The next big thing

Futurist Thomas Frey believes more than half of the best jobs that will be around in a decade’s time have not yet been invented.

Trendspotting for future industries is well advanced in America and Britain, where entrepreneurs are hoping to get a jump-start on competitors.

British group Fast Future also started a global study, commissioned by the British government, on the jobs that are likely to evolve. They came up with 100 new positions due by 2030.

Sparks & Honey, an American marketing company, has recently added to this with its own predictions on upcoming industries.

Local entrepreneurs looking for the next big thing may want to consider the following ideas from both sources:

•Digital death manager: Want to post a birthday message from the grave? Not wanting to save your embarrassing photos for posterity? A digital death manager will manufacture or eliminate online content after you die, crafting a posthumous online presence to help you enjoy a dignified death.

•Corporate disorganiser: A specialist or team who dismantle systems and reshuffle hierarchies in companies in a way that reboots the start-up culture in an organisation. In-house simplicity experts will focus on streamlining systems and processes.

•Holographers: Movies will move into the holographic sphere, and people will be needed to make, edit and project holographic movies. Virtual reality actors can be hired individually to interact with you in cyberspace dramas.

•Insect nutritionists and chefs: Insects will be the next big food craze, as we advance our understanding of health-enhancing benefits of the species. Specialists will create new foods and dishes. Bug jam anyone?

•Robot trainers: NextGen Research forecasts worldwide demand for all-purpose service robots will reach $15 billion by the end of 2015, or roughly 5 million robots a year. Many will help the elderly in their home. Counsellors will be needed to repair, rewire and reboot robots as they develop their own quirks. Trainers will be needed to customise them to perform roles in business and the home.

•Longevity providers: Consultants who study your genome, advise on the best way to prolong your life and then implement the changes. End-of-life planners will help people manage and plan for their own death, which will include voluntarily stopping drug programs that could continue to keep them alive.

•Waste data manager: An expert able to destroy your online footprint for privacy and security purposes, or for legal reasons.

•Privacy consultant: An expert to advise individuals on privacy vulnerabilities in their online and physical worlds.

•Personal digital curator: A specialist who recommends which technology you need to run your life and your business, including apps, hardware, software and appliances. Cybrarians will categorise the mass of information on the web to suit your interests.

•Productivity counsellors: Productivity is a key word right now, and it won’t be long before a new profession of counsellors to help others with time management, efficiency, wellness and career counselling.

•Virtual lawyer: Lawyers who specialise in cases involving illegal online activity across several nations with different laws. They would figure out jurisdiction in complex cases, such as one involving a British person who uses online web access while flying over Estonia on an Australian airline.

•Weather modification police: Police to operate covert surveillance on activities designed to affect the weather, such as shooting rockets containing silver iodine into the clouds to stimulate rainfall. They would grant licences to those with legitimate reasons for intervening in weather patterns.

•Crowdfunding specialist: An expert on sites such as Kickstarter, where people pledge small amounts of money for start-ups, who helps promote a business or project to boost its crowdfunding potential.

•Urban shepherd: A microfarmer able to advise on small scale gardens and plots in unusual city areas, including city rooftops. Vertical farmers will grow hydroponically-fed food under artificial growth-enhancing lighting in multi-storey buildings.

•Digital detox therapist: Counsellors who separate stressed people from their devices. Separate to social networking workers, who specialise in counselling people who are cyber bullied, traumatised or in some way marginalised by social networking.

•Vicarious videographers: People who take video footage of unique experiences to stream to armchair adventurers.

•Meme agent: Similar to a talent agent, but specialising in the field of internet memes to help market an individual or business.

•GM or recombinant farmer: Farmers producing genetically modified crops and livestock.

•Astrogeologists and astrophysiologists: Scientists who will explore and profit from space exploration.

•Asteroid miners: Mining of asteroids and planets for new resources, elements and materials to enhance life on earth.

•Body part maker: Huge advances in bio-tissues, robotics and plastics will lead to an industry that creates high- performing body parts. It will require body part makers, as well as people to staff body part stores and repair shops.

•Alternative vehicle developers: Eco-friendly cars that travel under water or fly could be reality within 20 years.