At any big industry conference or event, I think the main question that’s on everyone’s mind is “What’s the next big thing?” The fact that the answer to that question is far from certain is what makes the question so fun to throw around. No one knows for sure, but everyone wants their Magic 8 Ball to shake out what the future will actually hold. Gary Vaynerchuk, host of Wine Library TV and author of Crush It!, may just have that Magic 8 Ball.
A few sentences into his presentation and I knew he was not only frighteningly smart and articulate, but totally passionate about what he believes in. I’ll try my best to boil his thoughts on the next big trends down to a few tasty tidbits.
1. The golden era of free is over. While we’ve all grown used to our favorite things (Twitter, anyone?) being free, at some point the world will have to start looking at business models that look like business models. The freemium model captures the best things about being free and the best things about making money (which is really all the things about making money).
2. Less choice drives decision making. Seems so simple. Walk into a store with 500 different widgets – indecision invariably ensues. Tell me what to buy in a way where I think I’ve actually made that decision and I’ll have my credit card out before you know it.
3. Geolocation is going to change our world. Having a platform to move people where you want them to be will kick the door on everything wide open.
So. I’m sure this is just fraction of all the ideas spinning around in Gary’s head and I’m presenting them here in super-condensed format (and using far less expletives than Gary would), but hopefully it’s some good food for thought. I’m definitely thinking about things differently now.
