On Tuesday, we lined up Mike Walsh, Author of Futuretainment and CEO of innovation research agency Tomorrow, for a presentation at a regional conference of HSBC. What insights can we draw from the future? Instead of talking about what will happen 20 years from now, Mike likes to talk about what is happening today, and tomorrow – to help the audience to make better sense of the trends, its impact on our business and may be our lives.
Mike likes to emphasize the importance of 1994 – the year when Netscape Navigator, the first commercial web browser, became available. Since that day, there is this whole new generation who does not know the world without the Internet, when entertainment was scheduled by the content provider rather than on demand, when we had to buy the whole album even what we liked was only one of the songs. It is a new era – and we better know how to make sense of it.
For instance – 
- How consumers are already talking about your brand, and how to participate in the conversation
- The new secret of blockbusters and why audiences will become your most valuable marketers
- Why we will never watch or read anything that isn’t recommended to us by someone we know
- Why the media habits of Chinese teenagers will forever change the way we interact
- How big media companies will make money when all content is free
Through thorough research and observation, Mike has many of the answers.