What's Next? Education Becomes Life Apprenticeships, Love A Futuristic Blend Of Algorithms, The Globe A Water-Stressed Habitat

NEW YORK, Dec. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- 120M Books is releasing its debut publication, What's Next? What to Expect in 2013. An aggregation of world-renowned trendspotter Marian Salzman and her team's public and private forecasts, the e-book contains more than 150 predictions in 30 categories for 2013, including a look at why fatigue is so trendy, how we move forward with an economy that doesn't inspire confidence and how "co" is co-opting the conversation. The methodology Salzman employs—pattern recognition—has launched or popularized trends ranging from singletons and metrosexuality to food fear and globesity.

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120M Books, the publishing arm of Havas PR, committed to independent and futuristic publication of brainfood for the thinking public. "120M" is code for "120 minutes' worth," our recipe for the smart reading meal. The first in a digital series, What's Next? will be released on Dec. 12, 2012 (12-12-12). It will be available digitally at all e-book retailers, including Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble. Readers can join the conversation on Twitter with #120MBooks and #whatsnext.

Sign up for an exclusive announcement about the release of What's Next? at 120MBooks.com.

Salzman, the book's lead author, reveals what we can expect in 2013: "It will begin with a movement toward solutions instead of problems. Alternative ways of thinking—what we consider imperfect when we have lighter pockets, for instance, and innovation in a vast array of technologies—will be encouraged. We will also see people finding alternative ways to make the best use of time, our most limited of nonrenewable resources. The reality of our new environment will also be about cutting back and changing focus. Place making and supercities will emerge on our trend maps. Ultimately, 2013 is going to be about the shift in our mentality, behavior and geographic orientation. We will need to wake up to the changes in every aspect of our current lives and open our eyes to what's coming."

Here are previews of five predictions from the book:

1.  For Education: Watch for a rethink on ages and education: an end of higher education at 18—and the beginning of life apprenticeships that take people from 19 to 29 and prepare them for lifelong reinvention. People will delay entering the workforce by staying in school, taking nonpaying internships or seasonal work, and using life as a classroom. Also watch for more homeschooling and school by social media. (Have you thought about hiring an e-tutor? Now online, and live from India.)

2.  For Home Life: The recent couch-surfing fad has given birth to a bona fide trend as a business model: airbnb. Although no hotel chains are probably feeling the pinch from the success of local hosting in every city and town planetwide, this exchange program for adults is sizzling, and it marries two mini trends: Earn cash at home and collect experiences. Inviting strangers into your home is the new normal; so is charging them a fair price for their overnight stay.

3.  For Love and Relationships: Love used to be equated with magic, but today it seems to be a much more exotic futuristic cocktail of technology platforms and algorithms, enhanced with a dab of Hallmark greeting card sentiments. Although love used to be the domain of the youthful, an emerging minority of tomorrow's Romeos and Juliets will be those who picked the silver divorce, or who woke up at 50-plus and realized they forgot to head to the altar and now decide to partner for the next 35 years.

4.  For Tomorrow's Money: Gift cards and PreCash cards seem to be overtaking stores as we become more comfortable giving people prepaid shopping as a thank you or to celebrate a milestone. So it's no wonder that the resale of gift cards on swap sites seems to be the next way to raise cash in the not-so-glory days of cash being king and gift cards more like a 10 of spades. Also watch pushback against companies that make it hard to liquidate those cards, like iTunes in Europe (try taking a U.S. card into England). We want our money now.

5.  For Weather: In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the real conversation should be about what it all means for clean, accessible water and fighting wildfires. By 2030, according to a U.N. report, almost half the global population will be living in water-stressed areas. Plus, scientists foresee an increasing number of wildfires as the result of climate change, as we've already seen in Australia, California, Eastern Europe, Nepal and many other places worldwide. So what will burn next?

About 120M Books
We're the e-publishing adventure of Havas PR, a top 10 public relations agency globally (and one of the most award-winning of its size in the U.S.), where smart people work for smart clients to craft thoughtful news. "120M" represents our slice of the smart reading meal: 120 minutes' worth.

Contact:
Dalton Dorne
347.323.1143
[email protected]

SOURCE 120M Books