Relevance assessment with the Trend Café
In the innovation process it is crucial to assess the impact and significance of trends in a targeted way. The Trend Café method is an interactive workshop format that makes this task very practical and lively.
What is a Trend Café?
The Trend Café is based on the „World Café“ approach. At several tables (in the room or digitally in groups), selected Macro Trends are discussed, particularly with regard to their degree of influence and their relevance for the company and the respective business environment.
How a Trend Café runs:
- Preparation: Select 5–7 exciting or polarizing Macro Trends (e.g. via the industry filter in the Trendmanager). Develop three guiding questions per trend, e.g.:
- How does the trend influence my (private) everyday life?
- How does it affect my industry?
- What does the trend mean for our company, business model, or way of working?
- Set up (virtual) „tables“, each with one trend. Note the guiding questions clearly visible.
- Define who is the facilitator at each table and invite participants from different parts of the company. Small, diverse groups are ideal.
- Execution: The facilitator briefly presents the trend and the guiding questions. The group discusses highlights, opportunities, risks, and consequences of the questions for 15 minutes. Aspects are collected on Post-its or digitally. After each time slot, participants rotate to the next table, the facilitator summarizes and starts a new round. At the end, each facilitator gives a short summary of what overall influence was attributed to the trend and why.
- Result: All collected opinions, assessments, and pro/con arguments provide a well-founded basis for prioritizing trends. These results can be used directly for evaluation and selection processes in trend management.
