Summary

Dr. Craig Nossel speaks about the importance of wellness in the 21st Century. He begins by highlighting two extreme examples: that of Usain Bolt, the fastest man on earth, and that of fictional character Homer Simpson. Taking into account each of these characters lifestyle habits and genetic traits, Bolt boasts a Vitality age two years younger than his actual age, whereas (owing to his excessive weight, bad habits and sedentary lifestyle) Homer Simpson depicts a Vitality age of 23 years older than his real age.

Nossel looks at wellness as a calculable, science based exercise. Oxford Health Alliance describes "3.4.50", where three main risk factors (smoking, lack of exercise and poor nutrition) lead to the 4 main cardio-vascular diseases which in turn lead to 50% of the world's deaths. Extrapolated out, the economic impact of these deaths is massive yet largely preventable, amounting to around 1 trillion dollars worldwide. According to Dr. Nossel, not enough is being done to address these issues.

One important, and largely unregulated factor seems to be the media portrayal of unhealthy food. As an example, the audience was shown an advert by one of South Africa's favoured fast food chains showing four different girls dressed provocatively and engaged in raunchy activities. The content is undeniably sexual, making the fast food seem sexy to the viewer. At the same time in South Africa 6/10 women and 3/10 men are overweight, but nothing is being done to control these messages.

What is lacking is access to proper information in order to make healthier choices and certain incentives to change people's destructive behaviour.

Cape Town based architect, Mokena Makeka, sees our society as one of being dislocated from the space around us. Makeka believes that we have increasingly been absorbed into alternate spaces, like virtual spaces, to which we retreat when the outside world seems unappealing. This has caused our society to ignore the problems in our physical world, as we have a safe retreat to always withdraw to.

Makeka explains how we have lost the skill of reflection, the almost sacred space out of which good ideas are grown. According to him, we have become good at scavenging data, and even better at reproducing it. As a society, we have lost the capacity for creative and original thought and humanity (when regarded as a socially and culturally productive force) is at stake.

We have lost what Makeka calls the "gestative condition" to bring forth the geniuses of tomorrow. People today lack the discernment in the spaces where they spend their time, and this is beginning to show in aesthetically unpleasant and poorly thought out public spaces, which Makeka feels is the "common denominator" for all of society.

The remedy for this problem for Makeka is clear: we need to embrace the art of slow reflection in order to find solutions to the worlds challenges, both social and environmental. Every person has the innate capacity for creative thought – what we need to do is harness these skills to correct the balance between society as consumers and society as producers.

Randall Abrahams, opened his presentation with a slide that read "(Un)popular Culture(s)". Thus began his talk at the 2010 Flux Trend Review' which tracked a bit of the history of Popular Culture as he explained how this idea was becoming less and less, well, popular.

Popularity, according to the long time Idols judge, is a variable that can be measured. Above that, popularity is what he calls a "social contract" with the public with whom one (be it an artist, a celebrity, or even a brand) engages. There is an obligation to the audience with whom the one wants to communicate.

Abrahams used this example: 82% of America's entire TV watching population tuned in the night that Elvis starred on the Ed Sullivan show. In terms of a percentage, how many shows today can boast an A+ aggregate?

Abrahams went on to explain how the idea of popularity to appeal to a much wider audience than it does today. In fact, it is technological development that has contributed to the exponential rate of change that we have seen in Popular Culture. No longer do we have to all sit down at the same time and tune in to our favourite show, we can watch it on our iPod or download it on our laptop.

Popularity, by definition, appeals to a broad spectrum of people, but what we are increasingly seeing is a shift to appeal in a more targeted way to the individual.

Sylvester Chauke of Nando's, responsible for the successful ad campaign directed at Julius Malema, delivered an entertaining and theatrical address at the 2010 Flux Trend Conference, complete with a song and dance.

Part of Chauke's main strategy focuses on being memorable, as his presentation certainly was. In the words of Bill Bernbach "Nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the impression you make". This holds particularly true in today's marketplace, where people's attention has become a highly valuable commodity.

At Nando's, Chauke explained, marketing is the vessel that holds the entire organisation together; not just a nice to have or the first to go when budgets are tight (which is how many organisations see their marketing divisions).

This strategy has proven highly successful for Nando's, who have brought the public some very controversial, yet thought-provoking social commentary through their advertising in recent years. In his presentation, Chauke takes us through some of the adverts that have been broadcast which have won both the hearts and minds of socially conscious South African citizens.

Brands, for Chauke, need to have personality beyond just pretty packaging. People nowadays expect their brands to say something about themselves. They want them to be fabulous, sexy, smart and so much more – which is why Nando's marketing team takes a "Stand Against Bland" throughout every level of the organisation.

In his presentation at the 2010 Flux Trend Conference, Toby Shapshak, editor of Stuff Magazine, introduced 2010 as the "Year of the App".

Looking at social media, Shapshak likens FaceBook to the "glue" that holds the Internet together. Hardware, he believes, has become irrelevant, whilst the software and the applications one uses, is becoming more and more important.

With the wired generation, younger users want to interact on mobile, and this is the way tech experts believe the future of communication is going. For this generation mobile phones are the standard and the sound of dialing tone will never be a reality.

In his keynote address at the Mobile World Congress, Google CEO Eric Schmidt unveiled "Mobile First", a strategy focusing on the company's mobile strategy first and foremost. Applications bring a host of added functionality across devices and allow people to use the technology wherever they are, whenever they want.

Looking at trends in technology, Shapshak posed the question: What was the biggest tech news that happened in 2009? Was it the Amazon's Kindle? Was it Windows 7? Was it Snow Leopard? In fact, according to Shapshak the most important development in technology in 2009 was Twitter. Just ask the people in Iran who were able to organise an entire political uprising using it. What we are going to see is this technology going mobile.

"Apps are the new cool. They are the biggest thing happening in the world right now and they're only going to get bigger" says Shapshak.

Dion Chang of Flux Trends summed up the mornings events with an extract from the Inaugural address of former US president John F. Kennedy: " If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich". This thinking permeated his entire presentation, which outlined three new economies that have come into focus in the aftermath of the economic recession.

The Empathetic Economy, also discussed in the 2010 Flux Trend Review published at the end of 2009, talks about a shift in mindset on the individual level that impacts the way companies work, think and communicate with people. In his talk, Chang tracks the ripple effect of the global financial crisis and gives his audience an ear into "what people are saying". This growing civil voice is something that increasingly needs to be engaged with on the part of large, somewhat sluggish, organisations that are failing to keep up with public sentiment.

Chang then goes on to introduce another economy, which prizes intellectual property as a new form of currency. The Knowledge Economy is driven by globalisation combined with advances in digital technology that outputs knowledge as a commodity in a world of increasingly limited natural resources. Chang maintains that we live in a world with "too much information, but not enough knowledge" and sees knowledge slowly gaining value in today's marketplace.

The Free Economy flips the entire idea of an economy on its head, with a generation growing up on free media that increasingly expect things to be free. Integrating free products into a business' product mix might seem like the most nonsensical plan of action, but is certainly being seen to work in a number of online business models. This new mindset needs to be addressed in the marketplace as the Net-generation grows up drunk on free love.

Bishop Geoff Davies, awarded the title of 2009 Environmentalist of the Year by SAB, spoke at the 2010 Flux Trend Review conference held on February 25th at the UJ Theatre. The topic of his talk was the State of the World, coming from his unique perspective of an environmentalist and a clergyman.The Bishop launched SAFCEI, a faith-based community environmental institute, in 2005, which seeks to create awareness around environmental issues and take positive steps in addressing the issues that face humanity today.During his talk, Bishop Davies reminded us of what a magnificent planet we have been given, and lamented on how we had failed in our responsibility to take care of our own home. He did, however, plant the seeds of hope that the tide of environmental destruction could be stemmed if each of us consciously had to choose to do the right thing.

SAFCEI, the South African Faith Communities Environmental Institute, highlights a thread of characteristics common to all religions - that if embraced on a larger scale could begin a shift in our attitude towards the planet as well as all toward all living beings. Justice, social equity and the compassion to place others needs above our own are the fundamental ingredients, the Bishop believes, in saving our planet.

Interestingly enough, Bishop Davies echoed the thoughts of Dion Chang in his presentation on the Empathetic Economy, in which he tracks a shift in value systems. It is exactly this rediscovery of intrinsically human values and principles that we need to encourage in order to affect a positive change in our world.

Ferial Haffajee, editor-in-chief of City Press, opened the day with a review of the state of our nation, posing the question: Is South Africa becoming a banana republic? Blue light convoys, in Haffajee’s opinion, are the symbol of a banana republic, which is why every guest had a banana on their seat on entrance to the UJ Theatre.

Haffajee then introduced two future scenarios, one of utter failure where state contracts are the order of the day and politics and tenders go hand in hand; and the other of a successful future where the “bright stars of the ANC” lead the way and more importance is placed on the educational system and health services.

The choice, she maintained, was ours to make by making our voices heard, placing the responsibility of the future of South Africa squarely on the shoulders of the nation.  We should use all the tools we have available to us, from conversation, to social media, to petition and protest in order to get our government on track for the next decade.

‘The State of the Nation’ stood out as being insightful, fair and level headed, with an equal mix of popular and traditional song to highlight her points. Beyonce’s “All the single ladies” served to confirm that most South African households are run by single mothers, they are holding up the country and making key purchasing decisions on a daily basis. Single mothers are arguably the single most powerful consumer force at work in South African society today.

Ferial Haffajee raised some interesting points about our people, our government and what we can do to make it work, leaving the crowd thinking, and each of us inspired to do our bit.