Upcoming Trends for 2013

In this article we will cover the upcoming trends that have been identified from the 2013 South by Southwest – Interactive (SxSWi) conference that recently wrapped up in Austin, Texas.

Each year, SxSW examines many different aspects of our ever-converging world, including Interactive (digital, online, etc), Music, Film, and Education. While the 2013 statistics are yet to be released, the 2012 Interactive portion had 24,500+ conference participants from 72 different countries attending over 1000 sessions with 2500+ speakers, across a total of five days.

Some of the major trend to emerge from the 2013 conference include –

Social data to improve retail experiences: data was the buzz word of the whole conference, but some of the most interesting applications were in the retail space. One session outlined a future where discounts, shop window displays and staff suggestions could all be customised based on the data available on your mobile phone. Via near field communication, your smart phone connected to a Facebook account and a payment platform such as PayPal could display a customised retail experience just for you. The potential is staff making suggestions based on your past purchases and digital tags that displayed a unique RRP based on how good a customer you are. A scenario was even given where music within the store could be tailored to the age and male/female mix of those within the retail at space at any given time.

The digitisation of traditionally non-digital things: Google Glass was the device everybody was hankering to get their hands on. Whilst there were no public announcements by Google at the event, Google Glass was mentioned in just about every session. Combined with the release of The Talking Shoe video, demonstrations of a beer vending machine that makes new beer recommendations based on your previous purchase history and talk of contact lenses that would allow others to see exactly what you are seeing, this is sure to be an exciting trend to keep watching.

Big data delivering real business goals: Combine the fact an android smart phone has 67 (60 for iOS) sensors built in with modern day prolific sharing on social media and you have a veritable feast of data that insights can be derived from. Best case examples of big data activation include Starbucks identifying potential business leaders by monitoring the quickness of progression between barista and store manager shared via Facebook and Starbucks, or pharma companies being able to better tailor membership fees based on exercise profiles shared by Nike FuelBand. Big data is already happening – what are you sharing that you aren’t even aware of?

These are only a few of the trends that have been cemented as ones to watch for 2013. As always, we will continue to investigate upcoming trends as well as emerging technologies across our different newsletters. Remember, if something takes your fancy comment below and we can delve deeper into the ideas and opportunities around it.