I keep an eye on Trendhunter and was watching out for their trends for 2009, as usual I think they will be interestingly accurate.
In particular, they predict increasing use of urban gardens for fruit and veg, which chimes with yours2share‘s recent new land share category.
Other trends strike a chord, or make me smile. “Ageless inspiration” – older people will be increasingly challenging people’s ideas about what can be done when they reach retirement – lead by the baby boomer generation. “Humanising pets” – I love the doggie wetsuit, not that I have a chance of getting my dogs into such a thing and I don’t think I’d ever teach them to use the doggie doorbell, I can’t get them to push open a half open door!
“Virtual tourism” is an interesting and probably accurate trend prediction: I think this is an easy response for our American friends, but I can’t see Europeans and Antipodeans forsaking their love of experiencing other cultures. This is a pity, the more Americans get out and meet their global neighbours the better for global relations, but I think recent a increase in overseas travel by US citizens will unfortunately stall for the next few years.