Tom’s social skills are exceptional.
His skill to find thoughtleaders and connect with them is unprecedented. Even more, he is extremely apt in filtering thought leaders opinions into trends and topics (find some of his results on slideshare.net/trendwolves). In that way he is not like most researchers or trend watchers.
Qualitative, niche contacts help him grab the essence of youth trends and subcultures.
This earned him the title of Specialist Trendwatcher of the Year 2009 in The Netherlands.
Note: I worked for nearly a year with Tom at Ghent-based trendwatching/youthwatching agency Trendwolves.