📡 Breaking out the trend forecasting bubble
What is Culture Connectors, the global collaborative foresight initiative?
Trend forecasting is having a moment, but not necessarily for the right reasons. As Matt Klein highlights in the 2025 META Trending Trends, the industry is caught in a loop. Year after year, we see reports regurgitating the same insights from a narrow group of cities: London, New York, Tokyo, Paris, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Berlin, São Paulo and Seoul dominate the narrative. The result? A homogenized view of culture that’s far removed from the richness and complexity of the real world.
That’s where The Culture Connectors steps in: a global initiative offering an antidote to the sameness. Instead of recycling established narratives, it amplifies local voices from six continents, turning overlooked perspectives into powerful cultural insights. The creator, Amy Daroukakis, also brought something else, totally fresh, to the table: the Trend Galaxy Framework, which organizes emerging trends through storytelling, moving beyond typical trend lingo.
Instead of focusing solely on data, it offers a sensory experience of cultural shifts across six continents, with individual local love letters that amplify voices from places often underrepresented in the traditional “global” foresight work.
A special thanks to Amy Daroukakis, the visionary mind behind Culture Connectors, and Arianna Marin, our tireless project maestro - together, they turned this massive global collaborative operation into an inspiring reality.
✷ Why it matters
The Trend Galaxy Framework emphasizes narrative over nodes. Rather than isolating signals, it put together cultural stories, creating edges where context and history meet innovation. Making it an antidote to the dominant trend reports that often repeat the same insights year after year.
One of the highlights for me is what Amy called the Country Rating, which evaluates how well-represented and future-ready each continent’s cultural narratives are. Having a country rate shows the long-needed acknowledgement that while progress is being made, there is still room for growth and inclusion.
✷ Curious to learn more?
Join us tomorrow, Friday, 14th February, 2 PM GMT, for the full unveiling of Culture Connectors with Amy Daroukakis and Arianna Marin.
📅 Check the event on LinkedIn to learn more.
We’ll share:
→ What sparked this shift;
→ How Culture Connectors can help your brand or agency;
→ What’s next for 2025 and beyond.
🔗 Click here to access the Zoom meeting.
✷ A snapshot of each region
Sorry, but not yet! I’ve read all the reports and I’d love to share my reflections on them. However, I’m only able to give you this tiny teaser because tomorrow, all will make sense in our collective call and I don't want to spoil it.
As we gather for tomorrow’s session, we’ll see how these local love letters, spanning Oceania, Africa, Asia, Americas, and Europe, can spark fresh thinking for brands, agencies, and anyone looking to explore a richer, more inclusive view of the world.