By Julie Lays

Nothing is as trendy as the act of trending these days.

Everyone wants to know what’s hot and what’s not; what is the Top 10 of this and the Top 10 of that. Just a few years ago, in fact, the term “trending” was a rarely used form of the verb, to trend.

Now it means “to be trendy,” and is used often-—way too often for some of us. Anyway, at the early morning General Session at the Summit today, Ford Motor Company’s Sheryl Connelly, Amazon’s Web Services Andy Jassy, and Beacon Economics’ Christopher Thornberg painted an impressionistic picture of general trends in business, technology and the economy.

Businessman Jassy helped Amazon Web Services dominate cloud-computing [Internet] services, and according to Forbes, the Amazon division is on track to earn $6.3 billion in revenue in 2015. His belief in a powerful future role of the cloud in all aspects of our economy was evident.

If your business or legislature, isn’t constantly innovating and adapting to new technology, specifically embracing the use of new cloud technology, he said, then the future is probably not going to be too bright. He could have helped many in the audience with a lexicon on cloud-computing terms and acronyms, however.

Economist Christopher Thornberg gave us some long-term trends that will influence the future:

1. Growth in the world’s population is slowly slowing.

2. The U.S. population is becoming older, browner and more urban.

3. China’s economy is growing quickly and becoming the world’s economic center of gravity.

4. The global distribution of wealth is equalizing, but within countries, like the U.S., the disparity of income is growing.

5. World trade and the globalization of the world is expanding.

6. The nature of global conflicts is changing. We are moving away from conflicts between nations.

Sheryl Connelly, Ford’s futurist, gave us some pointers on how to think like a futurist because even though “you can’t predict the future, you should try,” she said.

1. Think comprehensively. Consider—social, technology, economic, political aspects.

2. It is better to be generally wrong rather the precisely right.

3. Don’t forget the influence of unpredictable, wild card events.

4. Think reasonably; be plausible.

5. Fads are not the same thing as trends.

6. The best way to predict the future is to create it.

Julie Lays is the editor of State Legislatures magazine.

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