I am particularly pleased that we’ve been able to better organize the blog and the older content archive, for those of you interested in browsing the future. For those of you looking for a keynote or for high-level consulting in long-range planning, we’ve improved our access to information on what we offer, including examples of past consulting projects, and keynote speaking event highlights.

In the About tab we’ve more clearly explained our value proposition for futurist consulting and keynotes. You will also find better information about our history, Futurist.com Associates, and contributing writers.

There are better links to social media. And, as always, we also offer a great deal of video information.

By the way, Futurist.com had 34,000 visitors and 475,000 hits in January 2010, one of our largest months.

I also want to announce that, as of Febraury 2010, Amy Frazier, for the past two years our Director of Marketing and Programs, has shifted to being a Futurist.com Associate, offering programs in creativity, as she pursues a Masters degree in the subject. We have appreciated her work here and look forward to working together in this new relationship.

Please feel free to send in questions and comments. And we are booking 2010 at the moment, so do get on the schedule for a program this year.

Glen Hiemstra is a futurist speaker, author, consultant, blogger, internet video host and Founder of Futurist.com. To arrange for a speech contact Futurist.com.

First, Lexis Nexis invited me to keynote their annual customer conference for their insurance customers. They had the biggest registration they’ve had yet, for their event at Stone Mountain, Georgia.

Then, I had the chance to keynote the annual Zino Society Zillionaire conference, where 28 start-up companies presented their case for funding. We’ve written about the event and the entrepreneurs who impressed me before. Following that event, I was invited as a guest to a regular meeting of the Northwest Energy Angels in Bellevue, Washington. There I heard four more companies present their ideas for energy-related ventures. The most impressive to me was Rapid Electric Vehicles, a Vancouver BC company that is converting popular fleet vehicles like the Ford F-150 to all-electric. Cities like Santa Monica are making early buys.

Later, in October attended the day-long FiRe Westcoast Global Conference. This is a Mark Anderson and Strategic News Service event, for which I served on the advisory committee. Here again, in addition to several issues and topical presentations, we heard from a dozen start-up companies selected as FireStars. So by the end of these three events I had head from over 40 start-up ventures. This was an impressive and encouraging series of programs participate in, giving me great hope for the future. Creativity and entrepreneurship are alive and well even in these harsh economic times.

In the middle of these conferences I provided a closing keynote for the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition annual fund-raising and award breakfast, were I had the pleasure of chatting with former Washington governors Mike Lowry and Dan Evans. In this speech I riffed on some thoughts of my old futurist mentor, Ed Lindaman, on why people are attracted to a place like the northwest. People are aquatropic – drawn to water, creatropic – drawn to creativity, egotropic – drawn to recreation, and silvatropi – drawn to trees, and so an organization like the WWRC which works to preserve recreational and natural lands is vital to what people want and need.

Then began my October odyssey. On October 6 I was in Watertown, South Dakota to speak to the faculty and staff of Lake Area Technical Institute, and later in the day to be the featured speaker at the annual Feuerstein Speaker Series. I addressed both future trends, and the need to create preferred futures.

From there I hurried back to Seattle-Tacoma to speak to a dinner meeting of the board and management of a local company named the Threshold Group. This company provides financial services to high-net worth families, and we discussed the future as related both to the economy and families.

Next I headed to Monterey, California, where I keynoted the annual leadership conference of Rotary International for the Western Region. This was a wonderful audience of 600. The highlight for me was asking this audience what their image of the future is these days – and being surprised and pleased when their images were not pessimistic, but rather consisted of things like, “and end to world hunger,” “a cure for cancer,” “solving the world water problem,” and so on. These people, devoted to service through their organization assume that service will lead to positive outcomes, and I left their event feeling more hopeful as well.

Then it was off to Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan, where I provided the opening keynote for an Association of University Interior Designers Conference. We had an interesting time discussing the future of design, of interior and exterior spaces and educational settings.

From MSU, and after the FiRe event in Seattle, I flew to San Jose where I gave a conference closing presentation to the Institute for Oral Health Leadership Institute. A favorite issue of mine related to health care has been for many years the way that dental health is generally left out of the conversation, and not incidentally is a type of insurance that is almost impossible to buy on the individual market. The group was interested in a program on how to make systemic change. Reaching back into my days as a professor in systems change, as well as my consulting work on organizational planning, I presented the barriers to systemic change and how to begin to overcome them.

The following week, as we have noted earlier, I had the privilege of speaking to the 125th Anniversary of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce. With them I took a bit of risk and, in addition to discussing future trends and where the economy is going, challenged them to turn the greater Tacoma area into a leader in sustainable business and to pay attention to the imbalances in our current economy that contributed to the economic downturn.

A couple of days later I was in Atlanta, Georgia on behalf of the Boeing Company. One of their programs in recent years has included inviting executives from Chinese airline, airport and the Chinese equivalent of the FAA to participate in weeks-long education program, introducing them to business principles and airport and airline operations. Many times Boeing has invited me to spend a half-day with these Chinese executives to discuss long term future trends, and strategic leadership. We focused this time on the four key skills sets of the strategic leader – being future oriented, being vision driven, being strategic, and being collaborative.

The Chinese participated at a high level in small group discussion sessions. Most impressive to me was that when asked to forecast the years 2020, 2030 and 2050, the Chinese it seemed to me thought like Americans circa the 1960’s or so. That is to say, with great optimism and a sense that anything can be done if we put our mind to it. By these time periods their images were full of predictions like, “cure for cancer,” “new non-polluting energy sources developed,” and “settlement on Mars.” Even more impressive was when small teams were asked to describe their preferred vision for air travel in China circa 2020 and they spoke in ambitious terms of “ticketless check-in,” “everyone in China can afford to fly,” “far more capacity,” “Chinese airlines in for Fortune 500,” and so on. They exhibited such hope and confidence that I was impressed – it reminded me of the old days of the space program here in the States, for example.

After that program, I headed to a retreat center in upstate Wisconsin, where I lead the Lakeview Medical Center board and management along with their new partner the Marshfield Clinic in a day of futuring. This was the first ever combined board meeting, and we explored future trends related to health care, and developed strategic implications for the enterprise.

After a week home, I headed back to Minneapolis where, this past Friday November 6, I had the opportunity to work with the combined marketing teams of the Land O Lakes four business units, in their first ever gathering. They had been in a day-long learning and networking session on the future of marketing developed by my partners on this event, Imperatives LLC. The 95 marketing specialists demonstrated a great capacity for foresight and thinking through strategic implications as they worked on min-scenarios together.

Seven weeks into the future. Once again, I learned there is a hunger not just for figuring out the future, but creating a preferred future.

Glen Hiemstra is a futurist speaker, consultant, blogger, internet video host and founder of Futurist.com. To arrange for a speech contact Futurist.com. If you book a 2010 event before December 15, 2009, receive a 20% discount off standard fees.

You can tune into the Webcast in the viewer here, or by linking to our “futurist” channel at the webcast host, UsStream TV.

Webcast begins at 4:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time.

The program slide deck is now available at slide share. The program is video-intensive, and sorry that you cannot see the videos in the slide program here.

The temptation for many is to circle the wagons and wait for the dangers to pass by, hoping for a day when things get back to normal.

But, there is also a more pro-active alternative. Here at Futurist.com we have decided to go that route. This week we are expanding the programs that we offer to customers, programs that can help you become more prepared to create your preferred future.

We have new keynotes and workshops on The Millennial Generation and 21st Century Creativity.

Over the past few years, I have worked closely with the creators of these programs—Kanna Hudson and Amy Frazier. They have been part of the Futurist.com organization, and each brings a distinct voice and passion to their programs.

Kanna Hudson is a member of the Millennial Generation. She has worked extensively with Millennials in educational settings, both as a professional academic counselor, and as an instructor at the University of Washington where she teaches a course called “The Millennial Generation.” Born in 1982, she has been honing her expertise on how this generation thinks, works, plays, interacts, and feels for 26 years. Kanna’s programs focus on the contextual factors that shape this demographic, including an exploration of their values and diversity. Check out Kanna’s Millennial Gen blog.

Amy Frazier’s programs explore the nature of creativity and innovation in these turbulent early years of the 21st Century. Drawing on her background in the arts and leadership development, Amy identifies the factors that are increasingly important in our ability to tap into our creativity in the face of overwhelming data flow, rapid change and the sustainability imperative. Amy’s programs illustrate the importance of recognizing and cultivating creativity and innovation, in order to leverage our ability to identify and act on emerging possibilities. Check out Amy’s blog.

In addition to these two new contributors, we would also like to reintroduce Brenda Cooper, a long-time Futurist.com colleague. Brenda is a technology professional, futurist and award-winning science fiction writer. As a futurist, she has worked with me for over ten years, and was part of the original branding of Futurist.com on the web. Brenda continues to be available for futurist speaking, especially on technology, social trends, and writing. Check out Brenda’s blog. You might also be interested in her most recent book, Reading the Wind, which is now available at Amazon.com.

These are exceptional times. We are very interested in continuing to reach out and innovate in our offerings at Futurist.com, to bring you information on important topics for the future. We spent time shooting video previews with Kanna, Amy and Brenda and when the video is ready we will let you know.

I am very pleased to present these great additions to Futurist.com.

Glen Hiemstra is a futurist speaker, consultant, blogger, internet video host and founder of Futurist.com. To arrange for a speech contact Futurist.com.

In any case, watch that space for our own videos, and for online video recommendations.

Here is the first one we posted to www.youtube/futuristspeaker, the sample of keynote speaking that you can find at other sites as well.

Glen Hiemstra is a futurist speaker, author, consultant, blogger, internet TV show host and founder of Futurist.com. To arrange for a speech contact Futurist.com.

Glen Hiemstra is a futurist speaker, consultant, blogger, internet TV show host and founder of Futurist.com. To arrange for a speech contact Futurist.com.

The quarterly forecasts will be published in the Articles collection on the site. We’ll send notices to those who have signed up for the free newsletter, and of course those who have chosen an RSS feed of the blog will receive their standard notice that a new quarterly forecast is available.

In these quarterly forecasts we will continue our traditional whole systems or big picture view. While we will continue our general emphasis on the opportunity to create preferred futures here at the website, and in my speaking, and consulting, in the quarterly I’ll go out on a limb and reveal some of my own expectations and predictions.

Glen Hiemstra is a futurist speaker, consultant, blogger, internet TV show host and founder of Futurist.com. To arrange for a speech contact Futurist.com.

Brenda sets her story on a distant world, where genetically enhanced and non-enhanced colonists struggle to co-exist and make a new life. As Brenda’s reviews attest, she is a master at character-driven story telling, while mixing in the best of anticipated technological developments.

Brenda was the original web-designer when we set up Futurist.com in the mid-1990’s. She was, at the time, an IT executive for a small city in the state of Washington. Now she is Director of IT for a larger suburban city, and has fully realized her dream of becoming a recognized and regularly published writer of speculative fiction.

Buy the book and enjoy!

Glen Hiemstra is a futurist speaker, consultant, blogger, internet TV show host and founder of Futurist.com. To arrange for a speech contact Futurist.com.

Overview – 2008 will be a year that feels like a whip-saw. Promising innovations. Economic turmoil. Large events

The Economy 2008 – Paradoxes

2008 will be one of paradox, innovation balanced by turmoil. Because of the tremendous interconnectivity of researchers, the availability of money for innovation investment, the technical tools available, and the urgency of certain needs, there will be more opportunity for innovation in 2008 than ever. Innovation is needed in energy, in health care, and in so many fields. But, innovation will be balanced or held back by turmoil in the financial markets. Some 2 million more “teaser rate” mortgages will re-set in the next 18 months. The resulting debt crisis is not near its end, not even near the mid-point, but still in its early stages. One estimate is that 5.6 million home owners in the U.S. are upside-down, owing more than their house is worth. If prices fall another 10-20%, as some predict, then perhaps 10 million home owners will go upside-down. This would drive losses from $100 billion to nearer a trillion dollars.

Globally, China will continue to grow at a rapid rate, 10-12% per year. It will attract increasing investment and become more of an innovation center.

2008 will also see income disparity come to the fore as a social and political issue. The nature of the current economy is such that small groups of highly creative people can reap super rewards, while the large middle class sees little progress

Technology 2008 – Nano + Solar

The hottest tech areas in 2008 will be nano plus solar. Nanotechnology, particularly the work being done with nanotech batteries, will stand out. AltairNano will ship a 20MW stationary battery in 2008. Nanobatteries will impact the introduction of plug-in electric cars in 2008, and the supply of electric cars from Phoenix, Tesla and others will fall far short of demand. AltairNano will debut an electric garbage truck. In the field of solar, NanoSolar will, according to reports, complete its fabrication plant for printing thin-film solar cells, enough of them to be equivalent to a third to a half a nuclear plant per year.

Nanotech will also impact water filtration. Seldon Tech is using carbon nanotubes to manufacture water filters, actually printed on old newspaper equipment. The carbon nanotubes used to cost hundreds of dollars an ounce, but now have come down to 20 cents an ounce. The Seldon Tech water straw will appear in early 2008.

Beyond nano and solar, the IT development of note in the U.S. will be fiber to the home. Verizon’s FIOS product will challenge the cable franchises to move from the “triple play” (TV, phone, internet) to a quadruple (TV, phone, internet, wireless) or quintuple play (TV, phone, internet, wireless, home management). The question will be whether consumers want all these things bundled for convenience, or whether they care.

Energy 2008 – Oil Rising

As 2007 came to a close, oil was at about $95 a barrel. Some experts predict a dramatic price decline in 2008, following historical patterns. We disagree. The new floor price is about $90, and we will see $100 in 2008, and as much as $140-150 by mid-year. Why? Increasing global demand from countries like China and India, an obvious development. But the real hidden force is increasing demand in the oil producing nations. In fact, the key metric to watch is not oil production but oil exports. Countries like Russia, Venezuela, and Mexico see their exports falling faster than their production, as they use more internally. The same is true in Saudi Arabia. Oil prices are not coming back, and 2008 is the year we realize this is true.

[I recorded the video on December 21, 2007- and oil hit $100 on January 2, 2008.]

[Second Note: Oil hit $140 on June 26, 2008.]

Environment 2008 – The Big Stall

2007 was the year of the turning point as regards the global climate crisis. Thanks to Al Gore and the IPCC, co-winners of the Nobel Prize, even the die-hards like the U.S. President now acknowledge that global warming is real. But, will 2008 then become the year of action? No, not yet. Instead it will be the year of the big stall, as debate rages about what to do, and mostly all of the relevant institutions and decision makers have to wait until the U.S. administration turns over. We will see private initiatives in energy and transportation, but concerted global action will wait another year.

Population and Venture Capital 2008 – Oh to be Young

The leading edge of the digital native generation is now 18-25 or so. The first generation to grow up in the personal computing and internet age is now at work. The venture capital world increasingly focuses on this generation, the very young creatives, for the breakthrough ideas. Thus 2008 marks a change-over to the next generation for innovation leadership.

Wildcard 2008 – Iraq and McCain

I once heard Alvin Toffler say that predicting likely trends is of less value than is anticipating unlikely events that would really change things if they happened. The wild cards, in other words. Here is my wildcard for 2008: calm in Iraq, not just the level of violence but actual political reconciliation. Were this to happen, in time, the odds for John McCain becoming the Republican nominee, and later being elected U.S. President increase greatly. If four more years of Republican rule resulted, then progressive policy change in health care, taxes, and to a lesser degree the environment and energy becomes much less likely. Another wildcard may scuttle this possibility, regardless of Iraq. That is immigration. Conventional wisdom says a candidate must demonstrate an anti-immigrant stance to be elected. However, the large Latino vote in the U.S. could turn this assumption upside down, and thus work against a McCain win.

Glen Hiemstra is a futurist speaker, consultant, blogger, internet TV show host and founder of Futurist.com. To arrange for a speech contact Futurist.com.

Each episode can be viewed at our Future Talks page. The player automatically inserts the newest episode.

Now on iTunes

For those wanting to download the entire series, which also includes two hour-long interviews with Glen and Gerd respectively, this can now be done at iTunes. They are free podcast downloads. To optain via iTunes, go to the iTunes store, and search for “Media Conversations.” When you see the CD-like symbol for this program from the Conversations Network, clicking on it will take you to the entire program list, which at this point consists of nine podcast episodes.

Individual episodes may also be downloaded as MP3′s, at Media Conversations.