10 megatrends that will shape future of the world

10 megatrends that will shape future of the world, IPSOS panel explores how the trends will affect Australia

•  IPSOS panel explores how trends will affect Australia

Leading global research company Ipsos unveiled 10 “megatrends” that will shape the world’s future, while a panel of experts explored future societal trends in Australia at a special event in Sydney last night to celebrate Ipsos’s 40th anniversary.

The “Rewind, Pause, Fast Forward – what does the future hold?” event was attended by 150 guests at Sydney’s Pier One where experts including Sydney Morning Herald editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir, business futurist Morris Miselowski, Shake Content founder Adam Donnelley and Ipsos Mind & Mood’s Laura Demasi predicted future trends in a panel debate moderated by MCN content director Paul McIntyre.

Ahead of the panel debate, Ipsos Australia and New Zealand CEO Hamish Munro revealed the megatrends (see further detail on each trend click here) developed by Ipsos:
• Dynamic Populations
• Growing opportunity and growing inequality
• Megacities: urban superpowers or human disasters
• Increasing connectedness and decreasing privacy
• Healthier and sicker
• Rise of individual choice and decline of the mass market
• Rise of the individual and decline of social cohesion
• Cultural convergence and increasing extremism
• Always on and off the grid
• Public opinion as a revolutionary force.

“These social tensions will impact how we live, how we feel about the future and of course provide an opportunity for brands and services to help Australians improve their lifestyles,” Munro said.

“At Ipsos everything we do is underpinned by our expertise in behavioural science, big data and technology. Behavioural science helps us decode the complexities of human behaviour, while big data enables us to layer multiple data sets to paint a more dynamic and comprehensive picture of consumers, and finally, technology gives us the tools to be able to do all of these things faster and more deeply and to get closer to consumers in real time.

“We live in a different world now defined not only by constant change but by true paradigm shifts – consumers have become producers, innovation is the default and data has not only become ‘big’ – it’s become truly dynamic and alive.

“But let’s not forget that ‘people’ are still at the heart of this revolution and the need for people to understand people and behaviour hasn’t changed. In fact, in an increasingly complex consumer landscape, the need to understand behaviour has become even more critical,” Munro said.

The panel guests at last night’s events explored what trends will shape Australia’s future including:

Macro demographic shifts such as the aging population to the increasing role of migration in population growth

Ongoing challenges to the way our economy operates via continuing digital disruption,  ‘paradigm shifting’ business models, the changing expectation of government and its role in regulating the economy

How technology will continue to embed itself in all facets of life, via an emerging digital infrastructure that will connect people more deeply to real world infrastructure including buildings, cities, transport and homes

Automation, robots and virtual reality and their potential to transform our experience of reality, how we work and how services are delivered

Consumer demand for more ‘me-centric,’ highly customised consumer experiences, which predict needs and desires.

The challenges faced by brands, including even greater market fragmentation and the battle to engage ‘attention deficit’ consumers who are already complaining of ‘connection fatigue’, and torn between their ‘Fear of Missing Out’ and the growing ‘Joy of Missing Out’.

To read on each of the megatrends click here.

Photo: IPSOS 40th event with Paul McIntyre, Adam Donnelley, Laura Demasi, Hamish Munro, Morris Miselowski and Darren Goodsir

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