Play the Futurist Game
Play the Game:
Grab a stack of 10 index cards. Select 10 of the tech categories that interest you most. For each area, write down the name of the tech at the top of a card. Then jot down three ways that tech may open up opportunities for new media. For example, on a card I’ve titled “Drones,” I might write down:
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Industry Newsletter: coverage of the twists and turns impacting drone manufacturers, distributors and retailers, as well as the new products being launched and technology emerging to shape next-gen drones
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Drone Reporting: An enterprising multimedia journalist could develop a specialization in employing drones to gather unique, useful footage related to timely news stories. That could lead to freelance opportunities or to the development of a drone agency that serves news organizations or companies.
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Custom Content: moving from news to other commercial applications, drones could be used to create compelling videos for brands that want the look of video shot by drones but don’t have the in-house capacity to shoot or edit drone footage.
*Incidentally, a little research turns up an estimate from PricewaterhouseCoopers that commercial drones will grow from a $2 billion global industry in 2016 to a $127 billion global industry in 2020. That’s an interesting data point if I’m considering whether this market is poised for growth or decline.
As with any brainstorming exercise, make sure to wear your open-minded hat, not your critical editor hat. Once you’ve got your 10 cards filled out, you’ll have 30 new ideas to play around with and explore further. Remember that at the end of the day, you only need one idea to start with. And the more ideas you generate on the way to that one idea, the stronger that idea is likely to be, given the competition it will have endured to survive as the final one!