I want to share some information I was given this week.

The appropriateness of this is a little unclear. My employer paid for me to go to a four-hour lecture conducted by the directors of Future Lab, two English guys who are guns at trend forecasting. I know this because this is how they pitch themselves and because  people whose opinions I trust (smart, cynical, hard to impress folk) say the same.

For a predictably large amount of money (they can, so they do), these two men shared their thoughts on what's going on now, and what the future holds. They have a website www.thefuturelaboratory.com, but they charge for all the information they pass on behind closed doors. Which happens all the time. But given that their thoughts are their currency I wonder if I'm stealing by playing Chinese whispers here... 

 So, question one: is it stealing for me to be passing this long? Question two: are they right? 

 I can't replicate four hours' worth of content - and these two barely paused for breath so there were many words - but here is some of what they said. 

Womenomics: Everyone knows women are a rising force - better school grades, more uni graduates, companies perform better financially when there are women on the board (quantifiably true), women hold domestic purse strings, ebay purse strings and so on. What happens next though is this: men are going to be bowled over by the number of women who will be running their own successful businesses. More women will be bosses. Women will finally be paid the same as their male counterparts (thank you Obama). More women will start to control technology - traditionally a male domain but it appears that men may be relegated to inventing things that women will then find a way to use successfully in business.

That is, men will still be 'dicking around' (their term not mine) playing games and finessing technology while next-generation entrepeneureal women will be monetising it. They'll do this by realising the power of the internet is that it lets people connect. People who connect share information about thisng they like and don't like - and this includes offering free advice about what to buy and what not. 

It's important to point out that two men said this and also bluntly said they're not interested in gender politics or feminism, just calling it how they see it. They suggested that smart men will hire women, promote them to positions of power, let everyone know they're on the board, then let them do what they're good at - multitasking, which happens to be a prime skill in a time when work/life involves connecting with the world via a blackberry, texting, facebook, email, phone and more all at the same time. Technology, it seems, has unwittingly changed the way we commicate in a way that favours women.

Things will be free: Until they pointed it out, I hadn't considered how much information and entertainment I expect to get for free. The 'price' I pay is advertising but tv, radio and then the internet have trained me to think this is normal. Businesses in trouble are starting to realise they need to give people something to stay with them - not the five-cent samples of whatever that you find attached to magazines but things they used to charge for. For example, one English phone company will only accept customers who are aged 16 to 24. They give their customers free calls anywhere, everywhere, as often as they like. In return, their customers agree to give personal information by answering regular surveys. the company sells this information, and they say that when you sign up. This is a model for the future... And if the 16 to 24 years olds - who are already pretty savvy about navigating the modern world - are used to getting stuff like this for free, it's going to be very hard for companies to stay with a more traditional service-for-cash model.

In the UK, also, banks are starting to offer customers money to stay with them. In Australia, we still pay our banks fee upon fee for the pleasure of having them use our money as they wish. English banks are offering up to 500 pounds to customers who will agree to stay with them - fee-free! - for five years.

 Fashion: Two trends, evidently - those over 30 will opt for neutral, classic, austere, authentic, spend more and buy less clothes and furniture. Safe, long-lasting, with the shadow of hard economic times whispering whenever the wallet is opened. Young uns who think of the 90s as retro will continue to love fluoro, bright colours, throwaway clothes, cheerful distracting cartoon character-style dressing.

So what, you rightly respond. The interesting thing here is that - finally - after a long period when old and young kind of looked the same there will start to be a youth culture that people over 30 don't get! We will, once again, have different wardrobes, listen to different music, think the things under-30s are spending money on are ugly stupid and pointless. This is, I think, a wonderful breath of fresh air. Bring it on. I don't think it's right that Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson, Bob Geldof and Peaches Geldof, Ivana Trump and whatever her daughter is  called wear the same clothes! Sure, celebrities aren't normal folk but you get the gist. Times are tough, we've messed up, there is something palpably worth rebelling against - now get on with the job of shocking us!

Also, it's only the oldies who think cotton, organic, linen, natural fibres are the ants pants. The next generation will embrace plastic (which is not just recylable, it's upgradable - whereas natural materials like paper and cotton - are downgraded each time they're reused) and turn their back on cotton since cotton sucks the life out of the earth and only makes sense in an emotional, not a scientific, way. Green is about to mean something entirely different.

Work: The word's going to mean nothing soon. People work from home, on weekends, people have more than one job, their job is selling stuff online while they're in a coffee shop, your boss calls and then your brother calls and they're both on your Twitter page so they know your plane is late. It's all going to be a big mush of 'you are always contactable' activity. And the next generation will think that this is absolutely normal and a choice - downtime won't mean anything because why would you turn your phone off or stay anywhere without internet? I am old enough to think this is a bad and dangerous development, but that's beside the point.

I'm stopping here because that's about ten minutes worth and I fear I'm simplifying it to the point of stupidity.

A lot of this is dead obvious, I know, but I offer it in the name of sharing and to maybe start a discussion. Now that the idea of tomorrow is filling my head, I'd love to hear what others tink the future holds.