The Memo’s top predictions for 2016

Our world is rapidly changing in dramatic and unexpected ways.

With 2016 rapidly approaching we’re doing our own bit of future-gazing, looking at the worlds of business, finance and culture, and how these will all soon change and evolve.

As well as asking our own team for their predictions, we also asked panels of our favourite business, finance and culture experts.

We’ve asked our team of reporters, associate editors and presenters to look ahead into the new year and predict how our world will change, however far-fetched that might be, from booming growth in virtual reality to the recent trend of accessible luxury.

Here’s what they are expecting to change in 2016:

Molly Flatt

Molly is Associate Editor at The Memo and Digital Editor at Phoenix Magazine.

“A new recalibration of the relationship between digital and print.”

In publishing we’ll see the ‘us versus them’ attitude mature into a complementary hybrid market, with print books becoming ever more beautiful while genre-focused ebooks are produced more quickly, with investment focused on discoverability, rather than interactive gimmicks.

In our personal lives, too, we’ll become much more hardcore about enforcing rules for ourselves and our families around digital downtime.

We’ll spend more money and time on live theatre, outdoor experiences and exciting flagship retail stores, while using products such as Vinaya’s Altruis wearables to manage our addiction to email and social updates. Hardbacks as well as hardware, quality face time as well as compulsive FaceTime: 2016 will be the year of both, not either/or.

Oliver Smith

Oliver is a senior reporter at The Memo.

“Spending and saving will become sexy.”

Banking isn’t sexy or exciting, but it impacts everything in our lives, from paying for the latest iPhone to saving up for a house. That’s why I’m super-bullish on the upcoming arrival of four new mobile challenger banks that are due to launch in 2016.

Mondo, Atom Bank, Tandem and Starling aren’t household names, but they will be. As Tandem’s co-founder Ricky Knox recently told me, everyone could already be saving vast amounts of money just doing everything they already do, but with a cheaper, better provider (something banks are currently unwilling to help you do).

That’s why I think, powered by these new mobile challenger banks, 2016 will be the year saving and spending becomes sexy again.

Ben Goldsmith

Ben presents Future Finance on The Memo and is Head of Content at Balderton Capital.

“It’s Twitter’s make or break moment”

The deck appears to be stacked against the social media leviathan.

Facebook has just been so much more successful in implementing a money-making strategy for its social network. A huge factor is that Facebook’s newsfeed is far easier to elegantly manipulate for video advertising than Twitter’s stream.

Of course, it would be difficult for Twitter to alter the entire architecture of their main product; therefore it’s no surprise that Jack Dorsey is throwing his weight behind side projects like ‘Moments’. Moments is a new(ish) offering from Twitter where less tech-savvy users are encouraged to dwell and browse tweets curated into stories, rather than facing a sheer wall of text as they currently do.

Will it work? Is Jack Twitter’s saviour? Or will its share price collapse further? Answers in 140 characters or less…

Adam Westbrook

Adam is Associate Editor for the Memo and a video essayist based in Paris.

“I hope 2016 will be the year people begin to put a value on the data they provide to huge tech companies for free.”

I expect we’ll see tech companies continue to test the limits of what they can get away with.

Spotify was the big offender this year, rolling out an update that demanded access to our personal photos and messages for unconvincing reasons; there was outcry, but in the end almost everyone (including me) clicked ‘agree’.  The question is: will an app finally cross the line next year?

Elsewhere, expect to hear people talk to you about Patreon. The crowdfunding platform for artists still has some kinks to work out, but it’s at the forefront of a growing movement where fans of music, videos, comics and more give cash directly to creators they love.

As audiences continue to be turned off by advertising, direct funding of artists has now been established as a rewarding alternative for both audience and artist, and I’m sure we’ll see more of the latter jump onboard in 2016.

Alex Wood

Alex is Editor in Chief of the Memo and a visiting lecturer at City University.

“We’ll live more luxurious lives.”

Judging by the outlook for the world economy, we won’t feel wealthier in 2016. But we will live like kings from the comfort of our iPhones. Apps like Uber already have us hooked – who doesn’t love an affordable personal driver at a moment’s notice?

It’s accessible luxury. Instead of buying or subscribing to expensive services, we will enjoy the finer things in life on our own terms through apps. Urban massage already brings the best spa treatments to you and Deliveroo serves up high-end restaurant cuisine to your dinner table. But this is just the beginning.

In 2016 more services will market themselves towards the time-poor urban elite, looking for a slice of luxury on their terms.

Kitty Knowles

Kitty is a staff reporter at The Memo.

“We’ll step into a more virtual world”

As Oculus, Vive and Playstation VR prepare to launch headsets in the first quarter of 2016,  don’t assume that the rise of virtual reality will only affect a niche group of ‘gamers’.

69% of us now play games on our computers, consoles, mobiles and tablets and the VR is going to have incredible reach across many other aspects of life.

As the Great Barrier Reef exhibition at the Natural History Museum shows, VR has the potential to be a fantastically engaging educational tool, and an exciting VR art scene has already begun to blossom across the nation’s galleries.

While few news outlets have dipped their toe in the water, VR will start to find its feet in news reportage, with big organisations like the BBC prioritising mobile VR experiences.

Property agencies, like Battersea Power Station Development Company (who are already using 360 technology), will bring in fully immersive experience to sell offices, flats and houses, while tourism businesses will showcase the allure of cities, resorts and hotels with virtual reality tours.

VR will even creep between Britain’s bedsheets, as VR porn looks set to explode.

A far more virtual world is on the horizon: If Queenie doesn’t deliver a VR Christmas speech this year, I’d pencil it in for 2016.

Ramraj Gogna

Ramraj is  editorial assistant at The Memo and presents Ramraj Gogna on Hayes FM every Sunday.

“Bridging digital and physical stores”

When we buy, we research, read reviews and order online. But nothing beats the personal touch.

When I was looking for my next laptop I heard good things about Dell’s new models, but I can’t get my hands on one without a retailer stocking them. Apple’s stores might cost millions to run, but when it comes to parting with your hard-earned cash, you can’t beat the real world when closing a deal.

It’s happening across the board. Book stores went out of fashion when Amazon charged into the market, but now they’ve had a change of strategy, opening their first physical shop in Seattle earlier this year. The books are chosen from Amazon.com sales data, putting the titles that the local community care about on the shelves.

This is just the beginning. Closer to home, online furniture retailer Made.com opened its first showroom in central London, bridging the physical and digital gap. This trend will continue to grow in 2016 as the smart retailers add bricks and mortar to the mix.

If Dell get on board, they might just get my business.

Sarah Parsonage

Sarah is Publisher at The Memo and curates Closed Doors.

“Interactive fashion will become everyday”

2016 will be the year that technology enters mainstream fashion.

It’s no longer good enough just to be functional, and we’ve come a long way from the stripped back look of the Fitbit or Apple Watch.

Companies like CuteCircuit and London’s Studio XO have been pioneers in merging tech with high-fashion, dressing the likes of JLS and Azealia Banks in LED lined boots and digital bras.

But next year will see even more beautiful smart clothing available to everyday people.

Shammane, a French brand of stylish mindful smartwatches, is just one frontrunner that plans to go to market next April.

“We consider ourselves more of a fashion brand than a tech startup,” founder Arnaud Lancelot told The Memo this month.

Tech is no longer just about productivity or fitness, it’s about expression and emotion.

Prepare for interactive clothing to come off of the stage and into your dresser.

As well as asking our own team for their predictions, we also asked panels of our favourite business, finance and culture experts.