Common Ground, the new online seminar by The Forecast Club for 2027–2028
Secure your front-row seat to the future of design.
Join The Forecast Club for an exclusive online seminar featuring eight internationally recognised trend specialists from eight different countries. In one powerful, high-impact event, you will gain the definitive global perspective on upcoming shifts in design, interiors, materials, fashion, and consumer behavior.
Designed for professionals who need reliable, forward-looking knowledge, this seminar combines regional expertise with a global outlook to help you anticipate change and make informed creative and strategic decisions.
Airing on September 15
Why You Can’t Miss This Event
- 8 countries, 8 experts: Gain rare insights from top-tier specialists analyzing the globe’s most influential markets, each providing unique perspectives on regional developments and their global impact.
- Comprehensive Blueprint: Get actionable forecasts covering design, colour, material, sustainability, retail, architecture, interiors, fashion, aspirations, and cultural trends.
- Societal Macro-Shifts: Understand the underlying consumer behaviors and cultural movements driving tomorrow’s market demands.
- 100% Online & On-Demand: Watch and rewatch the seminar from anywhere in the world. All registered participants receive access to the recordings and executive summary.
Fuel Your Next Commercial Success
This seminar is specifically curated for forward-thinking brands, retailers, designers, strategists, product developers, and creative directors who refuse to fall behind. Walk away with concrete data, visual inspiration, and the competitive edge needed to validate your creative decisions for 2027 and beyond.
New for this session
After the recorded session The Forecast Club will host a live Q&A session to respond to all kinds of questions ticket holders might have.
What You’ll Get:
- Eight 30-minute presentations from internationally recognized experts
- PDF summaries of each talk
- A curated overview of key trends across regions—from Scandinavia and Central Europe to the Mediterranean and China
- A global lens on where design, lifestyle, and consumer culture are headed next
- Access to exclusive Q&A session live after the seminar
This event is fully online, making it accessible no matter where you are in the world.
Who Should Attend?
This seminar is designed for professionals who shape the future of products, brands, and culture:
- Designers & Product Developers
- Concept & Brand Strategists
- Marketing, Media & Communication Professionals
- Journalists & Content Creators
- Buyers & Retail Decision-Makers
Ticket price: 75 euro
Ticket price: 229 euro
Up to 10 tickets included.
Ticket price: 1229 euro
Secure your access now and stay ahead of the trends shaping tomorrow.
Details about the seminars
Drop #2 from the Forecast Club is the theme “Common Ground”.
Today’s consumers are increasingly driven by personal values, emotions, and life experiences. Traditional demographic factors like age or income are no longer enough to define them. This shift reshapes purchasing decisions and how people build relationships. Successful brands must understand the deeper drivers of human behaviour. Technology, societal shifts, and economic uncertainty constantly change consumer expectations. Despite rapid changes, fundamental human needs like trust and belonging remain the same. Understanding these enduring motivations helps businesses navigate change. Organizations should focus on long-term patterns instead of reacting to every new trend. This approach creates more stable and long-term market relevance.
Information about the content from speakers will be published soon.
Title: Feelconomy – How emotions are the new driver for consumerism
Keywords: retail, experience, new beginning, care, rituals, authenticity, trust, community
Stefan Nilsson
Title: The Ritual Shift
Keywords: Secular Habits, Shared Experiences, Human Connection, Collective Belonging, Mental Wellness
Cecile Poignant
Title: Chasing the Sun
Keywords: Time Vibes, Desirability, Architecture, Light, Aesthetics, Wonder
Elisabetta Rizzato
Title: Rituals of Resilience – Sharing rituals that ground us in times of uncertainty.
Keywords: Slow Culture, Sacred Everyday, Shared Tables, Deep Listening, Social Nourishment, Emotional Infrastructure, Collective Presence
Judith van Vliet
Title: Trust – takes time to build up and affects our worldview and how we consume
Keywords: Respect, Everyday luxury, Emotions, Counter Trends, Imperfection, Design with a story, Personal connection to design, Aesthetics, Small is beautiful
Susanna Björklund
Title: Inclusive Interiors – Connecting solutions for people’s diverse moods, needs, and preferences.
Keywords: Wellbeing for all, Balanced sensory design, CMF (colour material finish), Architecture, Products, Beyond Eurocentrism
Alina Schartner
Title: Design Friction – How technology is getting more human and what that means for design.
Keywords: Gen Z, Tech, Fashion, Marketing, Craft & Imagination
Jan Agelink
Title: Tech and Green Design–Decode
China’s Plan for 2030
Keywords: robot,
physical AI, new material, sustainable, light-weight, modular, automotive
Xiaojing Huang
Sign up for a fruitful and inspiring session and watch it at your pace.
@forecastclub
Our Team
The Forecast Club is a global collective of leading, award-winning trend experts — one from each country. While each member operates independently, they collaborate periodically on exclusive projects known as “Drops.”
This September 2026, the Forecast Club will unveil its second curated Drop — a distinctive release of forward-looking insights across design, colour, materials, sustainability, retail, aspirations, and cultural trends.
Alina Schartner, based in Austria, is an internationally recognised colour and interior design consultant, trend forecaster, and designer. She creates purposeful strategies, concepts, and collections for major brands. Her futures-focused approach, rooted in longevity, balances relevance, emotional and functional value, profitability, and sustainability. Alongside bespoke services, Alina shares her insights through keynotes, workshops, webinars, trend reports, and expert panels. Since 2021, she has also been the brand ambassador for RAL COLOURS, promoting colour literacy worldwide.
Where are you finding a sense of belonging in 2027?
Response coming soon.
Cecile Poignant is a French prospectivist with 35 years of experience converting cultural shifts into strategic gain for global brands. Her future-scoping work tracks social, tech, and ecological signals, especially around sustainability, travel, food, and longevity, turning weak cues into practical roadmaps. In workshops she equips leadership teams with actionable frameworks that replace uncertainty with insight. Splitting teaching time between art-design schools and top business programs, she insists foresight is a shared, non-negotiable responsibility.
Where are you finding a sense of belonging in 2027?
Response coming soon.
Elisabetta Rizzato, based in Italy, is an interior architect and expert in colour and trends. She created ITALIANBARK®, a trend-forward design blog founded in 2013 and recognized for its foresight in emerging trends, Italian-inspired perspective, and active global community of professionals. She also leads TRENDBARK, a trend platform that helps brands and pro apply emerging trends through tools like trendbooks, digital resources, webinars and custom services. Focused on innovation, aesthetics, and sustainability, her work has been featured in Elle Decor, Vogue Australia, and awarded by the Amara Awards.
Where are you finding a sense of belonging in 2027?
Response coming soon.
Jan Agelink, based in the Netherlands, is a trend forecaster with over 20 years of experience in design, craft, interiors and fashion. He is known for making cross-disciplinary connections and translating societal and technological shifts into visual narratives that resonate. His work focuses on imaginative intelligence — using imagery to sense what’s coming before we can define it in words. Through his agency Buro Jantrendman, he creates bespoke trend presentations and forecasts for brands, retailers and creative professionals across Europe. He also curates exhibitions for design fairs, bringing together emerging and established talents to reflect the sign of the times.
Where are you finding a sense of belonging in 2027?
Response coming soon.
Judith van Vliet, based in Spain, is the founder of The Color Authority and a global expert in color strategy, CMF (Color, Material, Finish) design, and trend forecasting. She helps brands across industries craft compelling and purposeful color narratives. With a background at companies like Kawasaki and Avient, Judith also served as President of the Color Marketing Group and currently hosts The Color Authority podcast. She regularly contributes her expertise in color and materials to MANERA magazine. Recognized as one of the leading voices in color intelligence, Judith empowers global brands, including Braun De’Longhi, Cosentino, and Renolit, to use color with clarity, purpose, and vision.
Where are you finding a sense of belonging in 2027?
Response coming soon.
Stefan ”Trendstefan” Nilsson, based in Sweden, is one of Sweden’s and Scandinavia’s most influential trend experts. Constantly on foot, he visits fairs and world cities to scout the latest in design, lifestyle, sustainability, retail and hospitality. He looks for new colours, shapes and objects, but the main driver is to try to analyse new demands regardless of if they are for Gen Z or regular men on the street. These insights are shared in various magazines and at seminars all over the world. He is a regular contributor to magazines like Elle Decoration, Residence, Plaza as well as morning shows on TV and radio.
Trendstefan runs his own digital platform Trendstefan.se since 2006 and the trend seminar “Stora Trenddagen” since 2011. On the side he curates exhibitions both at fairs, museums and how own mobile exhibition platform Designgalleriet.
Swedish magazine Rum have listed Trendstefan as one of the most influential people in architecture and design in Sweden. Trendstefan is also the founder of The Forecast Club.
Where are you finding a sense of belonging in 2027?
Response coming soon.
Susanna Björklund, based in Finland, is a futures thinker, trend analyst, journalist and a designer. As a Senior Lecturer she teaches emerging talents at LAB Institute of Design, LAB University of Applied Sciences. Susanna is also an international speaker and moderator for panel discussions. Susanna is known for curating and producing SIGNALS, the official trend exhibition of Habitare, the interior fair of Helsinki, 2015-2022, linking visual and societal trends.
Her passion is design and to look for changes in everything around us, to analyze and cluster those signals into thinking where the futures might be heading. Societal shifts, design for the planet and changes in consumer behaviour as well as in values are interesting ingredients for her work.
Where are you finding a sense of belonging in 2027?
Response coming soon.
Xiaojing Huang, based in China, is a renowned design strategist and trend expert, strategy director and partner of YANG DESIGN, chief editor of China Design Trends Report. Winner of Red Dot, IDEA and Design For Asia Award. Chief editor of China Design Trends Report, which is by far the authoritative annual trend report for Chinese market since 2013. Curator of CMF TREND LAB. Invited speaker of events including TEDx and NCS colour forecast. Facilitator of Color Marketing Group.
Where are you finding a sense of belonging in 2027?
Response coming soon.
