My first business enterprise after university was running an expo for innovation.

For a new entrepreneur, it was a baptism of fire. Selling to hundreds of stand owners. Managing their space. Then seeing tens of thousands of paying guests come through the door.

But for what I learnt, I should have stuck with the sharemarket.

 

New Ideas Expo, Auckland Showgrounds, 1998. Source: Simon Angelo

 

Still, it did profile some leading-edge ideas of the time. And for some companies, led to significant sales and investment.

Now, all this was set up, organised, and managed with no internet, no email, and a rather large cell phone. At times, during the thick of the event, the voice-message system was perpetually overloaded and would tell callers it was full.

I had a large office with a dozen storage cupboards for the large numbers of paper files generated. There were multiple in-trays. And, of course, the secret to my success: the fax machine!

You see, the most successful campaign to attract new exhibitors throughout 1998 was to do a ‘fax out’ to companies. They would receive a fax from me, with a little box at the bottom they could fill out and fax back to register their interest.

I wish I still had that fax out, actually. It was a great piece of copywriting and attracted hundreds of expressions of interest. Unlikely it would ever have worked as well on email.

 

This brings me to the innovations that will drive wealth and change the future in 2024

 

Shortly after my expo, I got an email address. The internet changed everything. Soon, with payments and files going electronic, the extensive storage around my office became redundant. Things can change fast when technology takes over.

When I started investing in the markets in the 1980s, on the NZX, companies were innovative financially. Not so much with technology. Some of that financial innovation meant that, by 1987, many of their share certificates were worthless!

This year, some of the best returns — and indeed much of the Nasdaq’s high returns — have been seen in the tech-focused Magnificent Seven.

The Mag 7 comprises Microsoft [NASDAQ:MSFT], Amazon [NASDAQ:AMZN], Meta Platforms [NASDAQ:META], Apple [NASDAQ:AAPL], Alphabet [NASDAQ:GOOGL], NVIDIA [NASDAQ:NVDA], and Tesla [NASDAQ:TSLA].

But these (and others like them) have also become expensive.

Rocketing toward 2024, I’m looking to find the sectors and businesses that will drive a new round of magnificent growth.

The old paradigm of easy equity growth on cheap money — largely running from 2011-2021 — has gone.

Investors have to be smarter. And they need to find clear tailwinds.

Here are the innovative trends that could make you money in 2024 and beyond…

 

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