"Sometimes the trends you think you need to be thinking about aren’t the ones you should be thinking about!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Today I'm in Scottsdale, Arizona, and in a few hours, I'll be the opening keynote speaker for XSpecs 2024.
What is it? An event that features the attendance of most of the folks who build most of the major retail space for organizations large and small throughout North America. It's a pretty special crowd, responsible for billions of dollars of construction and renovation within the industry.
This three-day, by-invitation-only event brings together top retailers and suppliers — involved in store planning, design, construction and facilities management — in an informal setting designed to educate, inspire, foster networking and best practice-sharing, and build business partnerships.
I was originally approached by this group through one of my speaker bureau partners, Dynamic Speakers, based out of Austin, Texas. They've booked me several times through the years. The client originally approached them looking for someone to talk to about the issues around the topic du jour - which, of course, is artificial intelligence.
Then, they had a Zoom call where I started to outline some of the leading-edge trends defining the future of their industry, and things took off from there. It led to this keynote description:
The Future of Retail Construction in The Era of Acceleration
The rapid emergence of new design, construction, and management methodologies involving virtualized digital twins. The arrival of fascinating new construction materials. The acceleration of machine-based artificial intelligence and its impact on construction robotics and smart tools. Next-generation project inspection, safety, monitoring, and management tools utilizing drones and other advanced hardware. The impact of the next-generation building architect from the gaming generation - one who brings their experience playing Roblox to the construction world! And the continued innovations around the idea of 'connected energy,' with whole system deployment and integration of renewable energy sources, microgrid advancements, battery science, and smart technology. The future is fast - and you must get a powerful but useful interpretation of what is going on. Join us as Futurist Jim Carroll - whose clients include NASA, Disney, and the World Bank - takes us on a voyage into tomorrow.
Oh, and since a number of the folks are in the grocery and food end of the retail business, I've also got a section about vertical farming, not to forget my section on the arrival of all kinds of new construction materials and technologies. And so suddenly, while they thought they were looking for a talk on the future impact of AI, they realized they were looking for something more.
How often do you see this happening - organizations and leadership teams focusing on the latest and great thing, chasing the hype, following the crowd - and failing to see that one particular trend might simply be a subset of much larger, more massive trends? Even so, my presentation does presume that AI will play a key role in all this, and so there is AI-related content scattered throughout because it is a part of so many of these other trends. That's why one of my slides - with images generated by an AI - is used to emphasize that point.
What's the takeaway?
When following the future, always resist the temptation to narrow yourself to what's hot, and ask yourself when it comes to your area of focus - what's not (on the list!)
Futurist Jim Carroll plans to study the flight of a small white object at a location north of Scottsdale after his keynote.