• TrendsWatch 2014

    Third time is charming, right? Hope so, as I’m very pleased to share with you CFM’s third annual forecasting report—TrendsWatch 2014. After posting printed headlines from a year’s worth of stories from Dispatches from the Future of Museums …
  • TrendsWatch Update: The Internet of Things

    One of the trends we featured in TrendsWatch 2013 was “When Things Talk Back: the rise of networked objects and attentive spaces.” What could happen in a future where the “stuff” that surrounds you collects and shares information about …
  • Art Viewing and Mindfulness Meditation

    Of the six trends we feature in TrendsWatch 2013, one that has generated the a lot of feedback so far is “Disconnecting to Reconnect”—our exploration of how people are going to great lengths to “unplug.” One of the people I connected with …
  • 2014 TrendsWatch Contenders

    With TrendsWatch 2013 hot off the digital presses, Phil and I are already scanning for early signals of the trends we will feature next year. When it comes to scanning, more eyes = better results! We are fortunate to have a growing cadre …
  • Keeping up with the 2013 Trends

    I hope you’ve had a chance to download TrendsWatch 2013, which we released last month. Phil Katz and I did a Town Hall webcast last week, presenting a brief overview of the report–you can access a recording of that event here.I …
  • CFM Returns to the Future with TrendsWatch 2013

    The Alliance has just released TrendsWatch 2013: Back to the Future, CFM’s second annual watch list of important emergent trends. If we’re right, and the trends we’ve tagged this year shape the evolution of museums, a museum visit in the …
  • Updates to CFM’s 2012 Trends to Watch

    Our first annual summary of Dispatches from the Future of Museums—TrendsWatch 2012: Museums and the Pulse of the Future—is getting a lot of attention and commentary, which is great. But as soon as Phil Katz (my co-author) and I sent it to …
  • Does a Museum Need Four Walls?

    One theme featured in TrendsWatch 2012 is “Takin’ It to the Streets”—the rise of pop-up and mobile retail, cultural and social experiences. Throughout the year we will monitor how this trend is playing out in museums. Today’s guest post, …
  • Museumers, meet Futurists; Futurists, Welcome to the World of Museums!

    I have a new line on my resume—possibly the coolest one yet. I am now a proud member of the Association of Professional Futurists. In the spirit of CFM’s role as an über-connector for the museum field, I’ve ginned up a way to introduce you …
  • Introducing TrendsWatch: Your Digest of the Future

    At a recent conference I was challenged to come up with an image representing my role in the universe. I had a sudden image of myself as a Whale Shark trawling the vast digital sea of information and filtering out bits that museums will …

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