Futureproofing brands for the complexities of our increasingly networked world is key to helping businesses prepare for the next big thing.

That’s according to Tracey Follows, founder and futurist at Futuremade, a speaker at a recent digital event called REINVNT.

There are always winners and losers amid change, Fellows says, a point that has been highlighted in the last year, as perhaps never before.

Follows said: “A futurist used to be just about making predictions and forecasts about what was going to happen in the future. People who were into futurology were also fiction writers as well as being into science.

“Now increasingly it is also about preparedness – so helping brands, organisations and businesses better prepare for what’s coming in the future.

“The world is much more networked now and that makes it that much more complex.”

The REINVNT event saw Follows, who is one of the world’s top 50 female futurists, reveal five key trends to future-proof businesses, while Adam Morgan of international consultancy for challenger brands, called of eatbigfish, shared his thoughts on which companies are leading the way.

Neil Mason executive creative director at INVNT, the brains behind the futuristic digital event, said: “Our mantra is challenge everything. The briefs that come in – it’s not necessarily the right brief for the client. So we do scrutinise and challenge everything, and that gets us a better result. Just working with digital and creative and platforms in a very different way.”