• 🇳🇱 Iterations in The Hague on November 27-29. A creative coding symposium with four themes: developing design tools, sustainable computing, world-building, and creative education. Includes an Algorave. 🕺

• 🌎 Digital Rights Day on December 10. Towards a ‘People First Digital World’.

• 🇩🇪 Prompt:UX conference in Berlin on January 21 & 22. Dedicated to the intersection of AI and User Experience Design.

• 🇮🇹 Anticipation Conference in Milan on July 1-3. Rethinking how ideas about futures operate within conditions of uncertainty, indeterminacy, and unknowing. Call for abstracts & contributions open until November 28.

Explore more

👀 Activate your senses and train your capability to explore more openly.

See your daily life as a sensory expedition full of opportunities to spot the most interesting and weird things and hone your observation skills.

Recently read a post by Trigger Conversations on the topic of productivity. They designed a thought-provoking conversation menu against productivity.

💥 Your prompt » choose an item from the menu below 👇

🎥 video

A.I.-tools and other online services use loads of energy. But this often feels quite abstract when typing away behind your laptop. OIO Studio developed the ‘Hot Air Factory’ that makes you feel the energy cost of A.I. prompts by blowing air onto a tiny windmill that sits on your desktop. Just watch it to get it. 😜⤵️

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

// Senior roles

🇩🇪 Senior Manager Trends & Research at Atruvia in Münster, Germany.

🇫🇷 CDI - Strategy and Insight Capability Lead - Foresight, people centricity & sustainability at Danone in Paris, France.

🇳🇱 Senior Strateeg at Fronteer in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

// Junior/Medior roles

🇲🇽 Jefe de Tendencias at El Puerto de Liverpool in Mexico City, Mexico.

🇰🇷 Youth Fashion Editor & Strategist at WGSN, remote in South Korea.

🇮🇳 Lead - Editorial Content & Cultural Insights at Kulfi Collective in Mumbai, India.

🇨🇳 + 🇮🇳 field researchers, strategists, service & ux designers for Studio D in India and China. Go directly to the job application form here.

🇬🇧 Program Manager Google Arts & Culture at Google in London, U.K.

🇬🇧 Post Doctoral Research Associate in the Economics of Technological Change at University of Oxford in Oxford, U.K.

🇺🇸 Product Researchers at NIKE, contract work - hybrid or remote.

🇺🇸 Fashion Stylists at Louis Vuitton in Dallas & Orlando, U.S.A.

🇳🇱 Youth Researcher at Jong & Je Wil Wat in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

// Internships / residencies / fellowships

🏆 Creative Contest: Submit a creative piece of digital media that explores or illustrates the key messages within the essay ‘Keep The Future Human’. $100,000+ in prizes. 💸

🇩🇪 Werkstudent (w/m/d) Market Intelligence & Foresight at Colliers in Munich, Germany.

🇩🇰 Social & Creative intern at Publicis Group in Copenhagen, Denmark.

🇳🇱 Strategy Intern at Fronteer in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

Sticky statement

👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

Spotted at a hotel in Eindhoven. 🙃

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

🍁 It’s autumn in the Netherlands which means: event season! To avoid getting depressed from rainy, windy and cloudy days we move indoors to get clearer views and some fresh air into our thinking and feeling.

🎪 In the past month I attended Brave New World, Society 5.0, Week of Strategy Almere and Dutch Design Week. Oh, and I also organised another Futures Friends together with . ⤵️ Thank you for coming! 🫶

🖤 In the midst of this whirlwind of live meetups my mother in-law sadly passed away, 9 months after being diagnosed with cancer. Being with her on this journey was and still is a grounding experience for me. While some things blossom, others wither away. It also influences what I focus on and pay attention to. For example, at Dutch Design Week works about grief and mourning called to me.

👀 Observing is never objective, never unbiased, and that is ok. As long as you are aware of this and understand why you notice what you notice.

🍂 After all these events, now is the time for me to stop gathering information and let it compost. Hopefully this will happen a bit faster than with banana peels, which apparently take 2 years to fully decompose. 😝

I’ll share some of the stuff that I found offline and online in this newsletter, so you can decide if you want to put it in your composting pile too.

🌱 Happy fertilising!

/ Els

Heard elsewhere

❝ I recommend the freedom that comes from asking: Compared to what?❞

Gloria Steinem, feminist activist and journalist.

Go elsewhere

🌟 trend sources recommendation

📗 book - Systems Ultra - Attended a talk by artist Georgina Voss at Society 5.0 which gave a refreshing take on systems. She defies the whole ‘systems thinking’ approach of trying to capture a human and messy system in a map or diagram. This is her book and it’s on my reading list.

🔠 terminology - In her talk about healthy lifestyle at Brave New World professor Femke Nijboer used ‘reverse psychology’ and started giving us tips on how to lead a very unhealthy lifestyle and die young. 😝 This made me think: what if we used this in the trends & futures domain? I’m imagining talks or workshops titled “How to stay in your bubble and never spot anything new ever again.” or “How to get your company to think super short-term?” Any other reversed thoughts? ⤵️

Leave a comment

📝 article - “Predictions are mostly nonsense” Interview in The Observer with ‘reluctant futurist’ Nick Foster. “Most people who make predictions make a thousand of them, and then ignore the 999 that were way off. If somebody could actually predict the future, they’d be the richest person on earth.” He just published a book called Could, Should, Might, Don’t.

🗞️ platform - 404. An independent news platform initiated by four journalists who used to work at VICE.

🔎 research - Hype Studies. A research arena aimed to investigate hype as a powerful and pervasive phenomenon that influences economic trends, political agendas, media narratives, and technological developments.

🎙️ podcast - Build the future in public, RADAR’s cooperative playbook. is talking with & Caitlin Keeley on RADAR’s multi-player set-up and how this digital cooperative is building the future in public. I feature RADAR in my book ‘How to Research Trends’ as an example of ‘new school’ types of trends & futures research as opposed to the old school ‘trend guru knows it all’ approach. RADAR is giving group core to the max, listen & learn. 👇

🪁 fun stuff

• rabbit hole - Find your next “rabbit hole” by combining a random adjective and noun. Also gives inspiration for creating trend titles.

• Ikea catalogue time travel - The IKEA catalogue always captured the spirit of the time. Check out all magazines from the ‘50 till 2021. Still miss the paper version. 😢

🎥 movie - We Are Aliens - This trailer makes me want to watch this movie with cuddly Furby-like aliens (who needs green, slimey ones?). Described as “Kitsch, cute and delightfully strange, cult Japanese filmmaker Ugana Kenichi’s latest is the sweetest sci-fi musical about an alien apocalypse you’ll see this year! An irresistibly fun, fluffy fable with a surprisingly profound humanist message.”

🏟 live events

🤫 Day of Silence / Dag van de Stilte - On Sunday October 26 it’s the Day of Silence in NL & BE. You can attend silent walks, forest bathing sessions, etc. Or just sit in your home, meditate and be silent.

💻 Pollinating through projects.To help me compost my pile of information I’m going to attend this online workshop by @Cody Cook-Parrott on November 1 & 2nd.

🇿🇦 World Futures Studies Federation World Conference 2025 on October 29-31 in Cape Town South Africa. The theme is Thriving together - Imagining shared futures. In collaboration with the University of Stellenbosch.

🇳🇱 From researcher to critical curator. A learning lab session by UXinsight on the changing role of the researcher. December 1st in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

🇪🇸 Mozilla Festival. A gathering for people working to build a better digital world on November 7-9 in Barcelona, Spain. Three days of workshops, debates, and hands-on collaboration to reimagine the role of technology in our lives.

💻 Trends and Culture Management Colloquium. Join this free online academic event designed to foster interdisciplinary discussions on cultural management and trend studies on Saturday November 22. Primarily aimed at students and early-career researchers. Organised by multiple Portuguese education groups.

Train more!

Want to get inspired and update your skills in 2025? Join me at the following events:

💻 Researching trends to navigate the future. Together with Service Design College and BIS Publishers I’m hosting an online course again on trend research. Want to learn the foundations of trendwatching and learn-by-doing? Join me and an international group of trend curious folks for 4 online sessions running from November 17 until December 18.

/ Interested in in-company trainings or on-the-job trend coaching? More info here.

Spot Elsewhere

Spotted at Dutch Design Week: Le Labo 1.0. A graduation project of the Design Academy Eindhoven. A mobile lab/factory using wax to produce lamps in 45 minutes while the customer waits and watches the production process. Fusing mass production with craftsmanship, love it!

Explore more!

👀 Activate your senses and train your capability to explore more openly.

See your daily life as a sensory expedition full of opportunities to spot the most interesting and weird things and hone your observation skills.

💥 Your prompt » Read a magazine you would normally never read.

Buy one at a local store or swap magazines with friends.

👾 You have 1 month to complete this assignment: ready player 1?

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

// Senior roles

🇳🇱 Director of Styling at Tommy Hilfiger in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

🇳🇱 Senior Professional, Retail Marketing, Visual Merchandising at NIKE in Hilversum, The Netherlands.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Head of Research, Evaluation and Insight at Urban Foresight in Edinburgh, Scotland.

🇺🇸 Culture and Trend Forecasting Senior Analyst at Disney in Florida, U.S.A.

🇬🇧 Head of Product Strategy at Sky in London, U.K.

🇬🇧 Research Challenges Lead at Arup in London, U.K.

// Junior-Medior roles

🌎 Freelancers in research & strategy at Stripe Partners, worldwide.

🇵🇹 Lecturer in Foresight & Future Design (part time) at Forward College in Lisbon, Portugal

🇬🇧 Trends and Innovation Manager at Sainsbury’s in London, U.K.

🇺🇸 Associate Manager, Audience & Trend Insights at Hasbro in Rhode Island, U.S.A.

🇦🇺 Design Researcher & Service Designer at Local Peoples in Canberra, Australia.

🇩🇪 Research Associate for Technology Foresight & Research assistant for futurology at IZT in Berlin, Germany.

// Internships

🇫🇷 Strategic Insight & Foresight Analyst intern at Chanel in Paris, France.

🇩🇪 Werkstudent:in Foresight & Trendscouting at Amberra in Hamburg, Germany

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

Sticky statement

👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

Spotted at DDW: a different take on browser cookies. These fortune cookies make you think what you would wish for in this digital age….

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

I found a copy of No Logo by Naomi Klein in a sharing cabinet (weggeefkast) in my street. It was published in 2000, a time before smart phones and social media. Google was in its infancy. Amazon was only selling books. Facebook did not even exist yet.

The book is a powerful dissection of the immense influence of global brands on the economy, politics and people’s individual lives. It shows how these brands are exploiting workers, avoid paying taxes, create a mass culture of consumption and lobby their way into government policies.

Reading this book 25 years later made me think: seems nothing has changed, it even got much worse!! 🫨

Interestingly, it also contains references to the young generation (which was Generation X at that time, my generation 😎), that could easily be copied as portrayals of current generation descriptions of Z, Alpha, or whatever. Showing how generation claims often are confused for the life phase of just being young. 🤔

For trend research No Logo is recommended reading to understand how we got to where we are now. The book contains a lot of “coolhunter” bashing, because this type of work is seen as feeding into the machine of global power brands. Providing a mirror for us as an industry.

And now for something completely different…:

As someone who loves reading, the mention above 👆 by Adobe comes with every pdf that I open and is irritating me! Apparently six pages is considered long. I find this insulting. 🤨 Even when the text file itself already contains a summary, this AI-tool wants to make a summary of that summary. Where will it end? With documents containing just one letter?? [end of rant]

Hope you enjoy this newsletter with loads of letters in it and NO summary. [real end of rant 😅]

✌️/ Els

PS: work on my Trend Audio Walk had to be postponed because of health issues of family members. Hope to be able to work on it in the next months….

Heard elsewhere

❝The times are urgent: let’s slow down.❞

Bàyó Akómoláfé, professor & philosopher

Go elsewhere

🌟 trend sources recommendation

💻 webpage - Sport NZ. Sport New Zealand has the mission to get Every Body Active. 💖 On this webpage you can see how they explain and use futures thinking to fulfil this mission.

🎥 video - Midjourney TV is a weird and alienating live stream filled with videos made by Midjourney users.

🗣️ terminology - Land Snorkeling. 🤿 In a conversation on field research Sem Devillart mentioned that scanning and paying attention can be seen as “Land Snorkelling”, taking the time to savour aspects of nature we ordinarily don’t see or pay attention to. Land snorkelers wander through nature with no real destination. Love that!

🎶 music - Hearing Things. Streaming services make it harder to discover music outside of your algo. I’m resorting to curated sites, like Hearing Things to get my infusion of the new.

👩🏻‍🏫 academics

/ Professor Devon Powers has published on “What is a trend?” in the Journal of Communication. It provides a deep dive into the definition of a trend and what understanding trends can provide to communication research and beyond.

/ Interesting article titled “Which Humans?” by researchers of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Output from LLM’s is often compared to “human” output. This research asks: output from which humans? Spoiler: their research shows its from WEIRD humans (people from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic societies 🫣) and that these humans are outliers when compared to data from other cultures worldwide.

🗄️ database - World Values Survey. The article above mentions using the World Values Survey to get an overview of psychological traits of people worldwide. Dive into this very 00’ies looking website to find a map of cultures and loads more. Handy for your trend analysis!

🏟 live events

• 🇳🇱 Futures Friends - I’m co-organising the Futures Friends Amsterdam meetup on September 26th. You’ll get a dose of inspi in the morning with our fiery 333 setup: 3 signals in 3 minutes in 3 slides. This is sandwiched in between informal networking while munching on cake and croissants. Tickets will be released beginning of September via my Insta and LI. 💫

• 🇳🇱 Brave New World - Art & Science Conference on how the future of technology will impact human life on September 18 in Leiden.

• 🇳🇱 GOGBOT - free experimental tech meets art festival on
  18 to 21 of September in Enschede. The theme? SCROLL, PANIC, REPEAT.

• 🇳🇱 RE_NATURE - On September 20-21 this festival on art and nature will be organised in Amsterdam.

• 🌎 Sun Day - On September 21 you can celebrate the power of solar energy, and stand up to fossil fuel billionaires. Check out local events in your area (seems to be mainly in the USA).

• 🌍 IxDD 2025 - Designing with intelligence: UX in the age of AI on September 26 by the Interaction Design Association. Local chapters can organise meetups and activities related to this year’s topic.

Explore more

👀 Activate your senses and train your capability to explore more openly.

See your daily life as a sensory expedition full of opportunities to spot the most interesting and weird things and hone your observation skills.

This months’ prompt is inspired by an event in the USA, called Write Out. Each year in October they organise a national day stimulating you to go outside and write. Because writing outside gets the creative juices flowing, engages learning, and supports community building.

💥 Your prompt » go outside to write about something you notice while outside.

👾 You have 1 month to complete this assignment: ready player 1?

🎥 video

🫧 We’ve seen the internet bubble pop, the housing bubble burst. Chinese economist Andy Xie is wondering when the AI bubble will explode. He provides an interesting perspective on the economic hype around AI and explains how China is developing and using AI in a very different way than the USA:

“‘America’s idea of winning is to create a God. That God will live in San Francisco. And the God works for America.”

Watch now (20 mins), the whole interview is in English, with sometimes a Dutch voice over. 👇

Train more!

Want to get inspired and update your skills in 2025? Join me at the following events:

• 💻 Masterclass - Researching Trends. Teaming up with The Research Society Australia 🐨 for 3 online masterclass sessions on how to research trends in September. Want to learn more about exploring the future via trends? Join the interactive classes. The timings are perfect for Eastern time zones (Aus, NZ 🥝, Asia, Middle East) or for very early birds in Europe.

• 💻 Researching trends to navigate the future. Together with Service Design College I’m hosting an online course on trend research. Join me for 4 online sessions running starting in November. Timings are perfect for Western time zones (EU, UK, USA, LATAM).

• 👯‍♀️ 1-on-1 coaching. My agenda is open again for 1-on-1 coaching for individual professionals who want personal guidance in their trend journey. Book an intake to learn more.

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

Yes I've been at it for you again to find a variety of trend related job openings. This is how my browser looks ⤵️ while being IN the LinkedIN rabbit hole. 😵

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

// Senior roles

🇺🇸 Senior Trends & Foresight Lead at AirBnB in U.S.A. (remote).

🇺🇸 Sr Director Analyst, AI Innovation & Emerging AI Trends at Gartner in U.S.A. (remote).

🇳🇱 Strategy Director Mother and Child Care / Women’s Health at Philips in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

🇬🇧 Futures and Policy Senior Manager and Executive at ForgeFront in U.K.

💻 Consultant (external)– Demographic Trends Analysis and Policy Implications for UNICEF / East Asia and Pacific - remote contract work until January 2026.

// Junior/Medior roles

🇳🇱 Medewerker Trendbureau at Provincie Overijssel in Zwolle, Netherlands.

🇳🇱 Social Innovator at Belastingdienst in Utrecht, Netherlands.

🇳🇱 Adviseur / onderzoeker jongeren at Youngworks in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

💻 Community & Release Lead at Stashed. A sneaker platform startup based in the Netherlands, but it’s a remote-friendly job.

🇵🇭 Trends and Innovation Strategist at SVEN in Quezon City, The Philippines.

🇮🇩 Strategy & Insights Manager at M+C Saatchi Group in Jakarta, Indonesia.

🇺🇸 Life and Trends Reporter at Newsweek in U.S.A.

🇬🇧 Consumer Trends and Segment Insights Manager at Centrica in Windsor or London, U.K.

🇦🇷 Analista de estilismo de moda y tendencias at C&S informatica in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

// Internships / residencies / fellowships

🇳🇱 Creative Marketing Intern at Karl Lagerfeld in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

🇳🇱 Digital Strategy and Research intern at DEPT. in Amsterdam, Netherlands

🇳🇱 Internship - Heineken(R) Innovation at Heineken in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

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👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

I enjoy it when people share their own drawings on a sticker instead of using a computer template. This one was spotted in Arnhem, The Netherlands. Apparently it was made by someone who calls themselves Cofftrol and who also likes putting stones in order. And yes, doesn’t every war start somewhere inside a person… 👇

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

My updated version of ‘How to Research trends’ is selling out already. 🔥 It has a banging fluorescent orange cover. Unfortunately this makes the text on the back cover almost illegible. 🤪 Here’s a picture of me visiting the designer and choosing a new shade of warm orange for the next reprint. If you still want the fluo one, be quick and get it here! Use code SUN25 at checkout for 25% off.
*Offer valid from until 31th August.

I’m going into slomo because it’s Summer time here in Europe. I recently had some trend workshops lined up and of course it was 30++ degrees 🥵 on these days. Hard to stay active and alert as a trainer and as a participant. It was also a hassle to keep my armpits dry. 🙃

Because of these trainings I travelled frequently via public transport, which often provides an opportunity to eavesdrop and listen-in on conversations. I overheard two twenty-somethings complaining about teenagers: “They just want TikTok fame while riding their fat bikes and vaping.” Which made me laugh (inside) because it shows how you don’t even need to be -very- old to start complaining about people younger than you

Mixing your travel modes is always a good idea to get out of your bubble. I recently listened to a podcast that stated that chatting often with conversational A.I.-tools creates a bubble of 1. 😲 This really stuck with me, because as a researcher it is my job to get the outside inside for people/companies. This might become an even more crucial task when we are drifting daily in our echo chambers of one.

You can find the podcast and many more resources in this edition. Take the time to digest these, whether you are in Summer Slomo or Winter Wilderness in your hemisphere.

Enjoy!!

/ Els

PS: I’ve collected all your feedback on my Trend Audio Walk and will be adjusting and iterating the prototype over the Summer. Tbc…

Heard elsewhere

❝ Remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within.❞

Ruha Benjamin, Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University - you can also find a video with her TED-talk in this newsletter.

Trending Topic

🗣 what’s the debate about in trend circles?

Is it just me or have you also been hearing about semiotics a lot lately in your network? That’s why I decided to take an online course in all things semio by Chris Arning (thanks to reader Kees for the tip!).

You can read about what I learned and how I think semiotics overlap and can enhance trend research here. 👈

Go elsewhere

🌟 trend sources recommendations

📓 book - Against Progress by Slavoj Zizek. Intriguing title, right? It’s the kind of book where you have to read almost every sentence three times to understand what’s being said. Highly philosophical, are you up for the challenge?

👯‍♀️ collective - I found out there’s a Semiotic Sisterhood. They recently published a first edition of DECODE - essays on cultural meaning across borders.

🛠️ tool - Power Thesaurus. I use thesauruses a lot when having to come up with variations on a word. And yes, you can use LLM-tools, but you can also use this community-driven webpage which is built by users for students and writers.

🗒️ white paper - Building Better Systems. Well, they actually call it a ‘green paper’ on system innovation themselves, with steps to take to create new systems to meet public challenges.

🗺️ map - Historical Tech Tree. An interactive visualisation of the history of technologies, inventions, and discoveries, from prehistory to today.

🧰 toolkit - Systemic Design Framework by the U.K. Design Council (they also developed the Double Diamond that is widely used in Design Thinking). This framework helps designers working on major complex challenges that involve people across different disciplines and sectors.

🏟 live events

🗓️ SAVE THE DATE

➡️ I will co-organise the Amsterdam edition of Futures Friends again! This is an informal meetup for anyone working in or with trends, futures, strategy and innovation. Join on Friday morning September 26 from 9AM till 10.30AM for networking and our infamous 333-format: invited speakers showing 3 signals on their radar in 3 slides in 3 minutes. Tickets will be made available in September. So block your calendar and stay tuned…

• 🇩🇪 Next Conference in Hamburg, Germany, on September 18 (thanks for the tip Stefanie!). A conference on digital business. This year’s theme is ‘This is the End’ which is about transformation, transition, and new beginnings.

• 🇳🇱 Betweter Festival in Utrecht, The Netherlands on September 26. Mixing science and art. Expect a blend of talks, installations, interviews and music. Dutch spoken.

• 🇬🇧 Festival of Marketing on October 2nd in London, U.K. Where industry pro’s share bold ideas and real-world strategies. They have a stage called ‘navigating trends’ and one called ‘ the future marketer’.

• 🌎 Semiofest bid. Semiofest is an unconference for semiotic enthusiasts. Want your city to host the next Semiofest in 2026? You can now apply as a volunteer team.

🎥 video

This is the podcast I was talking about in the intro. It’s created by the the Center for Humane Technology. In this edition they explore AI-companion chatbots. The connections with these bots feel real, because they’re designed to. But that’s the catch. These bots aren’t people, they’re products, engineered to hold your attention and keep you coming back.

MIT researchers explore how we can design AI companions that support, not exploit, our deep need for connection. 👇

Explore more

👀 Activate your senses and train your capability to explore more openly.

See your daily life as a sensory expedition full of opportunities to spot the most interesting and weird things and hone your observation skills. Another month, another prompt!

💥 Your prompt » eat one thing with attention.

I’m a fast eater, so this is one will be very hard for me. Never not hungry! You can use this 2,5 minute audio guidance when you are trying it on a meal. Let’s try to do this multiple times over the next month. Use all your senses, how does the food look and what does it smell like? How does the texture of it feel when it is in your mouth…?

👾 You have 1 month to complete this assignment: ready player 1?

A motivating, energetic TED-talk by Ruha Benjamin (the professor of American Studies, whose quote is mentioned above in this newsletter edition). She asks us to not think in utopias or dystopias but in UStopias. Because the future is US. So let’s invite all humans in a collective imagining of the future.

Train more!

Want to get inspired and update your skills in 2025? Join me at the following events:

• OCTOBER / 🇳🇱 Question Storm workshop on October 14 at Municipality of Almere during their Strategy Week. For all public servants who work in or for Almere. Not open for the general public, but if enough people are interested I’m willing to organise an online Question Storm. Let me know if you’re interested by replying to this mail, via DM or in the comments.

• NOVEMBER / 💻 Researching trends to navigate the future. Together with Service Design College and BIS Publishers I’m organising this exclusive online course on trend research. Learn the fundamentals of working with trends. Join me for 4 online sessions running from November 18 till December 20. Hope to see you there!

• NOVEMBER / 🇳🇱 Immersive DesignThinkers Bootcamp for Professional Innovators. In this 5-day highly interactive in-person training you will experience the Design Thinking Process. On the first day I will give a masterclass on exploring. Runs from November 3-7 in Amsterdam at DesignThinkers Academy.

/ Interested in in-company trainings or on-the-job trend coaching? More info here.

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

// Senior roles

🇺🇸 Senior Manager, Trend Forecasting, Design at NIKE in Oregon, USA.

🇫🇷 Strategic Foresight and Planning Officer at European Space Agency (ESA) in Paris, France.

🇬🇧 Youth Culture Strategy Director at Livity & Krow in London, U.K.

// Junior/Medior roles

🇬🇧 Mid-level Cultural Researchers / Analysts / Strategists / Insights Specialists at Culture Lab in the U.K. They are hiring multiple researchers. Apply by filling out this form.

🇳🇱 Freelance junior qualitative researcher at Maartje’s Footprint in The Netherlands. Dutch-speaking.

🇺🇸 Trend Research and Forecasting Associate at Macy’s in New York, USA.

// Internships / residencies / fellowships

🇪🇸 Internship Foresight, Strategy & Insights at Arup in Madrid, Spain.

🇩🇪 Innovation & Trend Research intern at DHL in Troisdorf, Germany.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

Sticky statement

👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

Visited the graduation expo of Julius at Fontys Academy for the Creative Economy. He’s a student who I have been assisting throughout his grad journey. The topic of his thesis is A.I., work and meaning. His work culminated in trends and scenarios showing multiple future pathways on how we can create meaning in the age of A.I. He featured the question below in his expo. Maybe something for you to think about in the next month? 🤔

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

I visited Slow AI Festival recently. It made me aware again how powerful it is to experience something first hand instead of consuming an experience by reading about it or watching it on a screen.

And yes, going out into the world requires time and effort. Not every talk or workshop might be what you hoped or expected from it. On the other hand, during these events there will be surprising conversations and serendipitous situations where you receive something you could never imagine getting beforehand.

I feel this is extra important in a time where we, according to Christine Rosen - author of The Extinction of Experience, spend as much time consuming the experiences of others as we do having experiences of our own.

So let’s focus on having some experiences of our own this month!

Els

PS: you will find many nuggets of inspiration from the Slow AI Festival sprinkled throughout this month’s newsletter.

Heard elsewhere

❝ It is by logic that we prove but it is by intuition that we discover.❞

Henri Poincaré, theoretical physicist and philosopher of science.

Go elsewhere

🌟 trend sources recommendation

🗺️ maps

/ The Nooscope - a beautiful diagram of machine learning error, biases and limitations.

/ Anatomy of AI - an anatomical case study of the Amazon echo as an artificial intelligence system made of human labor. Showing that AI is not immaterial nor magical, it requires natural resources and human labour.

🗄️ archives

/ Once upon a garden - This speculative archive of extinct flowers by Linda Dounia uses AI as a time machine to piece together visual data about flowers we didn’t bother recording. It all revolves around the question: who decides what is worth to remember?

/ Te Hiku Tech - LLM’s or other AI-driven tools are marginalising minority language groups. What to do? Take action yourself by creating your own archival LLM’s, like Te Hiku is doing for the Maori language.

📝 article - Against Similar Friends and Romantic Partners: Why I Aim for 48% Opposites. Psychologist Todd Kashan makes a case for having friends you don’t agree with all the time.

🏅 award - NGFP Young Voices Awards - An award for young future makers between 12-17 years old. Individual or group submissions can now be made. You can win prizes to help realise your future-focused project.

🧭 guide - Permacomputing Principles - Real regenerative AI? Base your programming and coding on the principles of permaculture.

📺 magazine - Low Tech Magazine - And here’s your inspiration for permacomputing as this online magazine runs on solar power. Meaning it might be offline sometimes…. 😎

🏟 live events

• 💻 The UX Book Club on June 11th online. Free meetup where you’ll discuss “Human Centred AI" by Ben Shneider.

• 🇳🇱 De Grootste Heidag van Nederland on June 20 in Bunnik, The Netherlands. A festival for change makers and leaders who want to turn strategy into reality.

• 🇨🇭AI for Good in Geneva, Switzerland on 8-11 July 2025. AI for Good is The United Nations’ leading platform on Artificial Intelligence to solve global challenges.

• 💻 Notice What You Notice – Reclaim Your Attention in a Distracted World. Online workshop on July 1st ​on how to reclaim agency over your most precious resource - your attention - so we can use it better for what matters most to us.

• EPIC 2025 on September 16-19 in Helsinki Finland. International conference of practitioners using an ethnographic lens for sensemaking and transformation. The topic is ‘intelligences’.

The Oscar winning Dutch short movie I’m not a Robot shows how not getting through the CAPTCHA on your computer can result in an existential crises. Are you even sure YOU are not a robot…..? Trailer below 👇 and Dutchies can watch the full movie on NPO.

Explore more

👀 Activate your senses and train your capability to explore more openly.

See your daily life as a sensory expedition full of opportunities to spot the most interesting and weird things and hone your observation skills.

💥 Your monthly prompt » What is likely to be here long after you’re gone?

The coming weeks you can walk around and observe with this prompt in the back of your mind. It’s inspired by the 60 experiments card set by We Are Just Looking.

👾 You have 1 month to complete this assignment: ready player 1?

Train more!

Want to get inspired and update your skills in 2025? Join me at the following events:

• 🇳🇱 Immersive DesignThinkers Bootcamp for Professional Innovators. In this 5-day highly interactive in-person training you will experience the Design Thinking Process. On the first day I will give a masterclass on exploring. Runs from June 23-27 in Amsterdam at DesignThinkers Academy.

• 💻 Researching trends to navigate the future. I will run another online trends course with Service Design College in the Fall. Join me for 4 online interactive trend sessions running from November 17 until December 18 2025.

/ Interested in in-company trainings or on-the-job trend coaching? More info here

I love the work of speculative designers Dunne & Raby. In this short video Fiona Raby shares how they worked on a speculative project about transport in the UK. For example: what questions to ask yourself when working on something speculative? ⤵️

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

// Senior roles

🇳🇱 Director, Trend and Design at Crocs in Hoofddorp The Netherlands. They reposted this vacancy so maybe you can be the right fit…..?

🇩🇰 Experimental Research Lead (Director) at LEGO in Billund, Denmark.

🇺🇸 Senior Cultural Researcher, Futures Insights at Amazon in Seattle, USA.

🇺🇸 Sr. Manager, Trend Research and Forecasting at Macy’s in New York, USA.

// Junior/Medior roles

🇫🇷 Junior Professional in Strategic Foresight & Planning at ESA - European Space Agency in Paris, France.

🇪🇺 Futures and Foresight Strategist at Arla Foods. Multiple positions in Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands, Germany and the UK.

// Internships / residencies / fellowships

🇫🇷 Internship - Foresight at AXA in Paris, France.

🇫🇷 INTERNSHIP - Consumer-centric foresight for Food innovation at Danone in Paris, France.

🇳🇱 Trendrede zoekt redenaren! Heb jij zin om samen met andere toekomstdenkers een toekomstvisie voor Nederland te ontwikkelen? Stuur een mail naar info@trendrede.com.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

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👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

Found on the wall at the Slow AI Festival in Amsterdam. A very valid fear.

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

As y’all know I love to read. 📚 I’m assuming you do too, otherwise you wouldn’t have signed up to a newsletter. Currently I’m doing this 12-week ‘Artist Way’ creativity stimulation course and the assignment for a recent week was:

don’t read.

Yes, read that again: don’t read. I was like, really? 🙀 What’s wrong with reading? It’s good for creativity, right? To get other perspectives in by getting into someone else’s head. What, for heaven’s sake, can be the purpose of this exercise?

In the end I succumbed. For a week I did not read any books, magazines, newsletters, online in-depth articles, etceteraaaaargh. 😅 And I actually noticed a funny thing: that I use reading as an escape, like you can with binging series or going on a bender. I noticed I was reaching for a magazine or a book whenever I felt bored or wanted to evade a boring admin task. This seemed almost like an addiction. 🫣

It made me aware that reading, although often seen as much more wholesome than binging series, is still consumption and not creation. In this week of not reading I got much more (boring) house chores done and it also sped up my pet project of creating a trend expedition audio guide.

So, the moral of this story is that this month’s newsletter is a bit later than usual because I missed a week of reading and had to catch up to find topics. 😛

Hope you enjoy it anywayssss,

/ Els

Heard elsewhere

❝ Becoming better at asking questions requires you to listen better.❞

Thuli Madonsela, lawyer & human rights activist

Go elsewhere

🌟 trend sources recommendation

🛠️ tool - Objects from the Future - helps to imagine the tangible elements of potential futures. It generates creative prompts that can be used to imagine objects and artefacts from the everyday lives of the people who might be there in the future.

🖼️ expo - RE:FWD: A reply to the present, a forward to us all, brings together hopeful visions of 21 young artists via paintings, soundscapes and installations. Runs until July in Almere, then moves to Amsterdam till end of August.

🧰 method - I followed a short workshop in A.I. at DesignThinkers Academy. Not the A.I. that everybody talks about now, but Appreciative Inquiry! It takes an explorative and positive mindset to organisational change. You can find more info at this portal of AI Commons.

📝 article - ‘Technofossils’: how humanity’s eternal testament will be plastic bags, cheap clothes and chicken bones. Two scientists explain which items from our technological civilisation are most likely to survive for many millions of years as fossils. Love the word ‘technofossils’!

👯 platform - Tired of traditional news stories? Check out Global Voices. It’s an international, multilingual community of writers, translators, and human rights activists. Together, they leverage the power of the internet to tell stories that build understanding across borders.

🏟 live events

• 🧑‍🎓 EPIC Learning Week. From May 12-16 the EPIC community of ethnographers hosts all kinds of online sessions with intriguing titles such as The New Truth Factory: When Insights Are Infinite, Who Decides What’s Real? or How to Make Networking Suck Less. 😂

• 🇵🇹 SoTecIn Factory Startup Day in Porto, Portugal on 19-20 May. showcase breakthrough solutions shaping a circular and low-carbon industry across Food, Water & Nutrients, Textiles, Plastics, and Packaging value chains.

• 🇨🇦 C2 in Montréal, Canada on May 20-22 brings together creative minds, leaders, and change-makers to spark collaboration and innovation across industries. The topic is Motion: the art of taking action.

• 💻 CRAFT Policy Summit: Advancing Social Innovation Across Europe on June 11 from 3-5 PM CEST. Join this free online session to connect, learn, and contribute to the social innovation movement in Europe.

Explore more

👀 Activate your senses and train your capability to explore more openly.

See your daily life as a sensory expedition 🗺️ and hone your observation skills.

/ Your prompt from last month » Spot someone go against the flow.

Were you able to observe a challenger of the status quo?? If not, no worries because here’s another month and another opportunity:

🌱 Your prompt » notice one natural element daily. 🌱

You don’t need to wait for your next vacation to connect with nature. Notice a natural element on a daily basis. This can also be done in an urban environment. Maybe it’s a flower, a tree, a puddle of water, a chirping bird or a woorden bench you’ve never noticed. Implement some systematic curiosity by taking note of something natural every day for the coming month.

👾 You have 1 month to complete this assignment: ready player 1?

This activity is inspired by an example from the Ness Labs newsletter.

🎥 video

Liked the art work in the intro? I recently saw work by the American artist Jenny Holzer in a magazine for the first time. And I was captivated! She makes text based art in all kinds of public spaces. Using words to challenge power structures. Her work touches upon topics such as consumerism, feminism and surveillance.

Watch this short intro to her work. 👇

Train more!

Want to get inspired and update your trends and exploration skills in 2025? Join me at the following events:

• 💻 Researching trends to navigate the future. Together with Service Design College and BIS Publishers I’m launching an online course on trend research. Join me for 4 online sessions running from May 8 - June 5. Introductory price now available!

• 🇳🇱 Immersive DesignThinkers Bootcamp for Professional Innovators. In this 5-day highly interactive in-person training you will experience the Design Thinking Process. On the first day I will give a masterclass on exploring. Runs from June 23-27 in Amsterdam at DesignThinkers Academy.

/ Interested in in-company trainings or on-the-job trend coaching? More info here

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

// Senior roles

🇫🇷 Strategy & Foresight Consulting Manager at The Salmon Consulting in Puteaux, France.

// Junior/Medior roles

🇺🇸 Trends and Foresight Analyst at Nestlé in Arlington, USA.

🇦🇺 Strategy Analyst at DISNEY in Richmond, Australia

🇩🇪 Trends & Style Specialist at Paul Hewitt in Oldenburg, Germany

🇳🇱 Projectleader innovation GGZ at Reinier van Arkel in Den Bosch, The Netherlands

// Internships / residencies / fellowships

🇪🇸 Foresight, Strategy and Insights Trainee at Arup in Madrid, Spain

🇩🇪 Working student Innovation Management - Trend & Foresight at BSH in Munich, Germany.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

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👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

Took this photo on a busy intersection in Amsterdam so couldn’t get a super good angle without risking my life. 😅 Lingerie brand Hunkemöller going artsy on this wall. For context: this is situated at the entrance of the Amsterdam Forest and it’s the period when a lot people visit the cherry blossom park in bloom.🌸 So this is a very timely and fitting message: nature doesn’t censor, why should we? Wondering what this free the choice is about, didn't they dare to put the word nipple there….?

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

I recently did a short course in neck & shoulder massage. As someone who is not a big fan of touching strangers, this was quite a feat! (I could never imagine myself doing sports like Judo, where you can find your nose stuck into someone else’s armpit… )

» You might wonder, what does this have to do with trend research?

The teacher mentioned something interesting about having massages after dinner: she said it helps to “Digest & Rest”. This lingered in my head the past week as it seems applicable to research projects too.

When you have gathered loads of signals, you need some time to process the info and let it simmer for a while. We often don’t integrate time to digest & rest into projects, because we (or the client) want to get to the end-point fast.

Pausing will often allow you to get deeper, richer and more unexpected trend insights. To see patterns that you initially overlooked.

So why not provide yourself with some “digest & rest” time this month?

Have a lovely day!

/ Els

👇⤵️

🥖 PS1: I will visit Paris next week. Do you have any tips on places to explore? Send me a reply or drop a comment with your not-to-misses.

🎧 PS2: I’m making head-way with my personal pet project: creating an audioguide to help you explore more. I need beta-testers. Anyone wants to venture outside with their earphones in and doing sensory related exercises (that might make you look weird to passers-by)? Drop me a line.

🤸🏻 PS3: (This is really the last one!) Making this audioguide inspired me to add a new section to this newsletter: An exploration prompt. Find it down below and try it out this month. ⏬

Heard elsewhere

❝ We shall not cease from exploration. And at the end of all our exploring. Will be to arrive where we started. And know the place for the first time.❞

T.S. Eliot, poet

Help Julius!

I’m mentoring Julius Tami, a graduate student at Fontys Academy - Trend Research & Concept Creation in Lifestyle. He’s working on a thesis about A.I., work and our sense of meaning in life. He’s in the midst of researching societal trends and developing possible future scenarios for work and meaning in the age of A.I.

Julius is on the hunt for resources (articles, videos, books, etc), experts to interview or case studies from companies on this topic. He’s also looking for companies to deliver his end result: a scenario workshop. Help a student out! Please connect with him on LinkedIN when you have tips or want him to deliver a workshop at your organisation.

Go elsewhere

🌟 trend sources recommendations

📓 book - The thing with writing a book is that the process is not finished when it gets off the printers. As an author you need to keep promoting it. 😇 So here’s a 20% discount on my book ‘How to Research Trends’: use trends20 via BIS Publishers to get your copy delivered on your doorstep. Valid till April 1st.

📒 thesis - Indofuturism - With this design graduation project Priya Bandokar imagines an alternative Indofuture for India where it was not colonised by creating 5 artefacts from this future.

🗄️ database - Slow AI - the AIxDesign community have created an inspiring overview of how they see Slow AI.

📗book - Really enjoyed reading the novel The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. It mixes sci-fi about time travel with romcom and psychological drama. A civil servant signs up on a secret, experimental government project where she guides people from the past who time-travelled to a near-future London…

📜 list - nice visual list of 10 commands to survive the digital age - based on a book by Douglas Rushkoff and visualised by Libby Hoffman

👩🏻‍🎓 education - Monstruous Futurities. A new two-year temporary program at Sandberg Art Academy starting in September 2025. Cultivating a transdisciplinary dialogue, you will work at the intersections and blurry edges of disciplines, like science fiction, critical AI, and disobedient body-based practices.

🏟 live events

• 🇪🇸 DEEP Startup Ecosystem Conference - From March 26-27 in Aranda de Duero, Spain. Brings together a community of hundreds of creative minds who believe in innovation to change our world.

• 🇳🇱 TEC Art Rotterdam - This festival in Rotterdam on March 27-30 showcases media artists that made work that fit the theme of this year: ‘Welcome to The Bright Side of Dystopia’.

• 💻 Design for systems change - We Are Changemakers organises this 1 hour workshop on March 31. ​You'll gain practical methodologies to understand the system you operate in and explore strategies to amplify your impact.

• 🌍 Slow Art Day - A worldwide event on April 5 where you visit an exhibition and look at 5 works of art slooooowly. So no rushing by, no selfie stuff, just watch. Some art venues organise special events on this day.

  🇳🇱 AIxD Festival - The program and timetable of this festival on Slow AI are now available. Hope to see you there on May 1-3 in Amsterdam.

• 🇺🇸 Shapeshift Summit - The Institute of Design in Chicago hosts this summit from May 28-30. The topic is Responsible AI - the implications of AI on the future of design and human culture.

Explore more

👀 Activate your senses and train your capability to explore more openly.

Doing some human prompting on you, my dear reader. Hope it helps you to see your daily life as a sensory expedition full of opportunities to spot the most interesting and weird things and hone your observation skills.

💥 Your prompt » Spot someone go against the flow.

It’s often easier to just go with the flow than fight it. But sometimes you spot an individual who decided to do things differently. You can take this quite literal: someone forcing their way through large crowds or tackling an escalator the opposite way. Or you can take the trendspotter approach and look for someone who: wears a new style, uses new words, behaves in a new way, etc….

👾 You have 1 month to complete this assignment: ready player 1?

This activity is inspired by the examples from the Modern Day Spotter’s Guide by Richard Horne.

🎥 video

No video with philosophical theories this time, because “it’s a sunny day, the gangs all here, no chip on my shoulder”. 😃 Just a Doechhii Tiny Desk concert. The song ‘Boiled Peanuts’ has been my “ohrwurm” for weeks. It’s about wanting to chill and for people to just let you be. Enjoyyyy!👇

Train more!

Want to get inspired and update your skills in 2025? Join me at the following events:

• 🇧🇪 Masterclass trendwatching - HO gent organises this masterclass series which shows you how to turn your trend research into meaningful innovations. It’s four Monday afternoon sessions with trend experts in Dutch starting on April 28.

• 💻 Researching trends to navigate the future. Together with Service Design College and BIS Publishers I’m launching an online course on trend research. Join me for 4 online sessions running from May 8 - June 5. Introductory price now available!

• 🇳🇱 Immersive DesignThinkers Bootcamp for Professional Innovators. In this 5-day highly interactive in-person training you will experience the Design Thinking Process. On the first day I will give a masterclass on exploring. Runs from June 23-27 in Amsterdam at DesignThinkers Academy.

/ Interested in in-company trainings or on-the-job trend coaching? More info here.

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

// Senior roles

🇷🇴 Foresights and Innovation Specialist at energy company PPC in Bucharest, Romania.

🇬🇧 Fashion Editor at the Financial Times in London, UK. (Check what they write on using AI as an editor and applicant…)

🇦🇺 Freelance Strategy Director at experience design company Imagination in Sydney, Australia.

🇸🇬 Assistant Director/Senior Manager (Futures) at Smart Nation Strategy Office in Singapore.

// Junior/Medior roles

🇦🇪 Research Analyst - Foresight at Dubai Future Foundation in Dubai, UAE.

🇺🇸 Color Trend Forecasting Manager at fashion company Quince in San Francisco, USA.

🇺🇸 Content Trend Forecaster & Strategist Sports & Outdoor at WGSN in New York, USA.

🇳🇱 PhD Position: Democracy by Design: "How App Characteristics Shape Youth Political Worldviews" at University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

🇳🇱 Innovation Explorer & MVP designer at Nissan in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

// Internships / residencies / fellowships

🇳🇱 Research & Strategy Intern at creative agency DEPT in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

🇧🇪 Open call "Residency at the Astronomical Observatory of UNamur" at KIKK Galaxy & the University of Namur in Namur, Belgium. For visual artists in new media art or art & science on the theme of astronomy.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

Sticky statement

👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

The guys from place making agency are also into sticky statements and wrote a short article on The Hidden Art of Amsterdam’s Sticker Culture. They identify four types of sticker movements and included a sticker route of Amsterdam NDSM area.

I think they missed one movement which is the graffiti peeps who use stickers as tags. It’s not street art, it’s a way to claim their territory and show you they were there. I know this because my brother is one of them 😎 and is sticker tagging his graffiti name all over The Netherlands, as seen in the pic above. Besides this he also creates pieces and other graffiti inspired art work. Check it out over here.

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

💥 To revive my newsletter over a year ago has been a very good decision.

Not only because it allows me to share the stuff I collect instead of it lingering in my notebook or catching dust in my browser’s bookmarks. But mainly because of you and all other readers who reach out, show their appreciation and whom I randomly meet at gatherings and introduce themselves as a reader (hi Julie!).

🫶 This def keeps me going because creating this newsletter is not done in a sec. Share the love by recommending it to your friends, your colleagues, your students.

Besides the usual sections in the newsletter, you’ll find a recap on Futures Friends Amsterdam, an event I’m co-organising and where future minded peeps come together and share things on their radar. Here you can see me at FF ranting about why a novel written by a woman that centers on a specific female experience is almost never seen as universally interesting literature but easily ‘dismissed’ as women-only chicklit. People without wombs, go read All Fours by !

As shared in the previous newsletter I am focussing on exploring this year and sharing my experiences (mainly via Insta). So here’s what’s up: I’ve already gone out for so-called ‘artist dates’, for example to a free classical concert and to the main public library in Amsterdam to browse their magazine section.

With regards to my personal pet project I need some advice from you about audio: any tips on what to look out for when recording audio (mainly voice) and if I would need to buy special equipment (or if a phone works wonders as well)? Hit me with your advice in the comments or mail me directly. 👇

✉️🎙️✉️🎙️

Have a lovely day!

/ Els

Heard elsewhere

❝ Trends are not answers, but chances to ask questions.❞

Trend forecaster dropped a very relevant article on the trends industry. As I’m a fan of questions, the sentence above caught my eye.

Engaging in trends research means you must be open to randomness, ambiguity and uncertainty while many people expect exactly the opposite, that trends will provide them security and control. Read the full article by Matt for a critical lense on trends.

Futures Friends Amsterdam #2

Wow, the second edition of Futures Friends Amsterdam was sold out within a couple of hours! The 333-format of 3 signals in 3 slides in 3 minutes guarantees a kickstart of your day. The informal en small set-up allows for genuine conversations.

Very happy to organise this again for y’all with . Big up for the bold & brave speakers: Noortje van Eekelen, , Justus Bruns, , Ali Kirby, and Erica Bol! With a surprise visit by Futures Friends OG Amy - .

We might organise a next edition later this year, so stay tuned….

Go elsewhere

🌟 trend sources recommendations

📓 book - Hands-On Research for artists, designers and educators by , Jojanneke Gijsen and . In this book the 3 authors share how they educate their art students (at WdKA in Rotterdam) in doing research. I learned about making research more tangible and material, hands-on indeed!

🛠️ tool - MyMind - if you’re looking for a way to organise your signals, maybe give this platform a try. They claim you don’t need to file things, label or even tag stuff.

📜 list - AI guidelines from an unlikely source, the Vatican. They warn us to not deify AI. Snippet: “It is vital to remember that AI is but a pale reflection of humanity-it is crafted by human minds, trained on human-generated material, responsive to human input, and sustained through human labor.”

🛜 network - Rethinking Economics - A community of people who feel that our current way of teaching economics is outdated and want to turn our economics education on its head.

🗄️ database - If you are ever in need of some sci-fi inspiration to fuel your imagination, head over to Technovelgy. This database houses almost 4000 inventions, technology and ideas of science fiction writers. (Thanks to Ali Kirby for sharing this source at Futures Friends).

📝 article - Douglas Rushkoff explores the need to protect ‘pockets of weirdness’. He states that the always-on culture of the internet, influencers and a.i. makes us revert to the mean, the average. “AI produces the average response: the most likely answer, given the entire history of answers out there. It’s the opposite of creativity or improvement.” For trend research it is essential to explore the fringes, or as Rushkoff calls it “the bizarre nooks and crannies of weird”.

🏟 live events

• 💻 Culture Connectors - Cultural explorer Amy Daroukakis keeps initiating cool and relevant stuff like this initiative to get more and varied voices into our trend reporting. Sign up for the online meetup on February 14 to get the low-down about the project.

• 🇳🇱 Friday Next - Future Love - Speculative designers Next Nature organise a monthly themed event in Eindhoven. This February 14th in the evening they explore what the love of tomorrow might look like. Fun activity: you can marry your favourite object.

• 💻 Democracy, a long term project? The “Eye of Europe” project offers a free half-day online workshop on February 27. It will shed light on questions like: "What makes democracy last? What could it look like in the future"?

• 💻 World Futures Day - Young Voices. An free online annual 24-hour conversation on March 1 around the world where young people and futurists co-lead a session at every hour having conversations about the future. Hosted by Teach the Future (please donate when getting your tickets as this is a non-profit).

• 🇳🇱 AIxDESIGN Festival - A 3-day critical AI extravaganza on May 1-3 in Amsterdam. This is a community of people volunteering their time and effort to rethink AI in Design. They are now crowdfunding to get live streaming possible, I’ve backed them and will visit the festival. See you there?

🎥 video

During Futures Friends I hosted a 3-minute book club sharing 3 books I have been reading. One of them is Limitarianism by professor of ethics and philosophy Ingrid Robeyns. The books starting point is: if we find extreme poverty a problem that needs to be erased, why don’t we see extreme wealth as something to eradicate?

In the short video interview below professor Robeyns shares the problems extreme wealth bring about for society and what can be done about it. (In Dutch with English subs). 👇

Explore More!

Want to get inspired and update your skills in 2025? Join me at the following events:

• Immersive DesignThinkers Bootcamp for Professional Innovators. In this 5-day highly interactive in-person training you will experience the Design Thinking Process. On the first day I will give a masterclass on exploring. Runs from April 7-11 in Amsterdam at DesignThinkers Academy.

• Researching trends to navigate the future. Together with Service Design College and BIS Publishers I’m launching an online course on trend research. Join me for 4 online sessions running from May 8 - June 5. Introductory price now available!

/ Interested in in-company trainings or on-the-job trend coaching? More info here.

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

// Senior roles

🇳🇱 Director, Trend and Design at Crocs in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands.

🇮🇹 Senior Trend Analyst at Le Pub in Milan, Italy.

// Junior/Medior roles

🇸🇬 Senior/Assistant Director (Intelligence & Futures) at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Singapore.

🇧🇷 Trends and Insights Analyst at abler Vagas in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

🇵🇪 Trends Coordinator at Entel Peru in Lima, Peru.

🇳🇱 Culture and Insights Specialist (for the 🍦 category) at OLIVER Agency in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

🇩🇪 Trend researcher at FUTURE+YOU in Petersburg, Germany.

🇬🇧 Fashion Trend Forecaster at Urban Revivo in London, United Kingdom.

// Internships / residencies / fellowships

🇩🇪 Werkstudent:in Foresight & Trendscouting at amberra in Hamburg, Germany. You will support the development of internal foresight management and execute trend scouting. (Thanks to reader Jessica for sharing this vacancy.)

🇳🇱 Sustainability Transformation for 2030 Vision Creation (non thesis) at Philips in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

🇸🇬 Intern Intelligence & Futures at MTI (Ministry of Trade and Industry) in Singapore.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

Sticky statement

👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

This one spotted in Utrecht is a double whammy as it combines two sticky statements.

First up: Mark Z. portrayed by Straatbehang as a zombie thirsty for your data and attention. To the right you see a sticker that says in Dutch: ‘FIND YOUR FREEDOM, become naughty’ by De Collectieve Beweging who want to turn our world in one big collective party: more beauty, more play, more mischief! Mantra for your week maybe?

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

Support my work

🙏 You can support my work by buying my books plus recommending them to others and sharing about them online.

Check out my books

How are your new year’s resolutions going (if you have any at all)? 💥 Curious to hear about your focus points for the upcoming months. Drop them in the comments if you like…. 🫶

I’m back from my 5-week Winter hibernation and have done some thinking about where to put my attention. It boiled down into 3 things:

👩🏻‍🎓 KEEP LEARNING

I like to learn so I decided to sign up for 2 classes, which are quite different: a semiotics class (thanks to Kees van Duyn) and a head-and-neck massage workshop. 😂 Will keep an eye out for other classes. So please share the classes, workshops and trainings that you enjoyed doing in the comments section. 👇

Leave a comment

🛠️ 90 DAY PROJECTS

I also value self-direction and creativity (as shared in the previous newsletter) which means I don’t like to only do commissioned work but also create my own projects. Will be experimenting with working on a topic/idea independently for 3 months and hope to deliver ‘something’ after this period and share it with you all. 😅

👀 EXPLORE MORE

I’ve started reading the Artist’s Way (thanks to Livia Santos Germano). It advises to go on an artist-date with yourself every week. Which feeds into my desire to focus more on exploring, as I find this the most interesting and inspiring part of the trend research process (and of life!). So I will plan more ‘going elsewhere, clicking elsewhere, reading elsewhere, listening elsewhere’ this year. ➡️ My first artist-date will be to go the Amsterdam central public library (OBA) and drown in their magazine section.

You will be my accountability partner ! 😆 Want to stay updated of my failings or progress? I’ll be sharing more about my activities via Insta.

Onwards folks!

/ Els

Heard elsewhere

❝ Hope is optimism with a broken heart.❞

Nick Cave, musician & poet

Love the newsletter by Nick Cave called The Red Hand Files in which he answers a question of a reader in a very poetic and personal way. (Thank you Jani De Kock for recommending it!) The quote came from a recent answer to the question “What is hope?”, read Nick’s full answer.

Go elsewhere

🌟 recommendations for trend sources

💬 interview - Don’t bombard young people into change makers - a conversation with Dutch sociologist Micha de Winter about the downsides of the label ‘change maker’, change not being a neutral concept and the full meaning of agency (“Agency also means that you realise that you don't always get your way everywhere.”). Dutch text, translate it in your browser.

🛠️ tool - Tripetto - I filled in a survey recently and the experience was different, like I had an online chat conversation. Much better feeling than filling in a Google Form. Found out it was made with Tripetto.

💻 course - Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions by The Right Question Institute. I followed one of their online workshops on the ‘QFT’ / Question Formulation Technique and still use it in some of my workshops. Will be useful for your research work, also when you are not a teacher.

🗄️ resource - HOLO - an editorial and curatorial platform for emerging trajectories in art, science, and technology.

📝 article - How to see the humanity in anyone. It’s kind of a practical guide on how to practise ‘deep curiosity’ by Scott Shigeoka (who is apparently a ‘curiosity expert’). When you scroll down in the article to ‘links & books’ you can find more material by Scott on this topic.

📲 account - Velvet Coke - this is a very addictive Insta account for me. 🤗 All about nostalgia and pop culture where ‘Velvey’ spits through old archives on the Internet and forgotten fan sites.

🏟 live events

💥 🇳🇱 Future Friends Amsterdam is happening again! On Friday morning January 31st Stefanie Schillmoller and moi are hosting the second Amsterdam edition of FF. A gathering of future minded professionals with super short presentations on random things on the radar. Get your tickets now before they sell out. 💥

& also:

💻 How Rob Hopkins fell in love with the future..., free online session on January 15 in which Rob gives a sneak peek of his upcoming book (“How To fall in love with the future: A Time Traveller’s Guide to Changing the World”).

🇨🇦 Mois Multi - A multidisciplinary arts festival in Quebec, Canada with various events and exhibitions from January 30 till February 28.

🇬🇧 Semiotics and Cultural Insights 2025 - Conference on how to apply semiotics to business challenges with loads of case studies by brands and agencies. Held on February 13 in London.

🇪🇸 Usana Design Festival from June 5-7 in Usana in the Spanish Pyrenees by the Life-Centered Design School. They dub it the ‘the smallest design festival in the world’ with space for only 50 participants. They are now looking for speakers and workshop hosts.

🎥 video

When was the last time you talked to a stranger? In this special from Dutch program Tegenlicht you learn from a conversation specialist and a journalist how to connect with other human beings through short, informal interactions and conversations. 👇

/ Loads of footage is in English and also English subtitles available.

Explore More!

Want to get inspired and update your skills in 2025? Join me at the following events:

• Immersive DesignThinkers Bootcamp for Professional Innovators. In this 5-day highly interactive LIVE training you will EXPERIENCE the Design Thinking Process. On the first day I will give a masterclass on EXPLORING. Runs from April 7-11 in Amsterdam.

• Researching trends to navigate the future. Together with Service Design College and BIS Publishers I’m launching an ONLINE course on trend research. Join me for 4 online sessions running from May 8 - June 5. Introductory price now available!

/ Interested in in-company trainings or on-the-job trend coaching? More info here.

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

Senior roles

🇿🇦 Senior Futurist at Stellenbosch University Business School in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Conducting futures research, managing grants and moderating future sessions are part of this role.

🇺🇸 Senior Researcher Consumer Insights Film at Netflix in Los Angeles, USA. In this role you represent consumers on all things related to film and create understanding how movie viewing habits are changing.

Junior/Medior roles

🇺🇸 Strategic Foresight Consultant at Future Today Institute, remote role but you must be located in USA. This role requires a blend of deep research, scenario planning, consulting and creative thinking to deliver insights that shape business strategies and innovation initiatives.

🇮🇳 Speculative Designer at QUEST Alliance in Bengaluru, India. Join their Youth Futures Studio and bring together research, design and storytelling to imagine alternative futures education industry.

🇿🇦 Product Trend Analyst at SMD Technologies in Johannesburg South Africa. Conduct in-depth research to identify emerging product trends and opportunities in consumer electronics and related markets mainly via data analytics.

🌏 Qual and quant insight managers at Human8 in Ghent, Rotterdam, Paris, London, Taipei and Manila.

Internships / residencies / fellowships

🇬🇧 Trend Research Industrial Placement/Internship at Nissan in Cranfield, UK. Investigate electrification and zero-emission mobility trends. Join and cover conferences and industry events.

🇱🇺 Open Innovation Intern at Chanel in Luxembourg. Business and finance focused research work, such as competitor analysis and market analysis.

🇩🇪 Internship/Praktikum Trendmanagement at Audi Business Innovation in Munich.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

Sticky statement

👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

First time one of you send in a photo! Thank you Julius Tami for this wonderful reminder to stay playful. 🛝

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

Support my work

You can support my work by buying my books plus recommending them to others and sharing about them online.

Check out my books

I’ve been travelling cross-country to deliver trend trainings and guest lectures the past months. What still strikes me is that participants are often blown away when learning that trends are mainly about understanding VALUES.

What I often see happening in organisations is:

• people focussing on signals and hypes, such as new products or styles - because these are very visible and shiny. ✨ (commercial b2c companies often have the tendency to focus on the concrete and the very visible).

OR

• people focussing on driving forces of change, such as globalisation, individualisation - because these are abstract and distant ✋ (public organisations like governments, municipalities etc. feel VERY comfortable with these).

Whereas the true superpower of working with trends is understanding the underlying motivations, desires, dreams and nightmares of people: their values and needs. Because these in the end drive their behaviours and actions.

It also helps to think about your own values. You can use models like Shalom Schwartz’s Values Map to reflect on this. 👇

Do you already feel drawn to some of the values above? Which do you recognise the most in yourself? Which resonate with you? (Pssst…🤫 mine are mostly in the yellow section: self-direction).

As we approach the end of 2024 it can be an insightful activity to ponder about your own values and how you can make them more central in 2025 and beyond.

I’m going into hibernation in December 💤, see you again somewhere in January!

/ Els

Heard elsewhere

❝ A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.❞

Dwight D. Eisenhower, former president of the USA

Don’t believe the hype!

It’s that time of the year again when all kinds of predictions for 2025 are sprinkled around like fairy dust.

Time to share my blog again on how to deal with these trend lists and reports. Because do trends really suddenly change at the turn of the year??

⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇⬇️👇

How to handle trend lists for 2025

Go elsewhere

🌟 recommendations for trend sources

🛠️ tool - Sublime. People often ask me for recommendations for database systems to file their trend signals. Sublime seems an interesting new archiving tool on the block. I also like the founders’ take on anything tech, like this article on embracing slow AI instead on focusing on speed.

💻 course - De Nationale Toekomstcursus / The National Future Course has just launched in the Netherlands. It’s a free online course (in Dutch) where you’ll learn the fundamentals of futures thinking. Maybe an inspiration for other countries to also launch one?

📕 books

• Perimeter - Just found out about this Australian bookstore, publisher and distributor and want to order ALL of their books. 😅 I’ve just ordered this one: ‘Research for people who (think they) would rather create’. Haha, curious to see what the contents will be!

• Tricky Times: Navigating the Messy Middle of Change - Love this book by Dutch anthropologist Jitske Kramer in which she unravels the complexities of transformations and cultural change.

• For all my peri-menopausal buddies out there I can recommend All Fours, a novel by Miranda July which takes you on a hormonal rollercoaster ride.

/ Already worrying that there are too many books to read and too little time? Read this short article on creating an anti-library, a collection of unread books. 😜

🎨 exhibition - Future Fossils - January 23–April 13, 2025 at MAAM in Boston, USA. Too bad I don’t live around the corner, would have loved to visit this expo. It presents a possible future view of the present, a moment frozen in time and culture.

🏟 live events

🇳🇱 State of Futures - In-person gathering of Futures Thinking & Foresight practitioners in Rotterdam on December 7, 2024. This is your chance to connect, discuss the state of the field, and get to know each other better. Hosted by Happy Futures Lab.

🇳🇱 Toekomstdenkers LIVE - Free in-person event in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on December 11, 2024 (in Dutch) about the designers’ role in shaping the future of climate, digitalisation and equality.

🇩🇪 La Futura - Global Conference for futurists and innovation managers in Munich, Germany on December 12-13, 2024. Topic of this year is anti-fragility.

🇮🇹 Designing Retail & Services Futures Colloquium on 14-15 May, 2025 in Milan Italy. Academic event that aims to share knowledge related to retail and service design. Main topic is sustainability.

🇳🇴 Katapult Future Fest in Oslo, Norway on May 21-23, 2025. A central gathering for impact investors, change-makers, and entrepreneurs dedicated to social, cultural, and systemic change.

🎥 video

I attended a conversation with American journalist, critic and author Becca Rothfeld during Brainwash Festival. She takes on the provocative notion that we should embrace chaos, messiness and maximise our experiences. Bye, bye Marie Kondo and minimalism!

I will read Becca Rothfeld’s book ‘All things are too small’ during my hibernation period. Let’s see if and how that might change my mindset….

Here’s a 20-minute interview with her. 👇

Explore More!

Want to get inspired and update your skills in 2025? Join me at the following events:

• Future Friends Amsterdam is happening again! Hosted by Stefanie Schillmoller and moi. A gathering of future minded professionals with short presentations on signals of change. Save the date: Friday morning January 31st from 9 AM - 10.30 AM. Tickets will be available in January. I’ll keep you in the loop.

• Immersive DesignThinkers Bootcamp for Professional Innovators. In this 5-day highly interactive training you will EXPERIENCE the Design Thinking Process. Own the first day I will give a masterclass on EXPLORING. Runs from April 7-11 in Amsterdam.

• Researching trends to navigate the future. Together with Service Design College and BIS Publishers I’m launching an online course on trend research. Join me for 4 online sessions running from May 8 - June 5. Introductory price now available!

/ Interested in in-company trainings or coaching? More info here.

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

Senior roles

🇪🇸 Senior Strategic Anthropologist at A Piece of Pie in Barcelona. Looking for a professional who can independently run mid-to-large scale projects with mixed methods research, insight development, and strategy development mainly in the topic of healthcare.

🌍 Behavioral Researchers & Strategists / Lead Consultants at Appleseed. At this behavioral agency for poverty-fighting organisations you try to figure out what makes people tick. Hiring for an initial project lasting ~4months, with the opportunity to join the Appleseed core team permanently. Hybrid work in e.g. the African region.

Junior/Medior roles

🇬🇧 🇮🇪 🇯🇵 Creative Insights Manager at Getty in either London, Dublin or Tokyo. As part of the Creative Team you provide customers with contemporary visuals and actionable insights that guide customers to the visual content that connects with consumers. (Visual) trend research is part of the daily work.

🇮🇹 Senior Market Research Analyst Consumer Products EMEA (Temporary) at Mattel in Milan. One for the data crunchers: for a 2 years project based in Milano looking for someone that can deliver accurate, insightful analysis to drive consumer-based decision making.

🇮🇪 Business Analyst Planning & Forecasting at Primark in Dublin. The Planning and Forecasting BA will be responsible to identify and shape business capability into key requirements. Side note: please help change this company from the inside and be the undercover mole.

Internships / residencies / fellowships

🇳🇱 Food Design Internship at studio Katja Gruijters in De Steeg, The Netherlands. Includes creative work based around food like graphic design, research, concept development, experiments, and production.

🇳🇱 AI X Business Internship at Trendwatching.com in Amsterdam. Spot and try out new AI tools and apps. Work with the product development team on adapting these tools to TrendWatching's internal processes.

🇬🇧 Junior Trends and Insights Researcher at Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in London. CAA is an entertainment and sports agency. As an intern you’ll conduct research to identify emerging trends and changing consumer behaviours and actively participate in brainstorming sessions.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

Sticky statement

👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

Saw this one lingering on the streets of the interwebs, always makes me smile.

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

🎁 Looking for a Christmas present? 🎁

Gift the book ‘How to Research Trends’ to the change makers, innovators, designers, researchers, creatives, strategists and policy makers in your network.

Purchase the book

When I was working as a trends lecturer in the Netherlands I always had a hard time finding trend professionals to guest lecture.

Not because there are not enough trend professionals to be found over here, but mostly because the compensation for it was very low. 💸

School budgets often do not cater to industry level fees. And as a professional you can feel quite hesitant to share all your knowledge and case studies for just a couple of dimes. I totally get that! 😇

But engaging with students also keeps you sharp and reflective about your own knowledge. ⚡️ That’s why I often say yes to guest lectures.

And from experience I know that teachers can be a bit creative with the fees by calculating a few more hours than the duration of the lecture. (sttt, don’t tell anyone 🤐).

So if you are a professional, in any type of field, I highly encourage you to share your work experience and help inspire future generations!

/ Els

Heard elsewhere

Staying with the theme of education:

❝ Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. ❞

Malcolm X, human rights activist

Go elsewhere

🌟 recommendations for trend sources

🔎 resources - Pact for the Future. Outcome documents of the United Nations ‘Summit of the Future’. The actions mentioned in this Pact for the Future strive to protect the needs and interests of present and future generations.

🗞️ newsletter - In Case of Doubt by Elodie Marteau aims to make sense out of the trendy trend business.

📕 book - Designing Futures - Written by Eileen Mandir and Benedikt Groß. A guide to exploring, visualizing and negotiating future scenarios. Also comes with an accompanying website including Miro templates.

📝 article - Interesting academic article featured in Futures journal - The seeds of tomorrow: Investigating adolescent perception of the future with the Futures Consciousness scale for adolescents.

🏟 live events

🇳🇱 IMPAKT festival on October 30 - November 3 in Utrecht The Netherlands. This arts and culture festival focuses in this edition on artists who embrace controversy and dare to be radical.

🇧🇪 System Shakers - on November 14 in Gent, Belgium. A conference on social innovation and system change. / Dutch spoken.

🇫🇮 OASC Conference - Open & Agile Smart Cities on January 22-23 2025 in Tampere Helsinki. Theme: ‘Artificial Intelligence for Smarter Communities?’

🎥 video

Following up upon last month’s newsletter about the adoption of moralised behaviour. Here’s a 15 minute interview with Dutch academics Reint Jan Renes and Loes Kreemers.

They research climate psychology and why we find it hard to change our behaviour.

In Dutch with English subs👇

Trend talk

What’s a teachers approach to trends?

This month I’m featuring Maud Donga, a trend lecturer and coordinator at Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Let’s explore a teacher's experience of teaching trends to students. 👇

Trend teaching with Maud

👀 You can also explore an exhibition of graduation projects from her students during Dutch Design Week from October 19-27 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

Senior roles

🇺🇸 Cultural Intelligence Director at The Community Agency in NYC or Miami. Heading the cultural insights engine of a creative agency. Looking for the type of person that has a POV on everything culture from Dadaism to Demure and enjoys dreaming up what it all means for brands. (Thanks for sharing!)

🇬🇧 Foresight Specialist at Connected Places Catapult in London or Milton Keynes. Looking for someone to lead research on core areas of ‘Connected Places’, such as transport systems, place or built environment, and infrastructure.

🇳🇱 Strategy Director at Ogilvy in Amsterdam. Someone who can oversee the complete strategy process from problem framing, uncovering insights to ideation and visioning. Dutch speaking required.

Junior/Medior roles

🇳🇱 Junior researcher / lecturer at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Research assistant in the project ‘Digitalization in culture and creative industries’. Perform junior teaching tasks in the degree programmes in the field of Media and Communication.

🇦🇹 Mitarbeiterin Innovationsmanagement at Stadt Wien in Austria. Trend researcher with a specific focus on technology / digital office.

🇳🇱 Concept developer & Researcher at Waag Futurelab in Amsterdam. Translating abstract ideas on technology into practical interventions. Experienced in qualitative research and leading co-creation processes.

Internships / residencies / fellowships

💻 Future Days Fellowship Program - remote. A funded six-month fellowship program designed for three young designers or futurists aged between 18-25 to propose and lead a speculative future oriented project.

💻 Futures Fellows at UNDP - remote. Assist the Strategy and Futures team of UNDP on a stipend basis for six months. Part-time or full-time.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

Sticky statement

👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

During live guest workshops I send students outside and ask them to spot signals of change and bring these back to the classroom. Below are some examples of what they spot inside and outside of their schools:

Sooooo….no excuse for you to sit on your couch and stuck to your screen. If they can do it, you can do it too. Hit the streets and start scanning!

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

Studio Elsewhere is currently doing trend work with:

🤝 TNO / STL / ASML / Here-Now 🤝

September always has an active vibe in the Netherlands. People come back from Summer holidays, schools start again and roads get congested with work traffic.

I took 1,5 months off. It’s one of the perks of freelancing: I just have to ask my boss, aka myself, if I can take time off. Luckily I’m a very friendly boss and I always give myself what I want. 😂

Went camping in France & practiced my French. I just love how French words for ordinary stuff always sound way prettier than in Dutch (or English). Here are some words I learned this Summer: a parking meter is called horodateur. 😍 A self scan check out is called scannette. 👌 A garage sale is called vide grenier, which means empty attic. ✨

My e-reader travelled along. I read multiple books (I never count how many because I don’t like to quantify my life, let alone book reading. It’s not a competition people, it’s a hobby! 🤨). Most of which had nothing to do with work. I will start sharing these in my newsletters, as you mind find them interesting too.

Enjoy September!

/ Els

Heard elsewhere

❝We only need to fear being replaced by robots, if we live like robots.❞

Karen Rosenkranz, trend forecaster & author of .

Trending topic

🗣 what’s talked about in trend circles?

I'm fascinated by Rogers' innovation theory and how the adoption curve shows how change spreads. The insights and conversations that follow from using this theory are invaluable.

Recently, I discovered Dutch professor Jan Willem Bolderdijk, who dives into the psychological barriers and accelerators of new intentions becoming new behaviors.

He focuses on how sustainable actions can become the norm, and how social dynamics and morality play a crucial role.

Curious about ‘Social Tipping Points’ and ‘Moral Rebels’? Click below to read more! 👇

Read all about it!

/ Know anyone else researching change adoption? Let me know in the comments or send me a message!

Go elsewhere

🌟 recommendations for trend sources

🔎 resource

SAPIENS - a digital magazine about everything human, told through the stories of anthropologists. It brings together the voices of scholars who look to the past, present, and future to assemble vital observations on what it means to be human.

📕 books

Zurück zur Zukunft - a wonderful book (in German) on the mindset and methods needed to create the future by future researchers Marcel Aberle & Markus Iofcea.

Rien de Neuf - a practical book (in French) on how to curb your consumption and not buy anything new by trend forecaster Marie-Michèle Larivée.

‘Healing fiction’ - is on the rise, emerging from Japan and Korea. What better way to unwind than with a comforting story including empathy, courage and solidarity? I read two books by Hika Harada during my vacation and enjoyed them very much!

💻 online session

Semiofest Session - a bunch of semiotics practitioners discuss their favourite culture decoders from literature, movies, TV shows, and anime on Friday September 27, donation based ticketing.

🏟 live events

Holitopia - Festival for Arts, Design & Futures in Berlin on September 20-22. Its aim is to give shape to abstract visions of the future: futures to see and touch.

Forward Festival - Festival for Creativity, Design & Communication in Vienna on October 3-4. Get inspired by unexpected and uncompromising creativity. Livestream also available.

Design Thinking Conference - join my friends from DesignThinkers Academy on October 10-11 in Amsterdam for an immersive experience where empathy takes center stage.

Brainwash Festival - 3 days of innovative and thought provoking ideas shared on different locations in Amsterdam from October 24 till 27

🎥 video

Saw this interesting snippet from an interview with writer Aldous Huxley (known mostly from his dystopian novel Brave New World). Watch it for quotes like:

“Technology was made for man and not man for technology.”

…and more of his still very relevant views on society. [ca. 8 minutes] 👇

Trend talk

💼 The trend forecasters’ starter pack ⤵️ 😜

(guilty of publishing ideas on Substack…)

Back to school

It’s that time of the year again where classrooms fill up. September = guest lectures for me and joining classrooms, online or live, to teach about trends.

Want to start learning about trends too or refresh your knowledge?

Buy my book ‘How to Research Trends’ with a 20% discount by using the code trends20 in the webshop of BIS Publishers. ⬇ (valid until end of September)

Get your copy!

Work Elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!

🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.

Senior roles

🇩🇪 Senior Culture Research Manager at Zalando in Berlin. You will be responsible for leading Zalando’s efforts to understand, analyse, and forecast cultural trends that impact our business.

🇬🇧 Creative Strategy Director at Bompas & Parr in London. Known for their super original food experiences, this is an amazing opportunity to be part of the Bompas & Parr Team. It’s a maternity contract for 13 months.

🇳🇱 Coordinator Quality Care at Artemis Academie in Amsterdam. Responsible for ensuring the quality of education and student wellbeing at this academy for trend forecasting, styling & art direction.

🇪🇺 Head of Research & Insights at Management Events in Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona, Helsinki or Stockholm. You will identify emerging technology trends and develop quantitative and qualitative methods to execute research amongst tech executives across Europe.

🇬🇧 Creative Content Strategy Lead at BDA London / Trendhub. As part of the management team you will creatively and strategically direct the trend publication Trendhub ensuring a world class product that meets revenue and profit targets.

Junior/Medior roles

🇬🇧 Trends researcher & Writer at Stylus in London. Supporting the Director of Consumer Lifestyle and the Trends Editor of Food & Beverage and Hospitality & Leisure in all modes of written, visual and multimedia content.

💻 Insight Journalist / Contributors at Protein. For smart, switched on and sassy insight contributors with strong social media skills.

Internships / residencies

🇳🇱 Internships campaigning for change at De Goede Zaak in Utrecht. Want to work on citizen campaigns for progressive change or develop your own one? Apply now for various internships (in Dutch).

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇

Share trend vacancies

Sticky statement

👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

Spotted in the city centre of Metz. You can always count on the French to turn something into a revolution! ✊ This specific movement wants to abolish machines and loads of technology. I’m not so sure about removing ALL machines/tech (hello sewage systems!😭). I’m not a luddite or Amish, machines/tech can improve our lives hugely. But I catch their drift: be more conscious about which machines to use and how they impact the earth.

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

Studio Elsewhere is currently doing trend work with:

🤝 Woonzorg Nederland / CreativeUK / TNO / Municipality of Almere / STL 🤝

I’m following a French language course to re-activate my ‘talenknobbel’ (Dutch word for people who have an aptitude for learning languages, the so-called ‘language lump’).

For trend researchers and future minded peeps, language is a powerful tool to label detected trends and share stories about future directions that are unfolding. Story telling and copy writing is part of the skill set.

I recently read that when we learn languages it changes our neural wiring. It shapes the way we think and imagine. Switching from one language to another when thinking about solving a problem, can help you to find different solutions.

For many readers of this newsletter English is not your native tongue (and it’s also not mine). I congratulate you all for having mastered at least one other language! As the saying goes: to have a second language is to have a second soul.

And for those of you who have never tried it: why not attempt to learn the basics of a new language instead of outsourcing it to a language translation tool? Get your brain rewired by the effort of learning a new lingo.

Alors, I will clear my calendar for the next 1,5 month to enjoy some soleil. Naturellement, I will visit France to go camping, do all kinds of outdoorsy stuff and make use of some unsuspecting locals to enrich my basic French vocabulary.

A bientôt!

/ Els

PS: I’m looking for an atelier-like workspace in Amsterdam (or Amstelveen/ Aalsmeer) that fits 2 people (ca. 25 m2) and < €500 per month. Also up for co-renting a space with others. Feed me with your tips!

Heard elsewhere

Rewatched the movie ‘Ghost Dog: The way of the Samurai’ where the protagonist is reading the Hagakure, a spiritual guide for a warrior. One of the texts deals with time and the concept of Zeitgeist:

❝ It is said that what is called "the spirit of an age" is something to which one cannot return. That this spirit gradually dissipates is due to the world's coming to an end. For this reason, although one would like to change today's world back to the spirit of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation. ❞

Yamamoto Tsunetomo, samurai and Zen Buddhist priest

Trending topic

🗣 what’s talked about in trend circles?

A trend friend reached out to me (thank you Ann!) and shared a link to a promotional post of an A.I. tool that automates trend insights and states that doing trend research yourself is not necessary when you use this tool.

Ann asked me what I thought about this statement. Because it’s 30 degrees in NL 🥵 and I’m experiencing heat fog I’m not writing a full-blown blogpost this time. Here’s a compact version of my thoughts:

When I read the promo post (and similar ones) I notice they always have very masculine language: bigger, productive, better, efficient, bolder, faster, effective, etc. (when I read these types of words, this Daft Punk song always plays in my mind).

These A.I. tools are also promoted by using very risk averse language: 100% certainty for the win! Whereas working with trends and futures is about trying to deal with uncertainty and sit with the uncomfortable feeling, not about running away from it as fast as you can.

The language is also very product focused: using this or that tool will replace doing research. And yes, it’s handy to automise part of your research, especially desk research. But trend research and foresight is not a product you can outsource 100%. Futures thinking to me is about cultivating a mindset, a mentality, where you take a the time to open up your ways of envisioning the future.

Still waiting for a more feminine, process focused A.I.-feature that might bring added value to my trend work…. If you know any, please share in the comments. 👇

Go elsewhere

🌟 recommendations for trend sources

🔎 resource - Calculating Empires. This is an incredible map showing the genealogy of technology and power since 1500. It explores how technical and social structures co-evolved over five centuries. The aim is to view our contemporary period in a longer trajectory of ideas, devices, infrastructures, and systems of power.

🌱 initiative - MOTH (More Than Human Life). Are you into life centred design & research? MOTH is an interdisciplinary initiative advancing rights & well-being for humans, nonhumans & the web of life that sustains us all. Part of a program of NYU School of Law.

📜 article - What the ‘future histories’ of the 1920s can teach us about hope. Historian Thomas Moynihan explores what we can learn from the hopeful and 'flagrantly fictional' forecasts written 100 years ago. Sometimes the truly tectonic social reforms are uttered first as semi-serious daydreams of "could" before they can become palpable matters of "must".

🏟 events

Paradigms. A Brand Experience Summit where global creatives come together to shift the future of brand. Held on 24-25 September in Rome, Italy.

Systems Innovation Conference. Two-day live gathering for everyone who wants to tackle complex problems with systems thinking. Held on September 6-7 in London, UK.

🎥 video - Talking about languages: cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky explains how languages shape our thinking with super nice examples from different types of cultures.

Can’t get enough of this subject? Here’s a much longer and in-depth version of Lera’s talk for the Long Now Foundation.

Trend talk

🤓 insights from a trend pro

Meet Livia Santos Germano, a Brazilian brand and strategy expert specialised in the health domain. She uses trend research in her projects to create deeper and lasting connections with people through brand-driven Innovation. Below she shares how she works on the intersection of brands & trends:

• Why is it interesting to work with trends as a brand expert?

“Working with trends is essential for creating meaningful connections between brands and people. By examining both the brand's internal strengths and the external cultural landscape, you can align the brand with current and emerging consumer needs. This ensures the brand remains relevant, responsive, and deeply resonant with its audience over time. Trends guide business decisions and shape how brands engage with people, now and in the future.”

• How do you infuse your branding projects with trends?

“Trend mapping is key during the initial immersion and discovery phases. I evaluate residual, dominant, and emerging industry codes, analyse the cultural context, and assess their impact on the brand and its consumer relationships. Trends help identify brand territories, shape strategy, and design experiences that resonate with the current cultural climate. My approach blends curiosity, world observation, desk research, and trend report analysis, combining analytical and conceptual thinking.”

• What are barriers you sometimes have to overcome in combining branding with trends?

“A major barrier is skepticism from clients or teams who favour traditional methods over trend-driven approaches. Convincing stakeholders involves demonstrating the value of trends in identifying business opportunities and strengthening consumer connections. This requires showcasing successful case studies and emphasising the long-term benefits of being trend-responsive.”

• How would you like to see branding evolve in the future?

“I envision branding as a catalyst for life-centered, regenerative futures. Brands should go beyond traditional marketing to foster genuine connections, drive societal progress, and promote well-being. This involves creating strategies that are deeply aligned with human values and designed to regenerate both society and the environment. Future branding should act with authenticity and courage, addressing emerging challenges and adapting to new realities while remaining relevant and impactful.”

Livia has moved to the Netherlands recently and is looking to expand her network. Want to connect with Livia? Contact her via her website, Insta or LinkedIN.

💼 trend related jobs

Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends. 🔍

Senior roles

🇦🇺 Adaptive Futures Lead at Regen Melbourne in Australia. To provide a dedicated climate change lens across all workstreams, with a primary focus on climate adaptation. The role will sit within Regen Melbourne's newly formed Systems Lab.

🇫🇮 Chief Specialist - Design for Futures at LAB University of Applied Sciences in Lathi, Finland. Looking for an experienced researcher with a phd to conduct research and coordinate the Design for Futures research group.

🇸🇪 Director of Business Innovation & Foresight at Innovation Lab of Volvo in Gothenburg, Sweden. To create the next horizon in new digital services and to accelerate the digital transformation within the Volvo Group. To discover new opportunities enabled by technologies, data and societal trends.

Junior/Medior roles

🇬🇧 Writer and researcher at Superflux in London. Amazing opportunity at this design and experiential futures studio doing high-level research spanning speculative design, technology, ecology, arts and foresight.

🇵🇱 Trend researcher at LPP in Gdansk, Poland. Focused on fashion trends and informing the head designers about trends in moods, colours and silhouettes.

Internships / residencies

🇳🇱 Future strategy and innovation intern at Ministry of Social Affairs in The Hague, The Netherlands. Looking for a student with an innovative mindset, who is able to spot societal trends and to help translate trends for policy making.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. 👇

Share trend vacancies

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👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

Seen on the streets in Amsterdam, pointing you into the direction of…..?

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

Love how Swiss boutique store Kitchener has photographed my book ‘Dare to Ask’. Super cute with these clips holding the pages.

In need of an easy, yet informative holiday read? Get your copy online (or in a store near you).

It’s sunny Springtime over here in the Netherlands. 😎 And it seems like everyone has awakened, also companies. In my case that means many trainings, guest lectures and research projects seem to fall in exactly the same period. 😅

You might think: You’re a trendwatcher, can’t you predict this will happen? Haha, I wish I could!

So this month’s newsletter is a bit more compact than usual. Personal highlight: I’m sharing a podcast that dubs me as the Agatha Christie of trend research, what’s not to love about that?😭☠️

/ Els

Heard elsewhere

❝ Every great dream begins with a dreamer.❞

Harriet Tubman, social activist & abolitionist

Trending topic

🗣 what’s talked about in trend circles?

Jan Mosedale interviewed me on trends. He’s a lecturer and researcher at Fachhochschule Graubünden in Switzerland, where he develops modules in futures and trend research on the topic of tourism & leisure. He uses the recordings as teaching materials, smart right? You can of course do this too. 😋

We talked about topics that are often discussed in the trend field, such as:

- Misconceptions about trends
- How to start researching trends using the trend levels framework
- Challenges with trend research

Watch/Listen now 👇

Go elsewhere

🌟 recommendations for trend sources

🔎 Future Observatory Journal: new biannual online journal on design, ecology and futures. It’s published by Future Observatory, the Design Museum’s national (UK) research programme for the green transition and aims to expand the often narrow scope in which design and ‘sustainability’ are discussed.

🛠️ tool - The Obliquiscope. Had to double check thrice to see if I spelled it correctly, but this object is perfect to use during field research exercises. Created by John V Willshire of The Smithery. You can buy them here.

🏟 events

🇸🇪 The Conference - Heard raving reports about past editions of ‘The Conference’ in Malmö, Sweden. The name is already brilliant and it’s held during 27-28 of August. This year’s program looks for insights into our uncertain present by looking both backwards and forwards, with hindsight and foresight.

🇳🇱 Brave New World - 12 & 13 September in Leiden, The Netherlands. It’s a conference on how future technology will impact human life. Theme of this year is: ‘the future of indifference’.

🎥 video - Long time readers of this newsletter know I love to spot signals of change on stickers (see last item of this letter / Sticky Statements). It seems I’m not the only sticker aficionado out there. There’s a documentary out now about the people creating these stickers. Memorable quote: “Stickers are like bite-sized civil disobediences.”

Check out the trailer of The Sticker Movie via Vimeo.👇

Trend talk

🤓 insights from a trend pro

For my book on trends I’ve interviewed professionals how integrate trend research within an organisation and company culture.

Here are some insights from Eva Burm, Port of the Future advisor at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges. She is part of the innovation enablement team and responsible for introducing creativity, ideation, design thinking, systemic design and trendwatching techniques.

• Why work with trends?

“My goal is to create an innovation culture where people have the skills to get from a challenge to a solution. Training and facilitating my colleagues in doing trend research enables them to explore wider and spot changes inside and outside of their own industry. It pushes them to think in a future-minded way. I’m convinced that when you are more aware of all the changes that are coming at you, you will be able to handle them in a better way.”

• How do you work with trends?

“We mainly scan per project and all project members are asked to scan. Doing it with ten people really brings in much more information than one person doing the scanning. I really value cross-industry scanning to get surprising input. Interviews with innovators are also very useful. We deliberately look for people with different expertise to bring in various perspectives on a topic. I then organise analysis sessions where the participants analyse the signals they brought in and we create the first clusters together. Our analysis is never really finished because trends keep evolving. But because we look at trends and not hype we don’t have to update our trend overview every month.”

• How to define the Impact of trends?

“It’s hard to measure or pinpoint the impact of trends within innovation processes because the effects are mostly visible in the long run. If you try to make things too quantifiable in the short term, you lose innovation power. Using trend insights helps in being more deliberate in your innovation process and thinking things through before implementing. That’s not easily expressed in percentages.”

• How to integrate trend research in a company?

“I’ve learned it’s best to take baby steps when integrating a new practice in an organisation. Don’t try to convince the whole company at once to become trend watchers. Create a coalition of the willing, experiment together and share the learnings with a wider audience. Make sure there is always something to share or to apply, make your process tangible. Be honest about the limitations of trend research and also share the situations in which it does not work.”

Want to know more about how Eva and other professionals are integrating trends within company processes? In my book “How to Research Trends” you can find more examples.

💼 trend related jobs

Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends. 🔍

Senior roles

🇺🇸 Senior UX Researcher, Futures Insights at Amazon. Using research to inform early strategic decision making. Collecting and communicating foundational insights on human needs and motivations, and sociocultural trends. Location: Seattle.

Junior/Medior roles

🇨🇦 Trends & Foresight Analyst at Dig Insights in Toronto, Canada. Dig Insights is a tech-enabled research company looking for someone to play a crucial role in identifying emerging trends, predicting future challenges, and developing strategic solutions to navigate complex problems.

🇬🇧 CoSTAR Foresight Lab Research Associate/ Fellow at Goldsmiths University of London. The Foresight Lab is designed to drive innovation in emerging technologies across screen, games and performance. You will lead and conduct research focused on the future of converged, advanced media production in the Creative Industries

Executive Assistant to the Global Head of Insight & Foresight at CHANEL. In other words, you will be the P.A. of the head of foresight and have to arrange meetings, travels and do note taking etc. Well, it’s a way to get closer to this line of work...🤗

Internships / residencies

🇺🇸 Creative Residencies at IDEO Colab. Join IDEO’s 3-month creative residency in San Francisco and get the space, resources, and a one-of-a-kind creative community to explore an idea and publish a drop (such as a set of prototypes, design fiction, an art installation, a zine, and more).

🇳🇱 Cultural trends research intern at The Next Cartel. This creative agency is seeking a motivated research Intern in Amsterdam to join their Observatory department from mid-June until the end of October. Tasks: dive deep into contemporary culture, decode vibrant trends and craft content that fuels strategies.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. 👇

Share trend vacancies

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👁 straight from the streets into your inbox

Turning the tables. 😜 Loesje has been sharing sticky statements all over the Netherlands since 1983. Hadn’t seen an English version before, but apparently there’s an international Loesje branch too.

/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇

Send your sticky statement

Still on a high after the event I co-organised together with Stefanie Schillmöller in Amsterdam. Such a cool bunch of people came together!

Among the 21 signals shared were intriguing topics like: Artificial Intimacy, Mapped Migration, Macrocosmic Time, Sob Parlours, Skibidi Rizz and Phygital Promises.

It might not be the last one, you will be the first one to know about a next edition via this newsletter. Here’s an impression of what happened:

Next on the agenda of live events: you can join an interactive f2f masterclass ‘Navigating Trends’ where I will guide you through the 3 phases of the Trend Research Cycle.

Hosted by the sparkly new Futures Skills Academy, you can join this 1-day live trend training, which focuses on learning-by-doing, in Haarlem, The Netherlands.

What you'll learn:

• the relevance of trend research for organisations

• essential theory, such as the definition of a trend and the trend levels

• the trend research model with its 3 phases

• how to scan: where to find signals of change + doing field research on the spot!

• how to analyse: synthesize your findings and go deeper into underlying value shifts

• how to apply: tools and techniques to help you create 'trendslations'

• tips on integrating trend skills and activities in your team or company

It’s basically the live version of the contents of my book ‘How to Research Trends’. 😁

Info & tickets

Maybe see you there? Or if you think this might be an interesting training for a colleague or a friend, please forward. 🫶 Now onto some trend inspiration. ⤵️

/ Els

Heard elsewhere

❝ History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.❞

Mark Twain, writer

Trending topic

🗣 what’s talked about in trend circles?

I’m invited as a trend guest lecturer at various universities and academies. The teachers are very keen on opening up the way their students 👀 observe the world. That’s why during these lectures I often stress the power of field research. To kick start this research activity it’s helpful to create a scan plan. ⤵

This is how to create a Scan Plan

TL;DR - Prepping a concrete plan with specific locations to visit helps you to get off your ass and hit the streets. The link above also shows a field map 🗺️ example of Nottingham that lecturer Rosie made for her students. 🌟 There’s also a link to a drive folder with more field maps & an opportunity to upload your own.

No more excuses, get out now!

Go elsewhere

🌟 recommendations for trend sources

🗄️ repository - I’m a sucker for visual trend overviews. This is an example of a STEEP-influenced trend rader by Manyone.

🏟 events

🇳🇱 Dutch Innovation Days, 2-day art, science & technology festival on May 30-31 in Enschede, The Netherlands.

🇫🇮 The 24th (!) Futures Conference in Turku, Finland on June 13-14, focuses this year on the futures of natural resources.

🇩🇪 The University:Future Festival in Berlin, Germany on June 5-7 is dedicated to the (digital) future of academic education. Topics include AI, future skills, didactics and strategy processes.

🎥 video - To demonstrate that we are veeeery bad at observing gradual changes in our environment, this is a great example: the changing room illusion. Just watch and be surprised by your own blindness.

Trend talk

🤓 insights from a trend pro

Ksenya Lery is a seasoned trend expert who has lived and worked all over the globe. During the past years she lived in Moscow where she runned agency Trendsquire. Ksenya has fled the country with her family and is now living in Thailand. She shares her personal story on how to run a trend business in this situation.

• What are barriers for you to work with trends in your current situation?

The main barrier is the division of Russian companies, previously my main clients, from the rest of the world. There is now a microclimate for this type of clients: all supply chains are re-oriented to China, and the local market is isolated. 

Also, in fashion and design there is a big trend emphasizing brand strategy more than trends as they are. But actually I like it! It makes creative strategies even more creative.

• You continued your Trend School remotely. Can you explain what Trend School is to our readers?

Trend School is an educational initiative for Russian speaking designers and creatives in the way to make trend information and trendwatching techniques available for them, even with a small budget.

I believe that a decentralized future could be more sustainable for us and our Planet. So it’s a kind of mission for me to support small hands! We talk about topics like practicing mindfulness through crafts. The new program also contains subjects like Futures Literacy – for a better orientation and a calm progression for all.

• How did you adapt Trend School to make it work remotely?

Well, it’s my pandemic start up, so it’s always been run remotely. I have very loyal students with 10… even 17 Cristalls (Trend School members) that I’ve never met offline! The point is to maintain a kind of “office hours” – I call them TrendCoffee – online meetings to talk with the community. Know their context of life, discussing difficulties that they can meet. We also have online TrendFestivals 4 times a year, so we can exchange our ideas, share experiences, and support each other.

• What type of trend work are you looking for right now?

Thank you for asking! Well it would be great if I could find something to do that I am good at! Like adapting brand strategy according to the trends, assortment strategy for home and fashion. Or creating educational programs for trends and future issues. Great if it is in Montréal as we are trying to move there. Or remote work, for a new start in this new land!

🌟 Thanks Ksenya for sharing your personal story of working with trends while in exile. If you have any connections in Montréal or remote work opportunities for Ksenya, please contact her via hello.trendburo@gmail.com.

Work elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends. 🔍

Senior roles

🇧🇪 Innovation, Strategy and Design Lead at frog / Capgemini Invent in Brussels, Belgium. They also have other roles available in countries like Spain, USA or The Netherlands.

🇳🇱 Marketplace Director at Patagonia in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. They are looking for someone experienced in Strategy & Visioning. Who keeps abreast of industry and customer trends and developments in the marketplace.

Junior/Medior roles

🇬🇧 Creator and Culture Specialist at London based agency The Digital Fairy. For people passionate about sports, lifestyle and beauty and who have in-depth knowledge of the creative landscape, culture and society.

🌎 Global Trendspotters at Foresight Factory, remote freelance trend work. They are looking for people to join their global network of trendspotters to provide insights into the world around them for client projects across a variety of sectors such as luxury, travel, automotive, financial, healthcare, retail, and energy.

🇳🇱 Project Leader Innovation at Garage2020 in The Netherlands. Dutch spoken and you will be working throughout the country.

🇬🇧 The Nuffield Council on Bioethics (NCOB) is hiring a Horizon Scanning Coordinator in London to better anticipate emerging trends in biomedicine and health. You will assist in the enhancement of the current horizon scanning and foresight activities.

🇳🇱 Coordinator Innovation Network Youth in the region of Brabant, The Netherlands. Dutch spoken and 24 hours per week.

Internships

🇩🇰 Strategic innovation agency IS IT A BIRD is looking for a design intern and a research intern for Autumn 2024 in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are located in an abandoned auto repair shop in the Valby area and combine deep user insight and strategic design to develop new business concepts, strategy, and innovation capacity.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. 👇

Share trend vacancies

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Nice addition on the renewi branded garbage containers: bin your ego whilst your at it!

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This year is THE year of face-to-face meetups for me. Last year I holed up because I wanted to update my book on trends. Now I am up for anything irl. Whether it is following in-person trainings (I’m signing up for a French course) or meeting with friends.

So, when Stefanie Schillmöller reached out to me to co-organise a Futures Friends meetup, she did it at the best moment. Ofcourse I said YES!

And I’m inviting You, my dear trend friend to join on Friday morning April 19 in the heart of the city of Amsterdam for an inspiring breakfast meetup. It includes:

🥐🥨 breakfast snacks and ☕️🫖

👩🏻‍🏫🎤 speakers who will share trend signals in a 333 format (short & sweet)

👯💬 time to meet and exchange with fellow future friends

A big thank you to DesignThinkers Academy for sharing their studio to host this event.

↘️↘️

More info and tickets

Hope to see you there or anywhere else around the globe this year!

/ Els

Heard elsewhere

❝ A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living. ❞

Virginia Woolf, writer

Trending topic

🗣 what’s talked about in trend circles?

As the DesignThinking Academy is hosting the Futures Friends events in their studio I thought it would be nice to take a look at how trend research & design thinking overlap (or could overlap). ⤵️

Design Thinking meets Trends

TL;DR - The Design Thinking process is mainly focused on discovering current wants and needs of people. Infusing the Design Thinking process with trend research helps to also take emerging values and needs into account of frontrunners and change makers related to your design challenge. General DT tools such as creating personas and journey mapping can be enriched with futures personas & futures journey maps.

Go elsewhere

🌟 recommendations for trend sources

📜 newsletter - I enjoy reading Sentiers by Patrick Tanguay which currently hovers often around the topic of AI and its societal implications.

🔎 research - I’ve been part of a EU-funded project called Fedora. It’s about futurising science education and the 3-year project has been wrapped up officially recently. You can find the part I’ve collaborated on about futures here.

🗄️ repository - Always wanted to know what Pastel Gore or FantasY2K is about? Aesthetics Wiki is your place to go! It’s a comprehensive encyclopedia of online and offline aesthetics.

🏟 event - Katapult Future Fest in Oslo on May 29-31 is designed explicitly for impact investors, tech entrepreneurs, and purpose-driven change-makers. It aims to drive positive change.

🧑‍🎓 course - Quantifying Culture by Dan Gould is a 4 sessions online short course during the month of April. It’s for all trendwatchers and forecasters who need to find data and stats to prove your research, sell an idea or help size an insight. Sounds super interesting!

🎥 video - For ASML (makers of chip machines - very high tech stuff) I’m training engineers to be more empathetic and work more people-centered (not a fan of the word ‘user’). So anything about empathy gets my attention. Like this talk by Roman Krznaric (yes, him again ☺️) on empathy, which he describes as “outrospection”. One of his tips is to talk to a stranger every week. Let’s try to do this!

Watch & learn - talk is 10 minutes, in English with Dutch subtitles. ⤵️

Trend talk

🤓 insights from a trend pro

This month we ask Erica Bol about her work in the foresight team of the Policy Lab at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.

• What’s the goal of your work at the Policy Lab?

The EU Policy Lab is a collaborative and experimental space for innovative policymaking. We use foresight, design and behavioural insights to support our way of working. Our lab supports EU policymaking by providing strategic and future-oriented input, developing an anticipatory culture inside the European Commission, continuously experimenting and developing different methods and tools to make foresight practically useful for decision-making processes.

• What is a current experimental project you are working on?

I’m now working on Futures Garden. It is our autonomous space where we explore different potential futures that might have a substantial influence on the future of Europe. For this we use fictional future artefacts that invite to reflect and debate. Our first two themes are ‘extending human perception to new scales’ and ‘dealing with future selves’. With Futures Garden we empower policymakers to shape a dynamic and diverse future for the people they serve. 

• In what way does your foresight work influence policy making?

We stimulate long term thinking, with the purpose to make policies more inclusive and intergenerational fair. For example we have a set of Megatrends that can be used by policymakers to see if they have taken different long term developments into account when designing their policies. Or a set of Reference Foresight Scenarios that can be used to windtunnel / stress test the new policy directions. 

• What are barriers you encountered working with foresight at the European Commission?

Our challenge is to invite policy makers to not be ‘re-active’ in solving problems, but to 'pro-actively' engage in influencing futures. To do this we have, amongst others, set up an internal foresight training program, are working on a capacity building program for member states and, to make sure young people, our policy makers of the future, are better equipped to deal with change, a 20-lesson program in cooperation with TED-Ed Future Forward.

🌟 Thanks Erica for sharing your interesting work at the EU policy lab with us! Interested in working at the Policy Lab? They have a vacancy!👇

Work elsewhere

💼 trend related jobs

Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends. 🔍

Senior roles

🇳🇱 Market and User Research Expert/Lead at Tencent Games. Only if you have a genuine passion for gaming! 🕹️ To oversee the Infinite Research Center's entire research strategy.

🇬🇧 A Director and a Senior Lecturer Futures at Edinburgh Futures Institute.

🇬🇧 Associate Director Cultural Strategy at Crowd DNA in London. It’s a maternity cover position for an initial period of 12 months with the potential of the role becoming permanent.

Junior/Medior roles

🇪🇺 Policy Analist at the European Commission. Has to have experience in both future studies/foresight AND artificial intelligence. You will create, and implement AI-driven foresight solutions and contribute to developing future scenarios. 3-year contract which is extendable to 6.

🇳🇱 Medior strategy consultant at TrendsActive in Utrecht. To help brands better understand and meet the needs of their audience. (Thanks Kees for sharing!)

🇫🇷 Qualitative Insight Analyst - Society & Culture at Chanel. As part of the global insight and foresight team you’ll research emerging trends and cultural shifts.

🇦🇺 Phd Scholarship ‘The Impact of Future Human Values and Practices on Australia’s Net Zero and Digital Transitions’. This fellowship will innovate new qualitative and ethnographic methods to investigate the role of future human values in developing a path towards technologically supported environmental sustainability.

🇩🇪 Designer color & materials FTW Outdoor at Adidas in Herzogenaurach. This is a 6 months contract to infuse the collection with trend forecasting insights.

Internships

🇳🇱 Innovation Team Intern at Impact Hub in Amsterdam.

/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. 👇

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In the Netherlands there is a growing group of Euro-sceptics. But this citizen of Amsterdam clearly has other thoughts on what a European Union can bring and wants to share that with the world. A union does not mean we all should become one homogenous mass of people, we can be united in our diversity. 🎉

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