William Higham is a social and consumer trends forecaster and author. He is also founder and CEO of future trends and consumer research consultancy The Next Big Thing.

Higham runs trend workshops and focus groups, writes trend and future strategy reports, and organises and interprets field surveys. He specialises in Macro (cross-industry, cross-demographic) social, consumption, leisure and generational trends. Blue chip clients have ranged across Media (Hachette to News International), Entertainment (BBC to Universal Music), Technology (AOL to Siemens), Finance (Nat West to HSBC), Food (Aga to Budweiser) and Advertising (Ogilvy to WPP).

Higham is considered an authority on future trends, and has been frequently quoted in the Media: from ‘The Economist’ to ‘Cosmopolitan’. He wrote the UK’s first handbook for trend forecasters: ‘The Next Big Thing: Spotting & Forecasting Consumer Trends For Profit’ (Kogan Page, 2009).

Higham began his career in the entertainment industry: running marketing and communications campaigns at Sony, Virgin and Universal, for artists from Michael Jackson and David Gray to Motorhead and The Rolling Stones. He moved into research in 1999, working as a consultant for global trends network Breaking Trends on Levi’s and British Telecom. He set up The Next Big Thing in 2002. In 2010, he also worked as acting MD at renowned online research agency OnePoll.

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