Emergence of Small C-level meetings with Key Clients

   Here's an interesting event trend picking up steam: small, intimate, interactive executive discussions on future trends.

   Jim Carroll, a Promenade futurist has been invited for several client advisory board meetings. Examples have included dinner meetings with a client’s senior executives and their key client counterparts or extended pre-dinner discussions. Talks center around economic changes over the next 5-10 years and the innovations needed to take advantage of them.

   Carroll sees a number of trends at work here:

1) companies are eager to re-engage with senior executives in their client base; they see these meetings as a useful way to do that; they can put some independent thinking on the table, and use this as a draw to get senior executives in the room

2) there's a bit of a reaction to the "AIG-effect," in that such events are pretty well below the radar, compared to a golf, resort or similar outing

3) there is definitely a significant uptick in demand for future trends insight; many  are being driven here at a CEO or other senior manager level.

Jim Carroll - Humorous Futurist - Global Trends, Innovation, Speed of Change