We're in the midst of party season in many regions of the world whether celebrating Christmas or looking ahead to Lunar New Year. While many of us had hoped we'd be in a far better place than last year, with the arrival of the Omicron variant, festivities are again in question. 

This week we discuss how things are shaping up for home entertaining, over the next few months.

With a global sense of disappointment it's even more crucial to discuss and determine how brands and creatives can design systems and products that respond to the climate emergency.

This episode we are joined by Carole Collet, Professor in Design for Sustainable Futures at Central St. Martins University in London where she is director of Maison/0, the Central St. Martins LVMH platform for regenerative luxury and also co-director of the Living Systems Lab, a research lab which explores the inherent properties of biological living systems to develop new knowledge in the field of ecology via creative practices in art, design and architecture. 

As we enter what is traditionally the busiest time for retail in many regions, we felt it was time to shine a light on bricks and mortar stores and discuss what brands and retailers can do to lure consumers back.

What's the future of the store and what hybrids or strategies can businesses employ to play a part in creating thriving cities again. Or is there something else entirely new around the corner which we will see in the near future? 

The topic of sustainability is never far from the top of our agenda at WGSN and with the publication of our new white paper "Create Better", this episode we will be talking about new practices and lessons that everyone who works in design can learn from. Against the backdrop of COP26 it also feels like the right time to challenge ourselves to do much more in this space.

We are seeing huge consequences of global warming right now, you just need to look out of your window or read today's headlines, and here at WGSN we believe that it's time for the design industries to start putting words into action, which is what this episode is all about.

At WGSN we have published a number of reports recently about the shifts and strategies in selling sex on Insight, sexual wellness on Beauty and inclusive sex tech on our recently launched Consumer Tech platform. 

It's always been a hot topic but what's exciting is that the sexual conversation is expanding and there's a shift towards more open, honest and diverse conversations, depictions and explorations of sex and sexuality from a multiplicity of viewpoints. 

This week WGSN CEO Carla Buzasi speaks to Copenhagen Fashion Week CEO Cecilie Thorsmark who, as leader of this sustainably focussed fashion week, is on a mission to change the way the entire fashion industry thinks about its impact on the environment and the wider world around them. 

Cecilie has be consulting with the wider industry around her mission to drive genuine change in both the fashion week she runs but also with the hope that systems that are put in place in Copenhagen can be translated for other fashion weeks elsewhere in the world. 

In July 2021 Mark Zuckerberg declared that the future of Facebook is the metaverse, but as a concept it’s not new, having first been coined in the 1992 sci-fi novel, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It now yields nearly 6m results in Google Search, though it's far from universally defined.

At WGSN we introduced the concept of the metaverse in Future Innovations 2022, calling it a shared virtual space that can be roamed widely. We then published a Research Radar, exploring its potential as a successor to the internet, poised to become the future of all digital media and commerce.

In this episode we’ll be discussing the signs that brands and consumers are moving towards this future immersive phygital world. We explain how brands can enter it and look at the parties transforming it and the potential it holds for the future.

This week, WGSN Executive Editorial Director Bethan Ryder speaks to author, designer and educator Carla Diana & WGSN's head of Consumer Tech Sarah Housley about the future of social robots.

According to consultancy firm Frost and Sullivan the global robotics market will reach $38.3bn by 2024. What's more the global adoption rate of robotics and automation in digital supply chains is set to increase from 39% in 2020 to 73% in 2025. During the pandemic, robots moved from manufacturing lines to service roles; in China the need for touch free services has given the unmanned economy a significant boost and sales of robots are growing at more than twice the rate of global trajectories.

This week we are welcoming a new member of the WGSN team as we embark on the next chapter of the company. Having made our name forecasting trends for fashion, beauty, interiors, food & drink and consumer lifestyles, we now turn our attention to the exciting world of consumer tech.

Joining Carla Buzasi, CEO of WGSN, is our Director of Consumer Tech Lisa Yong who speaks about why this rapidly changing industry is so important no matter what design world you work in, plus new trends on the horizon and how she and the team predict what will happen next.

The wider concept of gender identity has altered in the public conscious over the past decade, with a more positive understanding emerging that gender is fluid and not a binary thing. This has been powered by the internet and social media, which has given voice to LGBTQ+ communities and activists. Education is more accessible and as a consequence notions of masculinity are also being viewed as a spectrum rather than a hackneyed set of strongman stereotypes.