Jim Carroll- Futurist, Trends & Innovation Keynote Speaker

It’s always a thrill when you come away from a keynote with fabulous feedback. So it was with my keynote for KOA – Kampgrounds of America — in Orlando in November!

I had an awesome stage, morning slot, and was primed for a great talk. I had done a *lot* of research on camping and outdoor hospitality trends, and was ready to pump up the crowd with a message around growth, change and branding.

The feedback has just come in, and the clients comments are just absolutely thrilling:

“Jim Carroll’s session with our franchisees was extremely timely and exactly what we were looking for.  Based on where we are in our system and the changes and innovations we are implementing, we could not have selected a better speaker.   One of the things that made Jim’s message so powerful for our franchisees was the amazing detail and customization Jim included in his session.  We’ve gotten a great reaction from our franchisees and I’d highly recommend Jim to any franchisee system looking for a message of change and innovation delivered with a lot of great energy and humor.  He was great!” Mike Booth, Assistant VP, Franchising, KOA Franchise Services

and

“Jim Carroll was fantastic!  He was funny, well organized, and communicative.  The effort and detail he put into finding out about our industry and our franchise system made it possible for him to connect immediately with our franchisees.  He was by far the easiest speaker we have ever worked with and anticipated our needs every step of the way.  I’d recommend Jim to anyone looking for a futurist who delivers an outstanding presentation – in both relevant content and a dynamic and fun delivery style.  We loved him!” Jenny McCullough, Director of Training and Events,KOA Franchise Services

I think the thing which really makes me stand out in the market is the effort, research and customization I put into my keynotes. You can read about this: I wrote a blog post some time back, “What Goes Into Building a Great Keynote?”

From a speaking perspective, 2012 was a great year with a lot of fabulous events! I’m looking forward to 2013!

Last week, I had a fascinating session with a leading financial services firm.

The client wanted to book me for a keynote talk for 5o members of their member service team, in order to take a look at future trends in terms of interaction, support  and relationships.

Some of the issues on the table involved the type of thing that I cover in my post, 14 Key Innovation Strategies for Financial Advisors and Financial Organizations, among many other trends. This was kind of a unique client situation, and so there was a lot of additional research undertaken.

But the client didn’t want to limit themselves to an overview of the trends and opportunities for innovation — they wanted a fun, lively interactive session.

And boy, did I deliver!

We ended up with a 3 hour session. Into the middle, after covering trends and innovation opporutnities, I led them into a discussion of two key questions:

1. What will be the biggest change in the relationship with the typical existing member within 5 years?
2. What will be the biggest change in the relationship with a new member in 2 years?

There were 10 tables of 5 ; they were given 20 minutes to discuss these two questions.

I then led a round table discussion, asking each table to provide their best, unique answer, with a little discussion around those answers.

But here’s where the fun part came in — I then loaded the 10 unique answers to each question into a text message poll, and had the room vote on both polls. And so what bubbled to the top was some pretty unique insight into what could be the major key priorities that they need to focus on in the future.

It actually worked extremely well, and was quite a bit of fun! If you are interested in exploring a way to kick it up a notch for your next leadership meeting, let’s have a chat!

And take a look at my outline on CEO/Leadership meetings for some additional insight.

Last week I was honoured to be the opening keynote speaker for over 2,200 mayors and elected officials from throughout the great state of Texas, for the 100th Annual Meeting of the Texas Municipal League.

What do you say to 2,200 mayors from throughout Texas, shortly after the recent US Presidential election? Move them along the curve to focus on local, regional, national and international economic growth. That’s what I did when I opened the 100th annual Texas Municipal League conference in Dallas last week!

A fascinating time and a wonderful opportunity to speak to a vast audience with a lot of divergent viewpoints about the opportunities of the future! (Actually, I spend a lot of time in Texas. This was my fourth keynote there in a little over six weeks…So much time there, that years ago, I wrote my book, What I Learned From Frogs in Texas: Saving Your Skin with Forward Thinking Innovation“)

Of course, coming so close to the recent US Presidential election, I knew it would be an interesting crowd, certainly from a political perspective.

With that spirit in mind, I suggested in my opening few minutes that those with a sense of “great leadership skills” would quickly move along the “7 Stages of Election Grief.” Those who focus on economic growth will quickly move beyond the shock and denial phase, and focus on growth and opportunity!

(I then suggested that folks in Colorado and Washington states might have moved along the curve really quickly to the happiness phase, given the recent votes approving legalized marijauna! That got a good laugh.)

But consider if you are a municipal politician in Texas right now — or anywhere else for that matter. It’s a pretty challenging time, with some pretty stark realities:

• drastic funding and budget cuts
• cancellation and complete gutting of programs
• greater pressure on environmental initiatives
• loss of momentum on key priorities
• public expectations out of line with capabilities
• growing public weariness with all levels of government

And so, in my keynote, I thought it critical to help them focus on the opportunities of the future rather than the challenges of the past and the difficulties of the current day. With that spirit in mind, I focused on just 3 simple trends:

• the acceleration of all things : as we enter in the world of smart cities, intelligent infrastructure, and so much more, there are tremendous opportunities for innovation at the municipal government level
• the next economic recovery : I outlined that in my view, this is happening right now, with a resurgence in US manufacturing and energy production. Check the linked blog posts below, and you’ll see my views
• the era of big bets : with these two trends, there are tremendous opportunities emerging right now for cities and towns to place themselves on the mainline of economic growth.

Bottom line? We are at a time similar to when the US transcontinental railroad was built, or the Interstate highway system of the 1950′s-60′s. Smart infrastructure, road trains, autonomous highways, a resurgence in manufacturing driven by robotic and other smart technologies.

Energy independence for the US which is leading to the belief, such as suggested by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, that estimates that high rates of shale gas recovery could result in a million new manufacturing jobs by 2025 in the US, and the fact that revived natural gas industry “has the potential to spark a manufacturing renaissance in the U.S., including billions in cost savings, a significant number of new jobs and a greater investment in U.S. plants.”

And so, as a mayor in Texas — you can choose to adopt a sense of optimism about the future, and be a part of the recovery.

Or, not.

The essence of my message? As echoed by Area Development Magazine some time ago (a publication which is focused on local economic development opportunities): ““It’s impossible to succeed at economic development and be a pessimist.”

My mantra on stage? Think growth!

I’m on stage in Dallas, as the opening keynote speaker for the Chronic Disease Foundation annual partnership meeting, speaking to the massive transformation that is occurring in the world of healthcare now and into the future.

There is a realization that there is an urgent need to challenge the very philosophies upon which the system is built. The result is that many health care leaders are seeking insight into the major scientific, technological, consumer and social trends that will, by the year 2020, allow for some very dramatic change in the concept of health care delivery. Preventative concepts are part of this big transition.

And that’s why organizations such as the Physicians Hospitals of America Association, CIGNA, the American Association of Preferred Provider Organizations, Blue Cross Blue Shield and many more have had me in recently to open their annual conference or event. I’ve spoken at dozens of health care events for other such groups as the World Congress on Healthcare Innovation & Technology •  Linde Health Care Group Germany • MKesson IdeaShare • Stryker Technologies • Ottawa Heart Institute • North Carolina Hospital Association • Pfizer • Minnesota HealthCare Association CEO Summit .. and dozens more!

Learn more about this keynote topic, “Healthcare 2020: The Transformative Trends That Will REALLY Define Our Future” 

In May, I was the opening keynote speaker for Manufacturing Innovation 2012, held in Orlando, California. In the room were a thousand or so folks from throughout the manufacturing sector throughout the US. This is one of MANY manufacturing conferences that I’ve opened — I’ve developed a reputation in the sector for what is really going on, without any political spin.

Here I am speaking about the next generation -today’s uber-connected generation –  and how their attitudes towards careers and new business models — are coming to reshape the world of business startups and manufacturing.

Every industry in the world today finds itself in the midst of dramatic change, as mobile smartphone technology comes to change business models, consumer behaviour, and entire professions.

No where is this more evident today than what is happening in the world of healthcare, wellness and fitness, as a flood of new apps and technologies emerge that will forever change this world.

Back in late September, I was the opening keynote speaker for the 2012 Chronic Disease Fund annual conference in Dallas, Texas. Here’s a video clip in which I’m talking about the significance of the change that is occurring … compelling to watch!

As for me? I just bought a FitBit this morning — it would be fascinating to see how much territory I cover during one single keynote!

I’m honoured to be the opening keynote speaker  for the 2012 Ontario Tourism Summit, the most significant tourism event in the province of Ontario, Canada.

They recently featured a short profile that provides a little bit of insight into my talk.

Global futurist Jim Carroll to speak at 2012 Ontario Tourism Summit

“The future belongs to those who are fast!” declares Jim Carroll, leading global futurist, trends and innovation expert and the kick-off speaker at the 2012 Ontario Tourism Summit. Carroll believes that fast response is a theme that fits well with the tourism industry in Ontario.

Carroll muses that 10 years ago there was no Facebook, YouTube or Twitter. Cell phones were used just for talking, until mobile devices were invented that allowed text messages. Apps and GPS based phones wouldn’t really make an appearance until about 2010.

“What a difference a decade makes. Yet, we’ve barely scratched the surface of how accelerating change will provide for opportunity to tourism organizations in the future,” says Carroll. He predicts that success will increasingly come from an organization’s ability to take advantage of rapid, dramatic shifts in the tourism promotions landscape.

From the process of branding tourism properties to evolving marketing methodologies, Carroll sees change in the future happening at lightening speed. “The nature of the interaction with the travel consumer will come to resemble a roller coaster ride,” he concludes. Carroll challenges tourism organizations to jump on board, full steam ahead, and take aggressive control of the future.

“The key is putting yourself in a frame of mind in which you want to embrace a fast changing future, rather than shying away from it,”he advises. “Some people see a trend and see a threat — real innovators see the same trend, and see massive opportunity,” says Carroll.

“There is so much that is right about tourism in Ontario,” emphasizes Carroll. “What we need to ensure we have is a tourism industry that continues to build upon what we have, and evolves at the speed of the future to ensure that we can continue to position to the world why Ontario is the best tourism destination in the world.”

I’m honoured that next month, I’ll be the opening keynote speaking for the 100th Annual Conference and Exhibition of the Texas Municipal League, which represents the interests of civic officials throughout the great state of Texas.

Jim Carroll opens their 100th annual conference on November 14, 2012, in Grapevine, Texas!

The Texas Government Insider publication ran a small note about the conference and my keynote:

Texas Municipal League 100th Annual Conference, Exhibition set

A century in the making, the Texas Municipal League will hold its 100th Annual Conference and Exhibition on Nov. 13-16 in Grapevine. Hear from the experts, such as the Opening General Session keynote speaker Jim Carroll, a futurist who will discuss trends affecting public service and how to turn challenge into opportunity. Dive into concurrent sessions on leadership, smartphone apps, health care, youth, retail development, parliamentary procedure, legislation, water management and community meetings…just to name a few. And not to be missed is a walk through the exhibit hall, where delegates will find more than 300 vendors equipped with services and products to help public servants serve better. With an agenda so full, we also carved some time to celebrate 100 years of municipal excellence – join us on Nov. 14 for the TML Centennial Gala. A conference like this only comes around once every 100 years. So what are you waiting for? Register now at www.tmlconference.org.

What will I focus on? The fact is, citizens expectations and needs are changing rapidly, and they are are more demanding. This is happening in a time of an increasing challenge in terms of skills resourcing (matching less relevant skills to new emerging knowledge requirements), ever increasing funding issues (related to the economic correction), and some pretty stark trends that further increase those challenges (i.e the baby boomer pension funding issue!). All this is happening at the same time that the rate of change continues to speed up, particularly due to technology, and as political volatility continues to rage….

It’s a great time to work for a municipality, right? Of course it is — that’s why the opportunity for innovation is so critical.

I often explain that when we rethink the concept of innovation, we should keep it simple: It’s about “running the business better, growing the business, and transforming the business.” Of course, that’s for business organizations.

From a government perspective, the concept can be reframed – innovation is about continually transforming service delivery (grow the business), citizen engagement (transform the business), and internal effectiveness (common business processes / infrastructure) (build the business). These are a few of their key issues, and my keynote will spend some time exploring these concepts. The fact is, the future of municipalities in Texas will come from their ability to to respond to rapidly changing circumstances, a faster page of the ingestion of new infrastructure, managing more complex skills issues, and relentless seeking and adopting best-practices in government.

From that perspective, innovation moves from more than just “products” to process, methodology, structure, capabilities, scalability, collaborative ability and productivity.

It should be a fun time!

I’m off to Dallas this morning. I’m honoured to be the opening keynote speaker for the 5th Annual Partnership Summit. A few other folks are there to offer up their opinion as well!

(Incidentally, my keynote has been moved back a half hour to start earlier — apparently the Secret Service need to kick me out earlier to do a security sweep for the special guest appearing later in the day!)

It’s a pretty significant event, and a pretty important organization. As noted on their Web site, “People with chronic diseases share a common experience – bad days and good days. Good days come from breakthrough medicines that are amazingly effective but often cost thousands of dollars a month – even with the best insurance. That’s where Good Days™ comes in.” The significant sums of money raised by the foundation go to assisting patients with the tremendous cost of care — prescription drugs and other funding — that is associated with their chronic condition.

I’ll open the topic with a keynote on the topic that has kept me extremely busy through the last year, with clients such as CIGNA, Stryker Technologies, the North Carolina Hospital Association, the American Association of Preferred Provider Organizations, Physician Hospitals of America, the Mercy Health Care Group — and quite a few more:

Healthcare 2020: The Transformative Trends That Will REALLY Define Our Future
By 2020, we will have successfully transitioned the system from one which “fixes people after they’re sick” to one of preventative, diagnostic genomic-based medicine that treats patients for the conditions we know they are likely to develop. In this seminar, Jim Carroll puts into perspective why innovation is no longer just a fashionable phrase —with the coming changes, innovation is the critical new leadership focus for executives in the health care sector.

Being selected to keynote so many conferences on this theme shows me that one very significant trend has long been underway in the US

• while much of the political debate over health care reform still goes on, a good deal of f it has nothing to do with reality
• major health care groups, professional associations, companies, insurers are well underway in pursuing the real, significant opportunities that exist for innovation in the health care sector
• there are many groups that are working hard right now to get involved in the most significant change coming to health care in the last 100 years — a trend that clearly has the system go upside down
• it’s being driven at a senior leadership level by people who understand that there are many opportunities to pursue right now — which is why “innovation is the critical new leadership focus for executives in the health care sector”

If you’d like to understand this in a little bit more depth, try out a few of the related posts below, or work your way through the health care section of my blog.

And if you are looking for someone who can open up the eyes of your clients, staff, Board of Directors or other to the transformative trends driving health care today, feel free to give me a call!

Next Monday morning, I’ll deliver the opening address for WEFTEC 2012  New Orleans, LA; it will be the kickoff for the  Water Environment Federation’s (WEF) 85th annual technical exhibition and conference, a five-day event that is expected to draw thousands of water quality professionals and exhibitors to the New Orleans Convention Center.

It’s going to be an interesting talk – there’s a tremendous amount of potential for innovation the sector, and I’ll be speaking to the theme of a “new direction.”

Last week, I ran a blog post  for the WEF ; it’s on their site via that link, and also reprinted below!

Water’s Worth It – and So Is Initiative!
by Jim Carroll 

To many, it could seem that the phrase “Water is the oil of the 21st century” is one of the most common phrases in use today. After all, there does seem to be a widespread recognition both in industrialized countries and emerging economies that going forward into the future, water is certainly going to be one of our most important resources.

That’s why, when I walk up on stage to keynote the 2012 Water Environment Federation’s annual conference, I’m hoping to see a sea of faces, each bearing a look of confidence that echoes a bright future for abundant and sustainable water resources worldwide!

After all, if water IS the new oil, then it’s the folks in the room at WEFTEC 2012 who have the potential to take us to a world in which water REALLY is worth it. It is those folks in the room who will play a huge role in pursuing the opportunity for deep transformative change that is possible in the industry. It is the folks in the room who will be able to undertake the big ideas, the big strategies, the big initiatives — and the big risks — to ensure that society can best preserve, protect, recycle, and reuse water.

Should they choose to!

Even with my limited exposure to the industry so far, it is clear that with accelerating science, the rapid emergence of a new slew of water treatment methodologies, potential for chemical and metallurgical extraction and more– that there are all kinds of new opportunities for innovative thinking in the industry of water. That’s what I encounter in many industries today — the world is full of opportunities – if we choose to pursue them.

Yet it can be difficult to do so. An environment of municipal, state and federal government cutbacks makes the pursuit of big ideas ever more difficult. Many days it is simply important to get through with what you have in terms of resources, funding and ideas, rather than taking big, bold steps into the future. Ever increasing complexity of the technology and science around water makes it more difficult to source and access the right skills often necessary to pursue bold new initiatives

It’s easy to fall into a state of inertia when it comes to pursuing the future. Yet water’s worth it now and even more for the future. It’s the folks at WEFTEC 2012 who can and I hope will use the conference as a spark to turn their innovation engines on, and align themselves to the opportunities of the future rather than the challenges of the past.

Well, summer’s over, and it’s back to work. Here’s a few of the events that I’ll be keynoting in the weeks to come!

• 
  Chronic Disease Fund – Dallas, Texas
• 
  Texas Municipal Leagure 100th Anniversary Conference
• 
  Ontario Tourism Summit
• 
  Physician Association of America – Austin, Texas
• 
  HR Southwest Conference – Dallas,Texas
• 
  Institute of Credentialling Excellence – Palm Springs, California
• 
  Ken Blanchard Summit – La Jolla, California
• 
  Water Environment Foundation – New Orleans, Louisiana

I only took on 3 events in the summer – by choice! – with a keynote for the North Carolina Hospital Association and the US Farm Credit Cooperative. Not to mention a small, intimate get together with a leadership team at the GAP in San Francisco.

So what’s coming up? Here’s a good summary:

• next week, I keynote the 2012 Blanchard Summit in La Jolla, California, with Ken Blanchard, the author of The One Minute Manager, one of the bestselling business books of all time
• an opening keynote for the Physician Association of America in Austin Texas, on theme of “Healthcare 2020: The Transformative Trends that will REALLY define our future” [ PDF conference link ]
• an opening keynote for the Chronic Disease Fund in Dallas – ; George W. Bush will be the closing speaker! [ conference link ]
• an opening keynote for 3,000 in New Orleans for the Water Environment Foundation [ conference link ]
• a small, intimate session for YPO Chicago with some very senior executives, in a wide ranging discussion of future trends
• an opening for the annual HR Southwest Conference, again in Dallas! Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia from Star Wars) is the other keynote speaker at this conference [ conference link ]
• an opening keynote for the 2012 Ontario Tourism Summit in London, Ontario [ conference link ]
• a look at future banking and payment trends for First BankCard in Nashville
• the opening keynote slot for the 100th Texas Municipal League Annual Conference in Dallas!  [ conference link ]
• in Palm Springs, an opening keynote for the Institute for Credentialing Excellence [ conference link ]
• opening the annual KOA (Kamgrounds of America) conference in Orlando, Florida [ news article ]
• and last but not least, speaking at the 2012 Toronto Agile Community Conference [ conference link ]

This likely isn’t the end of the list for the autumn. I can tell you I’m turning away an absolute ridiculous number of events due to scheduling conflicts, or in other cases where I choose not to take on 3 events in one week. There are still some holes in the schedule for the fall, but it looks to be a fun one!

I’ve had the opportunity to be the opening keynote speaker at four major energy conferences in the last two months ; the 2012 Accenture Worldwide International Utilities and Energy Conference in San Francisco; the Southern Gas Association Annual Conference in Austin, Texas, and the 2012 Enercom Conference in Toronto. In addition, last week I opened a leadership meeting for about 200 executives with Noble Energy in Houston, Texas.

So I’ve been speaking on a  pretty extensive basis on trends impacting the global oil and gas industries, as well as utilities. Part of my job at a keynote at such events is to open up the minds of folks to the massive opportunities that are emerging all around us, particularly as we witness an absolutely fascinating acceleration of the science around energy – whether it be oil, gas or renewables.

Here’s a clip in which I’m talking about the fact that at MIT, they are learning how to print solar cells onto paper!

What happens when we can print solar cells onto paper? The world speeds up — and the future belongs to those who are fast!

In all likelihood, we are going to see the US enter a period near-complete energy independence within the next few years. Faster than people think!

The implications are pretty significant. I’ll write a blog in the next few weeks with some of the details that I’ve been covering off in these talks.

• Read the original post about “When Light Stops”  

Here’s the text for a keynote I’m doing in Calgary tomorrow at noon for a group of IT executives.

Lots to think about here – the future belongs to those who are fast!

———–

“The new business model for everyone will increasingly use speed as a metric, and fast-innovation is a core capability”

Certainly the last forty years have seen technology play a huge impact on business.

Name any industry – auto, health care, manufacturing, energy, banking — and it’s clear that we are witnessing a fundamental and distinct shift of the innovation agenda to one which is driven by the speed of Silicon Valley, and by a generation of people in the computing world who think fundamentally differently about the source of innovation in an industry.

As this occurs, we will see massive business model disruption as new, faster, more nimble competitors who understand technology based disruption, cast aside their slower, ingrained counterparts who are stuck with old, ingrained ideas.

The future belongs, in other words, to those who are fast. Tech companies and tech based innovators certainly understand that logic. Their entire DNA is bound up in the ability to move fast.

That’s why financial organizations are finding themselves plunged into a whirlwind of change as our mobile devices become our credit cards. As slow-to-change insurance companies find that driver-performance oriented insurance policies, linked to in-dash GPS monitoring technologies, wreak havoc on old-line insurance assumptions. As the world of health care adjusts to the reality of a less than $1,000 genomic sequence machine — something that would have cost over $1 million just ten years ago, leading us much quicker to a world of personalized medicine. And an oil and gas industry which is witnessing hyper-innovation in terms of extraction techniques, driven by deep data analysis and other capabilities, which are leading to year over year yield increases which were unmanageable years ago.

The new business model for everyone will increasingly use speed as a metric, and fast-innovation is a core capability.

That’s why you should join iON Secured Networks and Check Point Security Technologies, as we bring you the unique insight of Jim Carroll, who has emerged as one of the world’s leading international futurists, trends and innovation experts, with a client list that ranges from Northrop Grumman to Rockwell Collins; the SouthWest Gas Association to RGA Reinsurance; the Walt Disney Organization to NASA. Jim has had the opportunity to study what world-class innovators have been doing to keep up with a world in which the future belongs to the fast. He will share with us the new role of leading edge technologies involving cloud networks, agile computing, just-in-time development and other key strategies that will help organizations to deploy the right technologies at the right time for the right purpose — a strategy that will be increasingly important as all industries come to innovate at the speed of Silicon Valley.

Through the years, I have hosted or spoken at a number of innovation awards shows. Last week, I keynoted another one – the 14th Annual KIRA Awards. They celebrate the knowledge, communication and information technology industry in the province of New Brunswick, Canada.

In a post about another innovation award presentation I was involved in, I commented on why innovation awards are so important: “… they celebrate the heroes who are still busy innovating, staying ahead, and positioning their organizations for the future – because they know that trends like these will provide for significant market and business opportunity in the future.”

The KIRA Awards were tremendously well done – I’ve done previous events in Nebraska, Chicago, and even a video taped presentation for the Deloitte South Africa “Best Company to Work For” awards …. but this was truly a remarkably professional production. And what I witnessed in the city of Fredericton that night was something that was truly magical. An entire community of business leaders, entrepreneurs, government officials (the Premier was there), educators and others who believe it is tremendously important to celebrate innovation in a big way.

You should think about doing this too.

• 
  Some really nice hardware!
• 
  Hollywood style – ramp up the excitement!
• 
  I’m on stage before the awards presentation doing some live audience polling…
• 
  The winner of the 14th Annual 2012 KIRA Awards
• 
  Here we are for another photo-shoot before the post-awards show cocktail bash!
• 
  I’m looking out at the audience from the stage, and thinking, “innovation awards are truly awesome!”

(Photos by Lucas Roze, Enterprise Frederiction, used with permission)

If you are serious about innovation, you should set aside a big budget. Go for Hollywood production values. Invest in some real hardware.

And celebrate the innovation heroes! Put them on a pedestal. Make them stand out. Make some noise! Show them off!

Why? Because this just might help to build your innovation culture faster than any other way. It’s a rocket fuel for innovation. It helps to frame the importance of focusing on the opportunities of the future through innovation, rather than bemoaning the challenges of the past and slipping further and further behind.

What is going on in the Province of New Brunswick is one of the most successful, motivated and innovative hi-tech communities I have ever seen. Anywhere. These folks would put some entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley to shame. And I think it is the spirit such as found in the KIRA Awards that helps this community to accomplish great things.

A few years ago, when I wrote a series of trend predictions for the year 2010, I wrote that this type of thinking would be very big going into the future. Here’s what I said:

• American-Idolatry : People love competition, they love winners, and they relish the battle! Everyone is learning that if they are to succeed in the future, they have to appeal to the new base of hero-worship that comes from our new awards driven society. Everywhere I go, I see companies who are far more willing to celebrate and elevate heroes. DHL holds an annual innovation day which includes an award ceremony with partners who have worked with them on innovative ideas. Deloitte South Africa hosts an annual “Best Company To Work For’ survey and combines into it an elaborate awards ceremony. The future of workplace and partner renumeration is all about the red-carpet, the spotlight, and the celebration of success!

So do this now. Walk down the hall to see your boss. Ask for a budget of $100,000 to put on a big innovation awards show.

Think big. DO BIG.

The future belongs to those who are fast.

A short clip from a recent keynote in New Orleans – in which I outline how everyone is focused on innovation. This was at the Talent Strategies 2012 event, where I focused on human capital issues.

The International Dairy, Deli and Bakery Association has invited me to be the closing keynote speaker for the 2012 international conference in New Orleans. I’ll appear before an audience of 8,000 key players in this massive global industry.

I’m honoured to join a list of previous keynote speakers that includes Mike Ditka, General Colin Powell, Emeril Lagasse, John Cleese (!), and even Sinbad.

This is another sign that innovation, and keeping up with high velocity change — my main themes — continues to rise to the top in many corporations and associations. Consider what I’m talking about : here’s the brochure copy which announces my participation:

The New Normal: Innovation, Hyper-niching, and Transformative Change

The “new normal” says nothing will ever be normal again. Instead, deep substantial change is transforming nations, markets, industries, jobs, and knowledge. We’re at the leading edge of the merger of three perfect trends: the rapid and massive mobile infrastructure with increasingly intelligent devices; pervasive location awareness as a result of GPS and location intelligence-mapping trends, and a consumer mindset that is increasingly open to new forms of interaction. The result is massive business model disruption, market change, and obliteration of old assumptions aobut the nature of customer relationships. Futurist, Trends & Innovation Expert Jim Carroll will show new ways to uplift product in retail space, how to change customer loyalty through new forms of interaction, and how to enhance one-to-one conversations through hyperniching. He’ll walk us through the impact of increasing business intensity, innovation, and creativity as it relates to the world of food.

The key phrase to think about is “deep substantial change.” And the key thing to think about, is are you ready for it? Is your leadership team, innovation strategy, partners, infrastructure, culture and mindset aligned for transformative change?

Folks, we’re going to look back at 2012 as a year in which the world began to change even faster than any other year prior.

My key phrase has always been, “the future belongs to those who are fast.”

Are you?

Fresh from my keynote in Orlando this week, I’ve come across a blog post from someone who attended, and saw my early-Monday keynote – “‘Breakthrough performers’ and ‘pervasive connectivity’: Notes from the CGT Business & Technology Leadership Conference.”

"Leading international author and “futurist,” Jim Carroll, delivered the keynote address, capturing the audience’s attention with some mind-blowing stats on the rapid pace of change and innovation in the technology space."

You can read the full post by Sean Rollings, Vice President, Product Marketing over at the E2open blog, or read an extract below.

In the room were senior executives from many of the largest consumer product and food companies in the world; indeed, I was dazzled from the presentation of a senior executive from PepsiCo who took to the stage right after me with his observations on what is happening in the consumer space.

The essence of my message in Orlando was modelled on the themes found in these two blog posts:

• “What do world class innovators do that others don’t do?” 
• “Food industry trends 2011: Report from a keynote” 

I can tell you that these two pages are among the top-10 most heavily trafficked on my Web site, and so obviously there are a lot of senior executives in the food and consumer products sector who realize that when it comes to innovation, one of their key goals must be, how do we speed things up to deal with the reality of fast-paced consumer, technological, market, product, and global change.

“Breakthrough performers” and “pervasive connectivity”: Notes from the CGT Business & Technology Leadership Conference
Sean Rollings, Vice President, Product Marketing, E2open

 I made my way to the Sunshine State this week for the Consumer Goods Business & Technology Leadership Conference in Orlando. The turnout is impressive, with technology and supply chain professionals from all the major players in the CPG space (plus a number of up-and-comers). And while the keynote sessions and panel discussions cover a gamut of topics, everyone is really here for the same thing: learning and collaborating on the “what’s next” for technology and the consumer goods business.

Leading international author and “futurist,” Jim Carroll, delivered the keynote address, capturing the audience’s attention with some mind-blowing stats on the rapid pace of change and innovation in the technology space. According to Carroll, recent research indicates that 65 percent of current preschool students will work in a job that does not yet exist. Along the same lines, 50 percent of the information taught to first-year Science undergraduates will be obsolete by the time they graduate.

The business-related statistics were no less shocking. For example, roughly 60 percent of Apple’s revenue is currently generated by products that are less than four years old. The rate of innovation is accelerating, big time. And from Carroll’s perspective (and the evidence is convincing), the only way to stay competitive in today’s marketplace is to embrace the current onslaught of change and innovation—and run with it!

In keeping with this theme, Carroll shared a compelling piece of research from GE innovation consultants: Of those companies in existence during the economic recessions of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and our most recent “Great Recession”—on average—60 percent survived, 30 percent died, and 10 percent became breakthrough performers. How did this top-10 percent do it? According to Carroll, these companies succeeded because they invested in world-class innovation while everyone else was retrenching. For the “breakthrough performers” of our most recent recession, this innovation has been largely focused on pervasive connectivity—everyone connected to everyone, regardless of geographic location or technical sophistication.

The GE study that I refer is a theme that I use in many presentations — you can catch a glimpse of how I put the reality of innovating despite economic uncertainty in this video clip from a keynote in San Antonio, Texas, earlier this year.

Last week, I spoke to several hundred manufacturing executives from throughout North America, at IMX Las Vegas — the Interactive Manufacturing Exchange!

Here’s a key clip from the start of the keynote. Watch it, and ask yourself — are you guilty of focusing on short term volatility — or are focused on opportunity of the long term?

A few weeks ago, I was the opening keynote speaker for the 2011 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference held at The Venetian in Las Vegas.

The audience were owners and operators of multiple franchise operations, primarily from the restaurant / food sector, but also from other franchise operations in auto, pet care, home supplies and other retail product lines.

An audience of close to 1,000 listens to Jim Carroll's keynote on fast paced consumer, retail and restaurant industry trends in Las Vegas

My keynote topic was built on the theme “”Where Do We Go From Here? Why Innovators Will Rule in the Post-Recession Economy – And How You Can Join Them!”

What did I take a look at? A wide variety of the fast-paced trends impacting the retail / restaurant sector today. I broke my talk down into 3 key trends, what I might call:

• Consumer velocity
• Mobile madness
• Intelligent infrastructure

1. What We Know: Consumer behaviour shifts faster today than ever before

“The average consumer scans 12 feet of shelf space per second.” That’s a stat I’ve long used to emphasize that the attention span of the typical shopper of today is shorter than ever before — and retailers need to innovate to ensure they can keep the attention of today’s consumer.

It’s not just keeping up with fleeting attention spans — it’s about adapting to the fast pace of how quickly consumer choice changes. Consider what is happening with the rapid emergence of revenue in the late night business segment – it was up 12% in 4th quarter 2010, compared to 2-3% for other parts of the day. That’s why major chains have been focusing on new “happy hour” offerings — and so their success increasingly comes from how quickly they can scale and adapt to fast moving trends.

We’ve seen plenty of fast innovation from various organizations in the sector to respond to quick consumer change. Morton’s capitalized on the new consumer sensitivity towards value when it jumped on the trend that involves the “casualization of fine dining” with its’ $6 mini-cheeseburger.

Other fast trends drive the industry. The Sydney Morning Herald ran a great article in April of 2011, noting that “… the world of cooking and restaurants is becoming more like an arm of show business …..” with the result that “everyone wants to see the chef.” That’s why we are seeing many restaurants from fine-dining to fast casual moving the kitchen to the “front of the house,” or in other cases, a lot of TV display technology that provide for video links from tables to the kitchen. The evolution that is occurring is that the chef is becoming the star, and more and more of the staff are becoming ‘performers.’ Innovators in appropriate sectors would see the opportunities and jump on this trend.

Whatever the case may be, the consumer of today changes quickly, and innovators check their speed and agility in being able to respond to this reality.

2. What We Know: Technology – especially mobile – has become the key influencer of today’s consumer decision making.

Simply put, the velocity of mobile adoption, local search and product promotion is evolving at a pace that is beyond furious.

Consider the growth rates underlying today’s technology. It took two years for Apple to sell two million iPhones. It took 2 months for them to sell 2 million iPads! It took 1 month to sell 1 million iPhone 4’s!

The impact of such trends is an explosive rate of growth of wireless Internet usage. Mobile represented but 0.2% of all Web traffic in 2009. That grew to 8% by 2010, and is expected to hit 16% of all traffic this year.

Some suggest that mobile searches now exceed the number of computer based searches. What is also well known is that most mobile searches are for “local content.” Not only that, but Google has found that when someone gets a smartphone, the number of searches they make increases 50 times!

What is clear is that people are using their mobile devices to find nearby – stores, retailers, restaurants and just about everything else. Combine this with the emergence of new promotion opportunities (through apps and other tools) and you’ve got a revolution in the making in terms of local product promotion. That’s why the success of many retailers / restaurants will come from their success with location-sensitive coupon technology.

Bottom line? Innovation is: rethinking in-store uplift in terms of new methods of interaction!

3. What We Know: We will have far more opportunity for operational innovation through the rapid emergence of new technology, infrastructure and other trends

Consider how quickly near-field payment technology is going to steamroller the retail / restaurant sector. Simply put, over the next few years, the credit cards in our wallet will disappear as our iPhones, Blackberries and Android phones become the credit card infrastructure of the future. This is a HUGE trend — it provides countless opportunities for innovation, disruptive business model change, new competitors, and all kinds of other fun opportunities.

The trend has enormous velocity – we can expect $113 billion in transactions by 2016,  with 3.5 billion transactions – and with this comes new opportunities for loyalty and contact followup. From an innovation perspective, the sector will have to ensure they can ingest the new infrastructure quickly enough, and keep on top of the industry change that it will cause to ensure that challenges are turned into opportunity.

There are all kinds of other areas of fast change that present opportunity. Consider the issue fo ‘green buildings’ and sustainability. The West Australian newspaper recently noted that “with the rapid increase in knowledge, skills and availability of materials, costs have fallen. The industry now understands how to build green and building a 5-star Green Star building is now generally cost neutral.”

Some franchisees are taking this to heart, with aggressive plans involving eco-friendly buildings. Chick-fil-A has a  LEED initiative in building a test model restaurant that has water usage down by 40% through rainwater collection; an electricity reduction of 14% through the use of skylights & energy efficient appliances; 20% of the building content is from recycled material; and 30% more fresh air than regular buildings. While the structure is 15% more expensive to build, they expect a fairly quick payback — and will manage to get a branding image to their customer base that they don’t just talk sustainability – they do it!

From this perspective, innovation is keeping ahead of and planning for hyper-innovation with IT, energy, environmental and other infrastructure trends that impact facilities or the nature of the customer interaction.

Innovators get ahead by focusing on bold ideas, and exploring the concept of 'experiential capital' - Jim Carroll

I also emphasized that innovators aren’t afraid to make bold moves. Every franchise and retail organization today is looking for opportunities for cross-promotion, cross-selling and product placement. So consider this observation from the Dallas Morning News in March 2011 in an article titled: Funeral home adds little sip of heaven: Starbucks Coffee.

“At McKinney’s Turrentine Jackson Morrow Funeral Home, it’s now possible to pay your respects to the dead or plan your own funeral with a venti Caramel Macchiato in hand”

Craziness, or smart niche-marketing? I think it’s innovation!

So what do you do? My message to the folks in Las Vegas was to get involved and explore these fascinating new worlds that surround you!

Many of them might hold themselves back from Facebook advertising, because the concept might simply seem overwhelming for a small to medium sized mulit-unit franchise operation. Yet, today Facebook now accounts for 1 of 3 every online ads. And we are seeing the rapid emergence of new online ‘aggregators’ that are focused on helping small business take advantage of that fact. These organizations — such as Blinq — manage the buying of thousands of individualized ads, based on age, location, interests.

They should simply try the world of mobile promotion. Buffalo Wild Wings gave it a shot for one recent NFL based initiative, and indicated that they tripled the return on their investment.

Think differently in terms of new ways of reaching the consumer. Pizza Pizza, a Canadian chain, recently released a new iPhone App that allows online ordering. Nothing new or special about that – such apps are becoming a dime a dozen, and are quickly becoming de rigueur. What is cool is that the chain has revealed that it is working to link the  app payment system to university meal card plan, in recognition of the fact that many students in the target market might not have credit cards (or “credit worthy” cards.)

Bottom line? One of my key closing messages was that innovators focus on the concept of “experiential capital” -there’s a lot going on, and to figure out, we should just get out and do it! Try new ideas, explore new initiatives, undertake new projects. One of the only ways to get ahead is to work quickly to build up your experience in all the new opportunities that surround you.

My recent post about using a live text message poll while speaking to a group of high school students drew a fair bit of attention as an example of the novel use of a social networking tool.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been using this type of tool on stage — I’ve been doing this for close to four years, and it always provides for an amazing amount of interaction with the audience.

Here I am opening the 94th Annual General Meeting of the Professional Golfers Association of America, immediately diving into a poll with the audience in order to gauge their thoughts on when we would see an economic recovery. While running the poll, I challenge the PGA to think about the impact of mobile technology out on the golf course!

Pretty darned effective, isn’t it!