Life is Tweet on Twitter

Is anyone suffering from exhibition apathy? My colleagues and I were sharing our IFE 2009 experiences on the topic of inspiration. It was clear that everyone was left wanting from the event.

Working in a time-poor environment we need to maximise the return we make in investing that precious time on trend research. Who honestly has the luxury of time to kick back and read all the covers of the foodie glossies? I personally find subscribing to particular blogs an invaluable way of keeping up to speed on trends and industry news.

Now up to the second updates can be delivered to your phone or blackberry through 'Twitter'. Rubbished by some as a pastime of the idle but hailed as a canny professional business tool by forward thinkers such as Barack Obama and Richard Branson, the micro-blogging phenomenon Twitter has great potential for us developers too.

Where else can you network and connect with thousands of like-minded individuals within seconds to share information, links, pictures, or just canvas opinion on new product ideas for market research? For example, the scope and speed of Twitter enables one particular global coffee chain to keep its finger on the pulse of its consumers on a daily basis finding out their opinions on potential new product solutions.

I'm following the tweets of several acclaimed foodies such as Anthony Bourdain. I've picked up some great tips on up and coming restaurants (ones he dined in a few hours earlier), received prompts for original food-related TV documentaries and downloaded links and pictures on pictorial culinary adventures across the globe all linked to him in a matter of seconds.

Twitter needs time to evolve but it has the potential to be one of several valuable tools we can equip ourselves with to become more informed. That, coupled with notification at lightening speed could keep you one step ahead.

Angela Mitton is creative product developer at NPD consultancy Beetroot & Orange www.beetrootandorange.com​​