How will young people think and behave in 2024?
Trend forecaster and futurist Sarah Owen, Co-founder & Global Futures Director at SOON Future Studies, recently shared how SOON Future Studies has uncovered “the global drivers of change as well as 30 emerging trends that will help drive business decisions over the next few years.”
SOON is a futures think tank focused on human insights. Hosted at The Taboo Group, office of EO Melbourne Member Andrew Mackinnon, the "Future Forecast 2024" EO x SOON Event with Sarah Owen was attended by EO Melbourne Members, Strategic Alliance Partners and members of the SLP Forum.
At this event, Sarah, also a social scientist with a background in studying youth culture and social media, revealed that “In 2024, a social, political, and environmental tipping point will drive people to drastically reform and rewire their world. From reinventing the notion of work and challenging the current growth narrative to reshape societal norms and developing entirely new digital realities, this report outlines the emerging mindsets and movements unfolding in the next few years.”
She pointed out that “We live in a liquid society; a period in time where the concepts of identity and individuality are becoming more and more elastic.”
Sarah then gave an overview of the different Drivers of Change and possible News Headlines in 2024. She also talked in detail about the various Key Trends, such as Life Wellbeing, Meta-worlds, Age of Awareness, Reworking Work, Revenge Travel, Retail Revival and the Post-Growth Paradigm, illustrating the emerging trends for each.
The insights shared and discussed allowed the participants to better understand how Gen Z and Millennials would approach work, travel, food, gaming and shopping in the future. It then gave the members ideas on how they can align their businesses with the emerging trends taking into consideration the various drivers of change.
Participants say that “the content was great” and “it is so diverse and eye-opening” that they hope for “more future events because this was incredibly inspiring.” An EO Melbourne member who came to the event shared that he got at least eight good take-outs from the session.
Leadership teams from various sectors now look at futures studies with interest as these studies provide them with tools for dealing with uncertainties, building resilience among their teams, and mapping out the future of their businesses or organisations.