With the administration of President-elect Barack Obama taking power within days and businesses everywhere dealing with the most challenging economic environment in decades, informed speculation regarding the months and years ahead should be highly prized in many quarters. With that in mind, Nation’s Restaurant News recently put three questions to futurist Peter Leyden, keynote speaker for FS/TEC 2009, which will be held Feb. 4-7 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.
“Our Age of Transformation: What’s Next in Our High-Tech, Global 21st Century World,” is the title of Leyden’s Feb. 6 FS/TEC talk. Among other experiences, Leyden is former managing editor of Wired magazine, a past director of San Francisco’s New Politics Institute think tank for “progressives,” and co-author of books on technological and societal changes and the business landscape of tomorrow.
Will online social networks help restaurants and other businesses out of this economic downturn, or prove to be a distraction?
Don’t think of “online social networks” as just Facebook or MySpace [or other popular, branded sites]. Rather, think of [all] new media of the Web as social media that allow individuals to comment, or recommend, or pass on news and tips to their friends and families. Businesses, including restaurants, can greatly benefit from paying attention to this new social media as much as, if not more than, the old media.
Increasingly, the way people will find out about your restaurant or your business will be from recommendations from their social networks. Those social networks do not necessarily have to be their close friends and family, but just communities that they trust even somewhat.
Also, don’t think of new media as just on the Web either. Mobile phones are becoming fantastic platforms for people to get information quickly wherever they are. This is especially important for restaurants because those are businesses [about which] people make spot decisions all the time. Check out the iPhone’s new applications for Urbanspoon[.com] and Yelp[.com]. They geo-locate where a person is and then give them options for places to eat in real time, along with the inevitable recommendations of those who have eaten there previously. This is the future. Get ready for much more of it.
We’ve heard a lot about how President-elect Obama will embrace technology to be an inclusive leader when formulating policy and to help make government more efficient. Is there substance to such talk and, if so, in simple terms, how might such an approach to government touch businesses?
There is absolutely no doubt that Obama will rapidly shift the government in a more democratized and transparent direction using new technologies. I have often said that he would not have beaten Hillary Clinton without his heavy reliance on the new politics of the new technologies and tools—and he knows it. This is a leader and a campaign that truly get the power of technology. And they know these same tools will greatly help them figure out better policies and how to govern better, too.
They also are committed to changing the way Washington works, starting with the whole lobbying game. They did not accept corporate contributions for the campaign or the transition, and all signs point to them maintaining that stance once in power. So those businesses who relied on insider lobbying to get their points heard had better shift strategy quickly and engage this more democratized approach.
This new approach is not anti-business by any means. But it probably is more suited to small businesses or businesses that align their interests with their communities and a larger common good.
What’s one of your key points that restaurateurs should realize about the evolving role of technology in society and paradigm shifts, if any, that may be coming?
The single biggest shift coming to businesses, including restaurateurs, is the shift to clean tech, renewable energy and the green economy. This is going to be a relatively dramatic shift starting with the Obama administration and only accelerating in the coming years. Ultimately, our entire economy and society will adapt to this new clean-energy paradigm, and it will take 25 years or more to fully transition. But starting now, there will be increasing incentives to go green and disincentives to avoid all carbon-based energy and any processes that adversely effect the environment. Even if you are not forced to do this by government mandate, which increasingly you will, the market is going there even more quickly. Your customers will increasingly demand it and shun those who don’t come around. Think about how smoking went from ubiquitous and cool to very uncool, if not dumb. That’s a bit of a foreshadowing about what’s in store with all things clean and green.
ABOUT FS/TEC FS/TEC is managed and produced by Nation’s Restaurant News with Robert N. Grimes of Accuvia. The founding sponsor is MICROS Systems Inc., and the corporate sponsors are PAR and Radiant Systems Inc. Epson America Inc., HyperActive Technologies Inc. and XPIENT Solutions LLC are affiliate sponsors. FS/TEC is co-located with The NAFEM Show equipment and serviceware exhibition staged biennially by the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers of Chicago. For 2009, the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association of Tallahassee, Fla., is an FS/TEC association partner. Luncheon roundtable discussions and other programming components are being presented this year with the assistance of the National Restaurant Association Management Information Systems Executive Study Group. Additional information about FS/TEC and registration links are available at
