Window-shopping: Consumer Futures Forum explores shape of things to come

Guests from Barclaycard, KFC, Tata Motors and Harrods, to name a few, gathered at our Elder Street office, where they enjoyed a banquet-themed spread and toured The Future Laboratory’s Phygital gallery featuring some of the best examples of virtual retail experiences.

The day began with a Global Market Overview from The Future Laboratory co-founders Martin Raymond and Chris Sanderson, followed by a look at the consumer groups emerging in a post-recession society.

The Latimer Group’s director of insight and innovation Helen Job and co-founder and managing director Matt Hay sat down with LS:N Global senior journalist Sonia Van Gilder Cooke to discuss Millennial consumers and how young people want to be co-architects of the brands and products they invest in.

Spear’s magazine editor Josh Spero joined Martin Raymond to look at the luxury industry and talk about eternal values, extraordinary customer service and why he is waging a one-man war against hotel mini-bars.

LS:N Global visual editor Hannah Robinson spoke to The Numinous founder Ruby Warrington about why New Age thinking and wellness are becoming mainstream, while senior journalist Rowland Manthorpe examined smart social media campaigns with Carl Miller, research director at the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos.

For more on Consumer Futures, buy a copy of our Consumer Futures 2014 report, available in our shop.