TREND WORK-OUT: THE TREND PROFESSION LANDSCAPE

The Trend Work-out: flex your muscles to train your inner trend researcher. In the following months I, trend intern Sanne, will be your trend fitness instructor and give you tips and tricks on practicing trend research. This week: explore the trend profession landscape. Read more and get started right away!

Good to have you back! Last week we started this training with your time orientation perspective. This week I would like to show you the importance of researching the landscape of trend professionals and creating a database. What is the importance, where to find them  and what area speaks to you?
​
Why is it important to look at others?
There are different styles and perspectives regarding trend research. Having a look at how other trend researchers do their research or how they showcase their results can work refreshing. It is a huge source of information and inspiration, so why not learn from it? It can help develop yourself and create your own style in communication and way of working. How do other professionals call themselves, in what areas do they work? This can be helpful to create your own profile.

Where to look?
As written in the trend workbook, the variety of trend professionals is wide. Therefore you could say it is more easy for you to find them and at the same time more difficult because they don't  use the same job titles. A couple of tips I would like to give you are:

• Think of different key search words. Type in trend, forecaster, researcher, trendwatcher, trend agency, future strategist, trend analyst  and other trend related words in the search bar. Books, websites, podcasts, LinkedIn, Google, Instagram, events, anywhere you think you can find inspiration.
• List the trend professionals. Did you hear a name on television, in a podcast, during a lecture or saw a name in the article you have just read? Write it down!
• Think outside your normal routine. Always reading sports magazine or Glamour? Switch it up! Pick something in a different area and who knows who you might stumble upon.

How to keep a database and where?
There are different ways to create a database of the trend professionals you find, such as online and offline. You probably have your phone on you all the time anyway, so why not us it as your digital archive? Think of Google Drive or use the notepad of your phone. More of a pen and paper person? Write down a list of trend experts and add information later on about the way they work or how they work.  
​
For me it works both ways, sometimes I write things down, other times I file things online. If you tend to do the same, just make sure you add the online to the offline or the other way around. This will make it more easy for yourself, having one database in which you can search and get inspired.

I would also like to give you the tip to just talk to a trend expert if you are not sure what they do and how they do it. This will help you clarify this for yourself, and most people love to talk about what they do. And last but not least: make a connection! Exchange contacts or get linked via Social Media.

To which feel I more drawn and why?
So as said before, looking at others can also help to create your own profile. For me it helps seeing all these different titles trend professionals call themselves. From Trend Strategist to Creative Innovator and 'Toekomst Architecten' (Dutch for 'future architects'). 

For me 'Future Architects' is one of the titles that speaks to me the most. It’s from Six Fingers, a company based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. It is open, playful and comprised. Personally I’m not sure how to call myself, also because I’m still a student in trend research. But I am developing myself more and more, so it helps to have a database and get inspired to create a title that suits me and the work I do.

How about you? Found a title or a direction that you like? I hope you do! Keep searching & collecting and give your brain muscles some rest, so you are ready for next week's work-out!