Book Review: 2011 Trendspotting

Richard Laermer, author of Punk Marketing and Full Frontal PR, and the co-author of the Bad Pitch Blog, has a new book out, called 2011 TrendSpotting for the Next Decade.

My first introduction to Richard was through the Bad Pitch Blog, and from that, I  picked up Full Frontal PR. Thought it was worth a look, at the very least. I didn’t know what to expect, and almost thought it was going to be yet another dull “here’s how you should be doing PR” book. I was completely wrong, and found myself sucked into Laermer’s writing style.  He doesn’t pull any punches and is nice and direct. The way I’d want to write a book.

When I was offered a review copy of Trendspotting, I jumped on the opportunity. I was expecting the same witty pace, the same direct tone and I wasn’t disappointed. Laermer doesn’t claim to be a futurist or anything of the sort; he’s just looking at overall trends and extrapolating those trends to take a look forward at what could be coming at us in the next decade.

This book offers 77 different ways to look at the future, and a million little tips on how people can be their own trendspotter. In a Mashable Conversation, Richard says “Every time I talk to people, they ask me ‘how do i stay on top of the trends? How do I stay in front of them?’ This book will be the user manual for the people who want to do this themselves rather than listen to all these goddamned futurists out there who are putting their finger in the air and saying ‘do this!’ ‘do that!’"

A passage in the first couple of pages of the book caught my eye and felt like it summed the entire book up:

So this new book is a rambunctious and not overwhelming training manual that presents an overview of the major trends that will affect this century and explores the ways these trends will shape the global environment, technology, political life, culture and society with a small “s”.

Overall, I really enjoyed Richard’s take on what the future has to hold, and reading the book filled me with a sense of …for lack of sounding totally cheesy …. hope and excitement for the future. Like I could get up and go do anything.

I would totally recommend this to anyone who is interested in letting their mind wander through the possibilities of the future, taking a look forward, and also learning how you can stay on top of the trends. I’ll have the top 9 ways you can become a trendspotter today in the next couple of days.

There’s two ways you can get ahold of this book for free. You can either head to FreeBabyFree , and download the ebook for free.

If you prefer to have an actual book in your hands, I’ve got a book here with your name on it. All you have to do to win a copy of 2011 Trendspotting for the Next Decade is leave a comment on this post. I’ll randomly choose one commenter and you’ll have a copy on the way to you!

Richard says the future is digital. What’s the biggest trend you see coming in the future?