– The newsletter is published and distributed by Kairos Future International AB

Issue: 2, year 2008
Date: March 18, 2008
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CONTENT:
FEATURE:
-    The generations that never learnt to cook
NEWS:
-    To run a family you need the right fuel! Kairos Future studies food futures in metropolitan families
-    The hottest trends in food shopping – Launching of Ridderheim report 2008
UPCOMING EVENTS:
-    Open Lectures in Copenhagen
-    Register for international course on Scenario Planning in May
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Dear reader,

Cookbooks sell like never before while fewer people cook regularly in their homes. Ordinary people blog in their everyday lives about recipes, food trends and gastronomic pleasures.  We become more and more aware of concepts such as glycemic index, Omega-3 and organic food but we also want to treat ourselves some everyday luxury and are getting increasingly picky when dining at restaurants.

Food concerns everyone! In this issue of Global Watching we focus on food without writing about tasty recipes. Read instead about the generations that never learnt to cook in an article by Birthe Linddal Hansen, senior consultant at Kairos Future Denmark, or about Kairos Future's new food study!

Enjoy your reading!

Best regards,
Sofia Johnsson
Editor
Kairos Future

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FEATURE:
Generations that never learnt to cook
By Birthe Linddal Hansen

Once upon a time, not many decades ago, making soup, baking bread, serving up a suitable cheeseboard and at least three types of biscuits was well within the capability of most housewives. Back then, there weren’t many cookery books. Thickening, making white sauce, stewing, proofing dough, baking, preserving and other techniques were at the fingertips of every housewife. Being able to bake and cook was just normal – everyone could do it, so there was no point in boasting about it. Of course, some were better at it than others. But if you couldn’t cook, well, that was a real stigma. Being a bad housewife/cook was about the worst reputation any woman could get for herself.

Read the whole article here!

For more information, please contact Birthe Linddal Hansen by e-mail or by phone: +45 30651110

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NEWS:

To run a family you need the right fuel! Kairos Future studies food futures in metropolitan families

What will be the areas for food innovation in the future?

That is the question that Kairos Future together with our main financer Findus, will try to answer within the scope of a new food study. The approach is to study the everyday life of families using methods derived from cultural studies, such as semi structured interviews, observation and video filming. The work is led by Dr. Eva Knuts, who reports: We have fifteen families who enthusiastically have started to document their everyday lives.  Our initial results are very interesting.

We can see different interesting rhythms: the rhythm of the weekend, the rhythm of everyday life and the rhythm of the normative systems. We can also see how people are struggling with the puzzle of everyday life. There is no such thing as perfect food, but there is functional food. "You shouldn’t feel bad just because your eating habits are bad sometimes”, reports a father of two children in the qualitative part of the study.

In April  we will follow up the results of the ethnographic field study  with a quantitative study. Then we will also extend invitations to leading experts on food and families. The experts will be gathered at a seminar on the future and identify areas of food innovation based on the results of the study using Kairos Future’s well established methods.

Right now we are extending a special offer to companies wanting to join our study. Are you interested in further information? Please call Dr. Pernilla Jonsson at +46-705522504

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The hottest trends in food shopping
Launching of Ridderheim report 2008

Trends within non-durables in general and food in particular are becoming increasingly important as focus areas when it comes to understanding consumers’ behaviors.

Food concerns everyone! “Food shopping says a lot about human behaviors and cultures and it is crucial to study food trends if we want to understand our future” says Magnus Kempe Senior Consultant at Kairos Future.

The Swedish company Ridderheims, a company that imports and produces delicacies, cooperates with Kairos Future and contributes with inspiration and trends within food and shopping. The first Ridderheim report was presented in 2007 and included the hottest trends within food during the last year. This year’s report focuses on consumers’ food shopping. Some of Sweden’s most prominent experts in the area have worked together and generated trends within shopping environments, food and shopping in France, Belgium, USA, the UK and Sweden.

For further information, please contact Senior Consultant Magnus Kempe at Kairos Future.

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UPCOMING EVENTS:
OPEN LECTURES IN COPENHAGEN
Kairos Future Denmark

Kairos Future Denmark now offers open lectures in Copenhagen on the following themes:

April 18, 2008: Ready for the shift of generations?
May 9, 2008: Environmental pollution - who cares?
May 23, 2008: Challenges for innovation
June 13, 2008: Re-writing the future

The open lectures will be held in English!

Please read more about the open lectures here! (The information is in Danish)

For more information about the open lectures in English, please contact Marie Skov Christensen at Kairos Future Denmark via e-mail or phone: +45 24603279

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COURSE IN HOLLAND MAY 21-23:

Register for international course on Scenario Planning!

On May 21-23 2008, Kairos Future will organize the course  "Scenario planning -
the link between future and strategy" in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. Hans Bandhold and Karin Andersson will hold the course in English.

Download and read the Scenario Planning brochure!

The ability to foresee, understand and shape the future is the key to an organization’s long-term performance. The program “Scenario planning – the link between future and strategy” gives you an opportunity to learn concrete methods in exploring the future and developing new strategies, based on insights from the future. The program will shift between practical tools and theories of future-based models and trend development.

Duration: 3 days
Dates: 21-23 May 2008
Place: Amersfoort, outside of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Amersfoort is
located 40 minutes from Schipol Airport by train. Exact location will be communicated upon
registration.

Register here for the course on Scenario Planning in Holland!

Please contact International Coordinator Sofia Johnsson for more information:
by E-mail or by telephone: +46(0)8- 545 225 18!

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The newsletter Global Watching is distributed monthly free of charge to anyone who has registered as a subscriber and contains a selection of news and information on society and futures related issues. You are welcome to forward Global Watching free of charge to everyone you know and internally within your organization, with reference to the source.

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E-mail: info@kairosfuture.com

Kairos Future International AB is a Swedish futures research and strategy consulting firm that helps companies understand and shape their future. We have done youth surveys and values research for over a decade and possess unique methods to assess futures scenarios.