I attended a conference at Friends of Design yesterday that featured speakers from various creative and design backgrounds. The speakers covered the current shift in communications that demands new roles and considerations from those in the business world who wish to remain competitive.

The first speaker, Bruce Gourtey, suggested that those who adapt to the broader themes creating a new context for creative thought will be the ones who survive. These include understanding the global recession, the need to be green: ‘sustainability’ and the effect of current world politics.

The emergence of niche markets through the wave of world wide connectivity is also particularly interesting to marketers. Gone are the days of marketing OMO and Sunlight Liquid to the masses – the present era calls for marketing vegan veggie burgers to American kids working on a Kibbutz. The role of online marketing becomes prevalent here because it allows companies to find and serve these niche markets.

In order to find the right information you need to have the right tools. Sometimes the Internet as a fountain of knowledge can appear more like a tidal wave. Applications such as RSS feeds and Twitter allow you to find the information you need without drowning. RSS feeds deliver relevant information to your doorstep while Twitter lets you follow the right people to get you the information you need (instead of having to look yourself).

The second speaker, our own Tim, covered crowdsourcing and open source models as methods for idea generation. Given the value of ideas and information – the "Ideas Economy" – tools like Dell’s Idea Storm and our own Idea Bounty connect marketers with a global pool of ideas from people who often fall within their target market.

It is evident that individuals and companies need to constantly adapt the way that they look at a problem in order to find the best solution. The trick, it seems, is to let the wave of information and connectivity work for you instead of letting it swamp you.