The Future Laboratory offers professional courses on future forecasting

London – On 4 September The Future Laboratory will launch the Consumer Foresight and Future Trends Programme, a collaborative trends programme created by international players in the burgeoning foresight and brand innovation sector.

‘This is a one-off series of courses that uses a unique learning-through-action technique developed by Sweden’s Berghs School of Communication to fully immerse industry professionals in the skills needed to become effective innovators and consumer forecasters,’ says The Future Laboratory co-founder Martin Raymond.

Another Tomorrow, a brand that has developed a cult following among organisations such as Swedbank, PwC and Hyper Island for its use of prototyping – physical, emotional and narrative-based – to envisage a future product or consumer, is also collaborating on the course programme, which will take place at the Elder Street offices of The Future Laboratory, and at innovator brands and start-ups located near Shoreditch’s fabled Silicon Roundabout.

‘The new training programme aims to give companies greater power to act on trends and consumer insights while providing tools for product development and new communication solutions,’ says Berghs CEO Camilla Wallander. ‘This is unusual in education and business – theory and practice are normally segregated – but on this, all are combined. Professionals will learn from other professionals and course directors.’

The programme comprises the following courses: Identifying trends and putting them into action: 4–29 September 2017; Developing consumer networks to drive innovation: 4 October–3 November 2017; Scenario planning for future preparedness: 8 November–1 December 2017; Identifying consumer behaviour for marketing and product development: 8 January–3 February 2018.