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Trendspotting and Future Thinking

Course number

KTH: ME2829, SSE: 8070, KI: 2XX046, KFK: SSES11, SU: FE6608

Schedule

Autumn 2013

Dates

Autumn 2013: 3 Sep - 17 Oct

Worth: 7.5 ECTS credits

Taught at

Konstfack

Swedish course name

Trendanalys och framtidstänkande

Entrepreneur or not, it is an advantage to understand where tomorrow is going. This course seeks to introduce the students to the concept trends, trendspotting and future thinking.

Employing the methodology of trendspotting and future forecasting this course provides the toolbox to work with trends. The course is structured around a set of tools that together form a cohesive understanding for the creation, development and dilution of trends. Specifically, the course focus on how you can use trendspotting as a way to analyse and form future entrepreneurial landscapes.

Having successfully graduated from this courses is considered an advantage when applying for the annual and residential SSES trendspotting in India workshop.

Intended learning outcomes

After this course you should perceive trendspotting as a clear, understandable and approachable tool in new business creation and development and be able to:

  • explain the concepts of trends, trendspotting and future thinking
  • investigate the human fascination with the concept of the future and outline pitfalls in future thinking
  • investigate and further develop the different ways in which future thinking can be mastered
  • explore and discuss different types of trends from macro and megatrends to fashionable fads and microtrends
  • reveal and further develop reliable sources for trendspotting

Structure

In order for you as a student to be able to take SSES courses they are all scheduled after your daily classes (or workday), with some margin time to ensure you can commute to campus, pick up a coffee and arrive on time.

This course runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays in two to three hour sessions for some seven weeks, but for a detailed timing check out the schedule in the box to the right. Teaching will incorporate lectures, debates, and exercises, as well as presentation from leaders in the field. 

Assessment

Examination

  • Assignment 1 (individual, 50%): Future Scenario
  • Assignment 2 (group, 20%): Trends in Practice
  • Assignment 3 (group, 30%):

- Component 1: Reflecting on and communicating a possible future (video).
- Component 2: Synopsis, combining the two prior assignments.
- Component 3: Workshop participation.

Teacher(s)

Hlin Helga Gudlaugsdottir

Course Director

Directing Manager and Artistic Director of The Aurora Design Fund, Iceland
Hlin.Helga@konstfack.se

 

Hlin Helga Gudlaugsdottir is a faculty member and a guest lecturer at The Experience Design Group, Konstfack, Stockholm and the Directing Manager and Artistic Director of The Aurora Design Fund in Iceland. She also teaches Experience Design at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts and National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India, teaches Future Forecasting at Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship. Other activities include curatorial projects and lectures in varied fields.  She is a designer with a BA from the Iceland Academy of the Arts, a BA in French and German Literature from the University of Iceland and a Diploma in European Studies from the Institut des Hautes Etudes Europeennes, Strasbourg, France. Through her previous professional experience she has gained insight into various forms of leadership, process management and manufacturing and entrepreneurial companies.