I travel a lot. Delivering 100+ speeches a year means I am in multiple airports most weeks of the year. This allows me to do an ongoing comparative analysis of airport design: what works, what doesn’t work, and what each city thinks travelers want and need. Many airports are just old-fashioned, out of date and only add to the struggle of travel for that group of people commonly called “road warriors.” “What were they thinking?” or, in my case, “Why didn’t they think?” are the questions that come to mind.

One way to look at this is through the filter of 20^th versus 21^st century. Airports that were built in the 20^th century and have not been redesigned and updated feel like time warps.  Think about what has happened to passenger air travel since 2000. The three obvious changes are the dramatic increase in airport security, the increased passenger load of most planes today, and the explosion of electronic devices travelers now carry.

Airports built – or redesigned – since 2000 have integrated the security aspect into the design, creating flow patterns that acknowledge the current reality. Outdated airports still feel makeshift, with lines of people snaking by restaurants and stores. Recently constructed airports often emphasize high ceilings and lots of light, providing the traveler with a respite of bright space after being in crowded and constrained airplane, taxi and train spaces. Older airports have low ceilings, narrow hallways and public space reflected of a time when the skies were much less …

In a recent television interview I touched on some points that regular readers will realize have been forecasts I have made in this column over the past couple of years. Over a short but wide ranging interview with Chicago Fox News Anchor Bob Sirott  I touched on forecasts previously made about thrift being the new cool,  the scarring of the consumer, a lack of inflation, high unemployment and the future of e-books.

It is my job as a futurist to provoke you to think about the future and to be as accurate as possible with my forecasts.  These are the two things it is my responsibility to do.  I hope that from time to time you find yourself thinking about the future in new ways when reading this column.  Of course I take pride in my accuracy as it validates your time spent here.

I hope you enjoy this interview.  Bob and I enjoyed the conversation enough that we plan on sitting down again in the future

The recent announcement from Amazon that in the past three months they had sold more e-books for their Kindle reader than hardcover books is significant.  It confirms that 2010 will be the year of lift off for e-books.  Amazon said that it sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcovers for which there are no Kindle editions.

This made me want to go back to past forecasts I have made about e-books to see how accurate they were.  As long time readers know, I have been forecasting the dramatic increase in e-books for four years.  In June of 2007, six months before the Kindle came out, I wrote the following:

“E-books will ultimately gain significant market share.  This will occur when there is an “iPod moment”; when a device comes out that is low-priced, wonderful to use and perceived to be cool (Steve Jobs are you listening?).  Once this occurs, there will be a rapid increase in the percentage of books sold digitally, probably leveling off around 40-50 percent by 2025.  Impulsive buys, such as at airport bookstores will become “purchase and download”…. “What’s on your e-reader?” will replace “What’s on your iPod?”

I remember that when I made this forecast, because it was half a year before the Kindle came out, there was derision regarding that 40-50% figure.  I now look at that figure and find it conservative.  Here are my forecasts for e-books as a percentage of total books sold:

2010        10%

2011        15%

2012        20%

2015        40%

2020        60%

2025        75%

I think that …

Many of you have been loyal readers of this blog for years and to all of you I loudly say thank you!  As many of you may know, about four months ago I became a featured contributor on Oprah.com writing a column every other week.  In fact, since I started to write that column it is clear that a lot of the new email subscribers to this blog are readers from www.oprah.com/davidhoule .

The columns I write there are different in subject, tone and address issues not covered here.  I would like to use this column to direct you to some of the columns you might find of interest.  To those new readers from Oprah.com I thank you in advance for your patience as you may have read some or all of these columns before.  If not, here is a chance to catch up on what you missed.

The Future of Shopping In this column I take a look at shopping past present and future.  For those of you that enjoyed my columns on Dubai, I discuss how the future of shopping can be seen there.

Your Kids Are Different …. And It’s OK!  Part One As parents we realize how different our kids are from us, how the landscape in which they have grown up is so different from the landscape of our childhood and youth.  In this column I take a look at the Millennial generation.

Your Kids Are Different….And It’s OK!  Part Two.  Here …

In my last column I wrote about Dubai and that it is a 21^st Century city.  As a futurist I felt at home being there as it feels like a city that is fully looking forward rather than stuck in a legacy past.  In this column I want to take a look at some of the dynamics that have shaped this city to be so forward facing.  Too many cities in the world are stuck in the past, the recent past or are looking into the future completely through present day problems.  What can other cities learn from Dubai?

Dubai exists today because of the vision of a city that was birthed and built by three successive leaders who systematically implemented that vision.  The Al Maktoum family has ruled Dubai for the past 200 years.  In 1958 Sheik Rashid took over as the ruler of Dubai and was a very hands-on ruler, making twice daily trips through the then small town, seeking interaction with the populace.  He saw that the future necessitated the construction of infra-structure, services, and an open policy towards the rest of the world.  His view seemed to be decades ahead.

In 1968, the United Kingdom decided to end the treaty it had in place with the seven emirates.  Three years later in 1971 the United Arab Emirates was formed and the seven states put in place a Supreme Council that oversaw all the general policies of the U.A.E.  This council operated – and operates …