FutureSport - How digital trends will enhance our everyday sporting lives

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This short presentation highlights my recent thoughts on how emerging technological trends and future predictions might change the grassroots sports landscape in the not too distant future.

Biometric smart wear continues to advance whilst mind-controlled systems that deliver frictionless interactions via ‘natural user interfaces’ begin to get traction. The widespread adoption of cognitive systems that learn, reason and engage with us in more natural ways will help us to make smarter decisions. And augmented reality applications such as the Recon Jet heads-up display product will deliver performance and environmental metrics aimed at improving the overall sporting experience for cyclists and alpine sports enthusiasts.

Everyday sporting activities of the future will be enhanced by technological advances that give us greater control and optimise our experience helping us to learn and progress faster, improve our fitness, have a more enjoyable time and avoid injury.

Credit: IBM 5 in 5.

'I don’t know where I’m going but I’m on my way.'

Alan Fletcher

It’s one of my favourite pieces of typography and thanks to the late, great Alan Fletcher it’s a thought that’s been with me for a very long time.

But why is this inspiring wee line so relevant at this time?

After a three and a half year spell with one of New Zealand’s most successful design practices I’ve decided to dedicate a few precious months to a professional development sabbatical.

It’s taken a while to realise that things needed to change and while I may not have the luxury of taking a year off as Stefan Sagmeister does every 7 years (see his inspiring TED talk - click here ), I do have a few months to recalibrate, recharge and refocus.

So what have I learnt in the first few weeks since my new adventure began?

Well, there’s one critical epiphany, and that is, I believe that every business should seriously consider giving their employees the opportunity to take at least 2 weeks out a year to focus on their professional development.

There’s been nothing more enjoyable these last few weeks than reading, distractions gone, for hours on end, pen in hand, scribbling thoughts and ideas as I go. I've learnt a lot, come up with some interesting ideas and opened myself to new learning methods and adventures. But I’ve also benefited from some balance, meeting new people, popping out for a kite-surf when the wind is up, taking the kids swimming on a Friday morning but ‘working’ till 11pm engrossed in a new found book or article. It's been a great lesson in balance.

So I've promised myself that that's exactly what I’ll do in whatever capacity I resurface as. I’ll take 2 weeks out a year, unpaid, to re-energise myself with new ideas, knowledge and inspiration - and I'll encourage my colleagues to do the same.

If the next few months go anything like the last few weeks I’m in for an exciting, life affirming journey into newness.

So I may not know where I'm going but I'm definitely on my way.

The Farmhouse Podcast - Henry King, Innovation Strategist

I stumbled across this podcast on the way home this eve - worth sharing for a load of reasons but one that caught me was Henry highlighting the importance of customer experience as a flow. He talks about how we relate success to movement and that lack of movement is associated with failure yet in the face of this the vast majority of customer experiences today generally stop customers in their tracks so that we can 'process' them rather than allowing them to move on in their flow. I really enjoyed this interview.

Google partner with Novartis to develop smart lenses

Google partner with Novartis to focus (no pun intended) on an auto focus contact lens to help treat those with ocular conditions. They're also working on the development of the technology that reads the glucose levels from contact lenses to help diabetics. And of course google glass via contact lens can't be far that away.

Talk to your home using Homey

Homey recently raised double their funding target on Kickstarter and is expected to be available in April 2015. Homey is a system that uses voice recognition to enable users to simply speak orders to their home. Using wifi to connect to smart appliances and digital devices out of the box to control everything from lights to music, climate to TV.

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