As the end of the year approaches, I can't help but anticipate the trends of 2008. Last year, the trends that I coined included Technoholics (the increasing obsession with anything tech-related), Massclusivity (exclusive products designed for the masses), Celeb-Zero (the loss in value of celebrity status), and Wharholism (the ability for anyone to obtain their 15 minutes of fame).

Alissa Quart is sitting at a café on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in direct sunlight on a blazing Indian summer afternoon wearing sunglasses, a coat, drinking a cup of hot coffee - one can almost see waves of heat rising from her body.

The empowered consumer is something we have heard a good deal about since the web took hold. As a concept it stands up to a certain amount of scrutiny. More people are accessing more information to inform more decisions in their everyday lives, including what to buy and what not to buy. Gone are the days when the salesman had the deck completely stacked in his favor and the consumer had to rely on trust and dumb luck.

By now, much of the advertising world is hip to the benefits of digital media, even if it's hard to keep up with each new iteration. We've all traveled pretty quickly from digital experimentation to proven return-on-investment to the need to closely integrate online and offline communications.

Jonathan Swift, the 18th-century author of "Gulliver's Travels," once quipped that "A fool can ask more questions than the wisest man can answer." Each time I think of that perceptive and witty remark, it still makes me smile. But to be honest, whenever I start a completely new total communications project, I am awash with questions.

Dear Santa: I'm not sure how to say this, but well, I'm 14, and this will be the last letter I write you.

A realization hit me as I started on the road home. Hours and even days after leaving the first-ever connection-planning conference, hosted by New Orleans agency Trumpet, I still could feel all the fresh, provocative thinking reverberating in my brain.

The music business is changing faster than any other. And in many ways, it really is a microcosm of the whole new media environment. Just think, 10 years ago, there was no iPod, and more important, no iTunes.

As far as I'm concerned, some old media went up in smoke along with the wild fires that set Southern California ablaze in late October. When my San Diego-based sister and my nephews were forced to evacuate their home and relocate temporarily to safer ground, I went through the normal food chain of personal communications to find out how they were doing.

The Apple iPhone suffers from a cruel irony. Much like a comely Mormon, the sexiest phone on the market is also arguably the most inhibited - the famously closed deck allows little personalization.