Category: Innovation

18
Jul

Review TrendLab 2006

Posted by / Future Research, Influential People, Innovation
TrendLab 2006 CScout Global Trend View
TrendLab 2006 CScout Global Trend View
TrendLab 2006 CScout Global Trend View

In the last three weeks we have been busy presenting our “Global Trend View” on the TrendLab 2006. The event hosted by Vok Dams took place in Wuppertal, Hamburg and Munich.

All together there have been over 300 people attending the conferences. Participants learned more about “Mixed Tapes” by Daimler Chrysler, “Businesss in China” by Vok Dams China and about the Red Bull AirRace.

Furthermore participants could experience the “Global Trend View”, an interactive application to watch and rate trends developed by CScout. The application was presented on a couple of brand new iMac’s, which was definetely one of the visual highlights of the event.
Many thanks to Apple Computer and HSD Consult for providing the iMac’s. 🙂

CScout presented five key-trends from Korea, China, USA and Europe. Short Videos visualized the trends, each explained by one of our local Trend-Scouts. After watching the short videos the participants rated each trend and could see the final results of the rating.

Here are the trends we presented:
– Social Networking
– Consumer Generated Media
– Web 2.0
– China’s way to the olymp
– Green Revolution

18
Jul

Trend: Green Revolution

Posted by / Future Research, Innovation

We have been reporting about the global trend the “Green Revolution”.

This trend is getting more attention due to the new movie which is in theaters in USA at the moment. The movie “An Inconvenient Truth” is made by Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim (dir.).

21
Jun

Mobile Web 2.0 Application

Posted by / Future Research, Innovation

Today I created my first Mobile Web 2.0 application for my Nokia phone.

I used WidSets to create an Mobile RSS Reader for the CScout TrendBlog and it is working perfectly.
The layout and the usability of the Java-Application is very nice and really up to date. This will be the future of Mobile Applications….

Just try out our Mobile RSS Reader here.

WidSets CScout RSS Reader

Here are some more Infos about WidSets:

How often have you wished you could stay in touch with your web communities, when you’re on the move, through your mobile phone? Wouldn’t you want to stay on top of things all the time and know what your friends are doing, where they’re going, what they’re thinking of, or what they have to say about your thoughts and ideas? Wouldn’t it be great to communicate with them and stay in touch with them just as if they were right next to you?

Well, now it’s possible.

With WidSets you can do all that – and more. You can get traffic alerts, news, blogs, gossip, restaurant reviews, weather reports and loads of other stuff that you would normally get through a web service. And if you can’t find web services you’re interested in, we provide you with tools that you can use to create your own services and access them directly from your mobile. And it’s so easy, you’ll be able to do it without breaking a sweat.

In fact, WidSets is so hassle free that there is no need for you to click from site to site, refresh, or browse in search for what you want – the information is updated to your mobile automatically. Our goal is to make this service available to everyone, and make it so simple that even your goldfish won’t have a problem getting started. Since we don’t know your goldfish personally, we can’t really promise this. But we can definitely promise we’ll do our very best to make it work as effortlessly as possible.

The service is very affordable, considering it’s totally FREE. You can use it as much as you want, create as much as you want, and share with others to the point that you can’t share anymore.

13
Jun

Time for Entrepreneurs!

Posted by / Innovation, StartUps


The recent Business 2.0 Cover is talking about the new potentials for entrepreneurs and how to create a lasting start-up.

BW Cover

For entrepreneurs, now is the time
New technologies are creating new business opportunities, and radically reducing costs for startups. Still, success is as difficult as ever. (more)

Phase one: Establish a company
In order to get started you’ve got to test your idea, build a founding team, get a business plan together and pick a company name that will take you to the top. Here’s what to keep in mind. (more)

Phase two: Prototype the product
Finally the rubber meets the road, as you stake out your intellectual property and assemble the demo that will help you sell your idea. (more)

Phase three: Develop the beta product
Now is the time to start installing your staff — hire the best you can afford. They’ll help you perfect your company’s product and begin the beta testing process. (more)

Phase four: Launch the product
Now that the testing is done and the product has been refined, you need to find paying customers. So stop fiddling and start selling! (more)

Searching for angel investors
Here is what every aspiring business-owner should look for in early-stage backers. Remember, it’s not just money you want; you also want brainpower, connections, and experience. (more)

What a VC wants to see in you
You too can woo even the fussiest venture capitalists. Be sure you’re pitching to the right partner — and expect them to present you with a deal sheet that has some tough terms. (more)

Download the PDF
See “How to Build a Bulletproof Startup” exactly as it appeared in the June, 2006 issue of Business 2.0 Magazine.

09
Jun

Starting the Live-Marketing-Blog

Posted by / Influential People, Innovation

Since a couple of weeks we are working a new project called “The Live Marketing Blog”.

Together with the Colja and Wolfgang from the VOK DAMS Group I am writing articles about “Live-Marketing” Trends and Innovation from around the world. I think this is a great collaboration between CScout and Vok Dams.

Here are my current articles:
– Live Marketing: Apple Flagship Store – New York
– RFID tagged Party
– Experimental Marketing

02
Jun

Japanese Hi-tech Material Used at World Cup

Posted by / Influential People, Innovation
Arena

My colleague Sven send me an interesting article with an outside view of the munich “Allianz Arena”. I have visited the Arena before: Business Diner with Mr. Hoeneß.

http://web-jpn.org/trends/science/sci060522.html

When the opening match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup gets underway in Germany, Japanese technology will help fans enjoy the action on the pitch. The Allianz Arena, where the tournament’s first game is scheduled to take place, is constructed from panels containing a fluoropolymer film called ETFE foil, which was developed and manufactured by Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. The panels form the stadium’s walls and roof. A major advantage of Asahi Glass’s foil is that it allows light to pass through it. This is crucial for the stadium’s natural grass, which needs sunlight to grow. The other advantage is the foil’s lightness and flexibility, making it easy to install in the smoothly curved panels.

11
May

Review Google Trends

Posted by / Innovation, Technology Mega Trends

Google Trends was just launched recently.

I checked the functions and compared it to BlogPulse which is online since a couple of years.

If you search for “PS3” – Play Station 3 – for example you see a very goood search results with completely new criterias.

PS3 Results

Here are some of the most important functions:
– News Volume compared to Search Volume.
– C ategorization and Selection of Years, Period and Regions.
– Major milestones are marked with arrows.
– Major news-articles for these milestones are presented on the right.

What should be improved?:
– There is no number of the news volume listed. At BlogPulse they show the percentage rate of the trend, which is helpful.
– Show translations of major news-articles, too.
– Compare it to Google Zeitgeist and show differences.
– etc….

Any more ideas?

20
Apr

Web 2.0 Companies

Posted by / Influential People, Innovation, StartUps

Today I found a list of Web 2.0 Companies on John’s Blog. There is a lot going on out there….

Web 2.0 Companies

Here is a list I recently got of all the web 2.0 companies out there. Multiply the total by 10 to consider all the ones not included in the list. Who says there is no hype? There are some Web 2.0 Venture Funds in there at the end 🙂

Any comments on your favorite ones, or ones to watch closely are much appreciated.

Continue Reading..

05
Apr

MINI Starts Video-Blog

Posted by / Future of Marketing, Innovation, Marketing Innovation

Check out this innovative Video-Blog made by the german car-manufacturer MINI.

www.vlogbymini.de

30
Mar

Meetings in New York

Posted by / Influential People, Innovation, Lifestyle

Since Monday we have a packed Programm in New York City. One interesting meeting is after the other. I will have an update about the contents and speakers here soon.

Here are three highlights so far:
– Bloomberg NY
– Current TV
– NYSE

Especially Current TV is creating an innovative model for TV in the future. Besides the Viewer Created Content there already Viewer Created Advertising on the TV Network. The Viewer Created Ads are sometime even better than the ads form the agencies… 🙂

See also on CScout.com -> TrendAbstract: Viewer Created Content.

21
Mar

Fascinating: Snake-Robot from Japan

Posted by / Innovation, Technology Mega Trends

Powered by a lithium-ion battery, the ACM-R5 is a radio-controlled amphibious robot designed to move like its real world counterpart. It can slither or swim underwater for 30 minutes on a full charge. Inside, you’ll find an intricate sensor system (attitude/torque), small-sized camera, and a 32bit micro controller. Watch a video clip….

(Via Techeblog)

14
Feb

Ein Besuch in der Deutsche Bank der Zukunft – Q110

Posted by / Future Research, Influential People, Innovation, Lifestyle
Q110 - Deutsche Bank der Zukunft

Seit Ende letzten Jahres gibt es die “Deutsche Bank der Zukunft” in Berlin. Ein Pilotprojekt namens “Q110” in der Friedrichstrasse in Berlin.

Am vergangenen Freitag hatte ich die Gelegenheit die innovative Filiale persönlich zu besuchen. Mein Eindruck war durchaus positiv. Man endeckt dort viele innovative Ideen und Ansätze die durchaus Potential für alle Bank-Filialen haben.

Auf Flickr habe ich ein ausführliche Beschreibung von Nordish entdeckt, die meine Eindrücke gut wiederspiegelt:

Q110 - Deutsche Bank der Zukunft

Erster Eindruck.
Die Deutsche Bank hat sich über die Filiale der Zukunft Gedanken gemacht. Herausgekommen ist das Q110 in der Friedrichstraße 181 in Berlin. (…) Herausgekommen bin ich sehr begeistert und in gewisser Weise gar euphorisch. Endlich hat sich jemand Gedanken gemacht, wie eine Bank sich zugänglicher und innovativer präsentieren kann. Ich kann jedem nur empfehlen, einen Abstecher in das Q110 in den nächsten Berlin-Besuch einzuplanen. Allein das Design und die technologischen Spielereien sind auch außerhalb des Bankbezugs beeindruckend.

Q110 - Deutsche Bank der Zukunft

Eingangsbereich:
Hier ist die Schalterhalle des Q110 zu sehen. Sehr offen, sehr luftig und sehr durchgestylt. An den Tischen kann die Beratung durchgeführt werden. Mittwoch abends werden kleine Events veranstaltet. dazu werden die Displays und die “Dächer” nach oben weggefahren, die Tische zur Seite gerollt und plötzlich hat man eine große Fläche für Ausstellungen, Veranstaltungen und was man sonst noch alles machen möchte.

Q110 - Deutsche Bank der Zukunft

Wegweiser:
Das erste, was man sieht, wenn man eintritt sind riesige LCD-Bildschirme, die Wegweiser. Rechts sieht man die einzelnen Bereiche aufgelistet und ein Druck auf den gewünschten Bereich bewirkt, dass auf der Karte der Gehweg zu diesem Bereich eingezeichnet wird. Schon klasse.

Q110 - Deutsche Bank der Zukunft

Finanzprodukte zum Anfassen:
Bankprodukte haben das Problem, dass sie mental und haptisch nur schwer greifbar sind. Das Problem wurde aufgegriffen, indem die “Produkte” in Dosen verpackt wurden. In den Dosen befinden sich die Produktverträge, ein paar sonstige Infos sowie ein Gutschein für die Lounge. Hinten auf der Dose stehen noch mal die wichtigsten Produktvorteile und warum das Produkt für mich interessant sein könnte.

Q110 - Deutsche Bank der Zukunft

Multimedia Terminals:
Wenn ich nun meine Box in der Hand habe und ein wenig mehr darüber erfahren möchte als hinten auf der Verpackung steht, halte ich die Dose vor einen Barcodescanner und nachfolgend wird mir ein Film gezeigt, der das Produkt näher vorstellt. Sollte man unbedingt mal ausprobieren, insbesondere, weil es am Ende des Films einen Gutschein für ein Getränk an der Bar gibt.

06
Feb

Neues Regionales Immobilienportal

Posted by / Influential People, Innovation
Wohnfly Logo

Seit Ende 2005 gibt es ein neues reginoales Immobilienportal names Wohnfly. Nun startet das Portal in Bayern durch und hat bereits in wenigen Wochen über 500 Immobilienangebote gelistet.

Das Portal wurde von Rocco Georgi entwickelt und bietet eine besonders übersichtliche Nutzerführung sowie ein ausgereiftes System rund um das Thema Immobilien.

Ich wünsche dem Team von Wohnfly.de viel Erfolg.

Presse-News
Neues Immobilienportal nur für Bayern
Regionalität gewinnt im Internet immer mehr an Bedeutung

Im Internet zeigt sich zunehmend der Trend zu regionalen Angeboten. WohnFly, das neue Immobilienportal für Bayern, seit Ende 2005 online, liegt mit seiner regionalen Ausrichtung somit voll im Trend.
Anbieter von Immobilien nutzen WohnFly, um Kontakt zu Miet- und Kaufinteressenten herzustellen. Das Angebot an Immobilien umfasst alle wichtigen Objektarten, die von Miet- über Eigentumswohnungen bis hin zu Büroräumen und anderen Gewerbeobjekten reichen.
Interessenten werden durch eine übersichtliche Seitenstruktur sowie durch das Anlegen von Merkzetteln und Suchprofilen bei ihrer Suche unterstützt. „WohnFly ist für Wohnungssuchende kostenlos. Anbieter profitieren von unserem Preismodell“, erklärt Geschäftsführer Rocco Georgi. Neben einer geringen monatlichen Gebühr in Höhe von 10,00 Euro zahlen Anbieter nur für qualifizierte Kontakte zu Interessenten und sind dabei nicht an eine Mindestvertragslaufzeit gebunden. Bis 31. März 2006 können Anbieter das Portal im Rahmen einer Kennlern-Aktion kostenlos nutzen.

Da WohnFly von Anfang an in Kooperation mit Immobilienmaklern entstand, können auch spezielle Anforderungen erfüllt werden. So können Anbieter Anfrageformulare für Interessenten individuell anpassen oder die Möglichkeit nutzen, ihren kompletten Objektbestand importieren zu lassen.
Weitere Informationen unter www.wohnfly.de.

06
Feb

Google and Skype join new wifi-venture – FON

Posted by / Blogs, Influential People, Innovation, Social Media, StartUps
Martin - FON

Today I read at Marcel’s Blog that FON received 18 Million Euro in Venture Capital in their first investment round.

Gratulations to Martin Varsavsky who founded the new wifi-venture FON. He was also speaking at the Digital Lifestyle Day 2006 in Munich. We really think this will be a hot business modell for the next years.

Here is the official News from FT.com:

Google and Skype join new wi-fi venture

By Chris Nuttall in San Francisco
Financial Times
Updated: 5:40 a.m. ET Feb. 6, 2006

Google, internet voice-call company Skype and leading venture capitalists have invested in a new user-run network of wi-fi hotspots, which they hope will become the biggest in the world by the end of the year.

Google, Skype, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital will announce on Monday $21.7m (€18m) in first-round funding for Madrid-based Fon to build on its growing global band of “foneros”.

Foneros are users of the service and known as either “Bill”, “Linus” or “Alien”. Bill members – after Bill Gates – download secure software from Fon that turns their home wi-fi network into a hotspot anyone within its range can use to connect to the internet for a fee.

Linus members – after Linus Torvalds, creator of the free Linux software – allow their hotspots and bandwidth to be shared for free and can use any other members’ without charge.

Aliens pay to connect to the Fon network and do not share their own networks. Fon and Bills will share the revenues earned from Aliens and other Bills.

The service went live in November and has registered 3,000 users in 53 countries in two months. Fon says it is growing faster than T-Mobile, the biggest network, with 24,000 hotspots established over four years, and expects to exceed this as word spreads.

“We think this is very disruptive technology and it’s going to be global, very much like Skype,” said Danny Rimer of Index Ventures. “It’s another example of an incredibly innovative company coming out of Europe.”

Internet service providers may object to their subscribers reselling the bandwidth being provided to them but Fon says some have already signed up as partners and can earn a share of Alien revenues from the venture.

The company was founded by Martin Varsavsky, who previously formed Ya.com and Jazztel, respectively the second-largest internet and publicly traded telecoms companies in Spain.

04
Jan

German Search is important.

Posted by / Blogs, Influential People, Innovation

This deal shows how important local search is.
– And how difficult it is to search accross countries and languages.

Aftek Buys German Search Firm – Arexera
(Arexera is based in Munich, Germany.)
Indian tech company now holds huge chunk in the search engine Seekport and plans to launch Arabic and Indian search engines.

Via RedHerring.

04
Jan

Hot Companies 2006

Posted by / Business Innovation, Future Research, Influential People

I will have lunch with a Venture Capital Partner today.
We meet from time to time to speak about the latest trends and innovations.

We will speak about interesting StartUps and emerging Businesses. From my point of view here are some companies which are worth watching in 2006:

Blogosphere:
– SixApart
– Technorati

Pay By Touch: The Pay By Touch service is a service that allows you to pay for purchases or cash checks with just the touch of your finger.

Mobile World:
– Semapedia – the physical wikipedia.
– CellFire – mobile couponing
– ScanR – mobile scanner, copier or fax.
– Zogo – mobile online flirting community.
– MobilePlay
– Dijiji – mobile media agency

Financial World:
– Zopa
– Fundable

Online Office Software: The race is on. Here are some companies in the fielf of online office software.
– Zoho Writer: Online Word Processor, Writely – Word Online, Writeboard (See 37 Signals), Bindows – Online Office, Gliffy, NumSum – Online Excel, Zimbra.

Ajax Applications:
– AjaxTrans, very useful translation tool.
– Meebo: Instant Messanging on an online platform. Easy to use behind company firewall or in internet cafes.
– Riya: A online image search with innovative face recognition system.

Knowledge Society:
– Squidoo, everone’s an expert on something.
– DIGG

Beyong Flickr: Bubbleshare, Fotolia.

Merchandising on next level: GoodStorm (Storytelling at its best – See “Easy Ethics Trend“), CafePress, Zazzle, Spreadshirt.

Innovative Technology: nTag – “Ego Badges” for events,

VoIP: Adomo – Voicemail via VoIP

Security: VoiceVault – Voice Recognition,

Online Social Networking 2.0: Passado, VidiLife – Free Video Webcasting for Everybody, Zogo – mobile online flirting community.

Hot or Not:
– Synthetic Genomics
– Woot – one day, one deal.
– MatrixStream – IPTV via Broadband

Blogs to watch:
– VentureBlog
– Silicon Beat

Last but not least – one of the most read Blog worldwide:
PostSecret.

03
Jan

Google PC in 2006?

Posted by / Innovation

First rumors of the CES in Las Vegas this year are spreading fast.

Will Google produce their own PC with their own Operating System?

Update: The Register also has an article on the Google PC.

L.A. Times writes:

Cheap PCs, anyone?

Google will unveil its own low-price personal computer or other device that connects to the Internet.

Sources say Google has been in negotiations with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., among other retailers, to sell a Google PC. The machine would run an operating system created by Google, not Microsoft’s Windows, which is one reason it would be so cheap — perhaps as little as a couple of hundred dollars.

Bear Stearns analysts speculated in a research report last month that consumers would soon see something called “Google Cubes” — a small hardware box that could allow users to move songs, videos and other digital files between their computers and TV sets.

Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and president of products, will give a keynote address Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Analysts suspect that Page will use the opportunity either to show off a Google computing device or announce a partnership with a big retailer to sell such a machine.

And that’s not the only Google theory out there. Content producers wonder whether Google’s push into video search will unravel the economics that make Hollywood hum. If viewers can find and legally download an episode of “Seinfeld” through Google, will that cut into cable and network television’s profits?

And what if Google, after equipping cities, starting with San Francisco, with Wi-Fi wireless technology, starts to offer pay-TV service for free?

Still, to date, the company’s $123-billion stock market value is based almost entirely on its dominance of one business: global text searches on the Web. Some investors worry that Page and co-founder Sergey Brin could be done in by their penchant for seeing themselves as do-gooders rather than profiteers. But those naysayers are in the minority. Most industry executives and Wall Street analysts believe that Google’s search engine business is robust enough to give the young billionaires two or three years of wiggle room to build nifty services first and worry about making money on them later.

02
Jan

Messengers of Cool

Posted by / Future Research, Innovation

A friend send me a great article from Time Magazine: “Messengers of Cool”. I was published in October 2005 but still is worth reading: http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1118344,00.html

The article is all about Global TrendScouting.

Here is the link to a the high-quality JPG.
Time TrendScouting Article

16
Dec

Roboter Grand Prix in Japan

Posted by / Innovation, Technology Mega Trends

In Japan wurden vor kurzem ein offizieller Roboter Grand Prix ausgetragen. Bei den Wettkämpfen treten Roboter gegeneinander zum Kampf an.

Robo One GP

Roboter JapanRoboter Kid Functions

Roboter Kid

06
Dec

Live from Ozo Car, New York

Posted by / Innovation, Technology Mega Trends

Live from Ozo Car in New York.

Driving in an eco-hybrid-car to JFK Airport. We have 200 Satellite Radio Stations on bord. Furthermore Ozocar offers an iBook with 3G Internet connections. Isn’t that cool?

http://www.ozocar.com/

Ozo Car

Language

About Monty

Entrepreneur. Investor. Keynote Speaker.
CEO & Founder at LCX - Liechtenstein Cryptoassets Exchange. Founding General Partner at Digital Leaders Ventures D-L-V.com. Chairman at Digital Leaders. Author of Mobile Future 2020 and Digital Future 2030. Loving Dad & Husband.



Keynote Speaker

Interested in booking Monty for a speaking engagement? Find out more here.

Digital Leaders

A global network of some of the smartest and influential people in the internet, mobile and tech-industry.
www.DigitalLeaders.co
Digital Leaders

Recent Posts

Tweets

Categories