Which technologies and trends are set to have the greatest influence in 2006?
23 February 2006 – Hotwire kicked off its 2006 seminar series with a look at key technologies through the eyes of influential industry commentators. Events were held in the UK, Germany and France at which key journalists and analysts were asked for their views on the trends that would shape the year ahead.

In the UK, senior industry analyst Richard Edwards of the Butler Group started with a quick look back at the dramatic pace of development over the past twenty five years. This was followed by a more detailed examination of the continuing influence of the PC, the increasing need for businesses to manage data from “creation to destruction” and what Richard called “IT Osmosis”. IT Osmosis describes the influence that technology arising in the home – instant messaging, file sharing etc. – is having on business environments. {mospagebreak}Brendon Craigie, regional director Hotwire UK, together with colleagues Alex McLaverty and Paul Naphtali, looked at how companies can prepare for and take advantage of these trends in their PR programmes.

Although he categorised the elements differently, the guest speaker in Germany, market analyst Hartmut Lüerßen (managing director at Lünendonk), outlined similar themes. The increasing demand for mobility, miniaturisation and growing data volumes were all trends hotly debated in the discussion following the presentation. But these sessions were not simply about the individual technology trends. 

Ute Richter, regional director Hotwire Germany outlined a core message for any company operating in this fast moving sector when she said that "with technologies becoming more and more sophisticated, it is vitally important to position products and services as overall solutions to specific problems and focus on their business benefits. Highlighting every single technology feature is no longer at the centre of communication."{mospagebreak}In France, Roger Darashah, regional director of Hotwire France, and Jérôme Colombain, IT columnist for France Info joined forces. Roger outlined a series of messages delivered by key company executives, while Jérôme balanced the ‘real world’ relevance of those messages with his field experience. Once again the trend for technologies originating in the home migrating to business environments was identified as a key trend. As Jérôme said, "new usages developed by communities are taking off and will impact upon the business environment".

Guests were invited to voice their opinion and discuss how they could use these major trends to enhance their own communication and PR programme. On this note, Roger Darashah underlined that even B2B communities should recognise this and think of the end user when forming their communication strategy.