In This Issue:

• LETTER FROM MARY
• SURVEY NEWS
• A LOOK AT A NEW BOOK
• ON THE CONFERENCE FRONT
• AGING IN PLACE TECH WATCH
• SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
• NEW MARKET FINDINGS
• NEWSWIRE

LETTER FROM MARY

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

2009 is off to an interesting start. We began the year with a trip to Las Vegas for the Silvers Summit at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The program put together by Susan Ayers Walker, Robin Raskin and Mike Sarfatti was great! Eric Dishman of Intel gave a compelling presentation on the need for reform on digital health. He shared three important trends: Demographic Disruption (with a map of what the world could look like in 2020), Technology Disruption and Economic Disruption. These three forces will bring about a need for innovation and reform. I had the privilege of hosting a panel on lifestyles. Lee Rainie, of the Pew Internet & American Life Project gave an important update on the changes of boomers regarding 2.0 media. He gave the following data points concerning boomers' use of 2.0 media in 2008: 74 percent use the Internet, 62 percent have broadband at home, 72 percent use a cell phone and 43 percent connect to the Internet wirelessly. What is new and important to note in the data is the move toward fast, mobile computing among boomers.

The other news according to Pew is the growth of social networking applications. Rainie cited the following: 91 percent of boomers use search engines, 78 percent search in health care, 30 percent use online ratings, 38 percent share video feeds, 26 percent read blogs, 17 percent share creations, 16 percent have a social network profile and 7 percent blog. Howard Byck, also on the panel, shared the latest strategy regarding the lifestyle area at AARP. He touched on several topics -- some of which can be seen as uber-environmental trends -- including the increasing numbers of singles, the effects of delaying retirement, the going green movement and the implications of new technology. He also talked about the AARP members' (40 million strong) unmet needs regarding control, thriftiness and the desire to stay fit and achieve peace of mind. These trends and needs are important to the organization's new strategy for products and services related to travel and entertainment, discounts, health and wellness, lifelong learning, technology products and services and pets.

The increasing numbers of boomers using social media is why we decided to make that an anchor theme for the What's Next Boomer Summit in Las Vegas on March 19. In this down economy, every dollar spent has to matter. We want to help our conference sponsors and attendees develop sales strategies that can work in this new economy. With consumers spending less, it simply takes more of them to meet 2009 goals. Finding more business means taking a look at new strategies and new distribution channels. As you look at your goals for 2009, ask yourself these questions:

• Do I have a strategy for buying Google key words? Is it working?
• Do I have a strategy for using user ratings to engage customers and prospects?
• Do I have a sales strategy for partnering with non profits to leverage the trust and relationship of their members?
• Do I have an integrated communications strategy that includes radio?
• Do I have a sales and communication strategy for email newsletters?
• Do I need a retail chain strategy?
• Do I have a portal placement strategy?
• Do I have a strategy for reaching caregivers to reach the needs of seniors?
• Do I need a strategy for QVC?

In this market we don't want to just layer on more statistics about boomers. We do want to help you understand the impact the economy is having on their decision making, their behaviors and their attitudes. What we have gathered are thought leaders and experts who can help you get the right answer for your business.

Speakers will include: Guy Kawasaki, entrepreneur and author; Emilio Pardo, AARP; Ellen Levy, LinkedIn; Sam Decker, Bazaarvoice; Sarah Christian, VolunteerMatch; Andy Cohen, Caring.com; Lorraine Larson, Council on Aging Silicon Valley; Jeff Maltz, SilverRide; Bill Leake, Apogee Search; Carol Orsborn, Vibrant Nation and many, many more.

As always, we will have time for the latest books and networking. Also, we have a stellar list of sponsors. They include AARP, Microsoft, Silicon Valley Council on Aging Silicon Valley, Posit Science, EquityKey, Caring.com, Keating Magee, The Stress Institute, VolunteerMatch, Vibrant Nation, Your Support Nurse, Verizon, Verizon Wireless, Southwest Airlines, HeartMath, LiveWorld, Retirement Living TV and Moving Mavins.

Know an entrepreneur wannabe or a new entrepreneur seeking guidance? Refer them to our Entrepreneurship Boot Camp on March 18 in Las Vegas. With increased unemployment and early retirements, we know that more people will be seeking ways to start their own businesses focusing on boomer/senior market opportunities. So we’re spending a half day focusing on entrepreneurs and boomer businesses. Ellen M. Thrasher, director of the Small Business Administration's Office of Entrepreneurship Education, will be joining us to talk about the new administration’s efforts to support small business and encourage entrepreneurship among people 50 and over with the new SBA Web site. The full agenda is at www.boomersummit.com.

With California's unemployment rate nearing double digits, I'm spending a fair amount of time doing job counseling. For those who are 50-plus (and especially if they are in marketing), I recommend a business they can develop and own. We are seeing an uptick in franchise businesses that want to hire boomers. Several of these franchises involve caregiving. This marketplace is poised to grow as two out of three boomers will become caregivers over the next 20 years. We will feature some of these opportunities at What's Next.

For others, stringing together a series of projects can be effective. I loved the following from Tina Brown in the Daily Beast: "No one I know has a job anymore. They've got Gigs."

Brown defines gigs as "free-floating projects, consultancies, and part-time bits" strung together to make “the Nut -- the sum that allows (individuals) to hang on to the apartment, the health-care policy, the baby sitter, and the school fees."

What seems to be missing from young and old alike is a willingness to trust their future to one company. Those who have seen their 401k become a 201k, need to rebuild their finances in order to secure their future -- and boomers have less time to do that than younger workers. Perhaps it is time for a "Career Retooling and Service Act." We could focus on community colleges and online learning to provide the retooling. Looking ahead, there is a growing need for talent in geriatric care, social work, nursing, teaching and health care. Now is the time for innovation and entrepreneurship in all sectors. To that end, Mark Miller, who writes the syndicated Retire Smart newspaper column, will be sharing some of his ideas at What's Next. We also will be featuring books and resources to help you launch your next career chapter.

As you create the mosaic for the next phase of your life, think about the "gigs" you want to take on, consider the audience you want to serve and consider the difference you will make. Each week, my young students in entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University inspire me with their creativity, their energy and their willingness to create something new. Which only serves to underscore the fact that all of us need to stay fresh and continue to learn. That's the best way I know of to weather the current economic storm. That, and bring back the potluck.

All best,
Mary

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SURVEY NEWS

UnitedHealth Group's Evercare® organization and the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) have released their findings from the National Hispanic Family Caregiving Survey. The study, the largest comprehensive look at Hispanic caregivers, found that more than one third of Hispanic households (36 percent) have at least one family member caring for an older loved one - a larger percentage than all U.S. caregiving households (21 percent). It also revealed that becoming a family caregiver caused a major shift in the working situation of Hispanics, a change which could have dramatic personal implications as the current fiscal crisis continues to unfold in the United States. In addition, given that more than eight million Hispanics provide care to older loved ones nationwide, the emotional and physical tolls of caregiving might also impact both local and national economies. The entire study, Evercare Study of Hispanic Caregiving in the U.S., can be viewed in PDF format here.

It is also available in Spanish here.

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A LOOK AT A NEW BOOK

Noted professor, author ("The Making of a Counter Culture") and social critic Ted Roszak takes a fresh, thought-provoking look at the baby boomer generation in his new book, "The Making of an Elder Culture: Reflections on the Future of America's Most Audacious Generation," which is being published online by Second Journey, a North Carolina-based organization that deals in the social and spiritual issues of aging. "After being told by numerous publishers, as well as by my own agent, that nobody reads books about “old people” -- not even the 77 million boomers who are the subject of the book, -- I decided to deliver my thoughts to the world in a new medium," Roszak said in an email. The first six chapters of the book are available as free downloads in PDF format at Second Journey's Web site, (to download those chapters, click here.)

Roszak's latest work stands conventional wisdom about aging on its head, reaching a conclusion that is sure to promote much discussion. "The thesis of the book deals with unexplored demographic pressures that may be shaping our future more importantly than many more prominent forces – leading to the striking conclusion that the future belongs to age more so than youth," Roszak says.

Some samples from the new book.

From the Foreward:

What will our world be like when there are more people above the age of 50 (or 60 or 70) than below, people whose highest needs are for compassion, companionship, philosophical insight, and a modestly sustainable way of life? If the aging of the modern world is experienced .consciously and creatively with an awareness of how promising this transition is, it can be the path to the sort of countercultural utopian social order that became so popular among the countercultural young during the sixties and seventies.

Others will disagree. They see the rise of the wrinklies as a disaster, a fiscal train wreck, a death blow to the prospects for progress. They see a world dominated by grandparent power as backward, stagnant, and unaffordable, a society burdened to the point of bankruptcy by nursing homes and demented millions. Meanwhile, there are those in the biotech community who are doing all they can to extend our life expectancy by decades, if not centuries — seemingly with no regard for the larger consequences of what they do.

Perhaps the doomsayers will be correct. Perhaps it will turn out that way — though not because it has to. My own hope is that the boomers — the best educated, most widely traveled, most innovative generation we have ever seen — are not too frivolous to face the dilemmas of longevity. On the contrary. I believe they will, in growing numbers as the years unfold, recognize that the making of an elder culture is the great task of our time, a project that can touch life's later years with nobility and intellectual excitement.

From Chapter One, "Maturity Rules":

The elder culture that is being improvised all around us day by day may not turn out to be an endless vista of fast-paced economic expansion and technological gadgetry, but it promises to be the road toward a saner, more compassionate, more sustainable world — altogether, a more important turning point than ever presented itself in the sixties when boomers were coming of age. This, at last, is what the dissenting idealism of the sixties was, in its highest and brightest expression, all about, a transformation of values that may finally reveal the destiny of industrialization, the life-enhancing destiny that has lain hidden in the wrenching violence and extravagant physical and spiritual costs. In raising that possibility, I cling to one hope. Boomers, who will usher us into the senior dominance, are the best educated, most socially conscientious, most politically savvy older generation the world has ever seen. They grew up entertaining (if not always endorsing) countercultural values, reveling in their willingness to search beyond the limits of convention. Given sufficient awareness and inspiration, I believe that generation will want to do good things with the power that history has unexpectedly thrust upon it in its senior years. What boomers left undone in their youth, they will return to take up in their maturity, if for no other reason than because they will want to make old age interesting. Just as the Dutch have won land back from the sea, we have won years back from death. That gives us the grand project of using those extra years to build a culture that is morally remarkable.

Thanks so much if you have the time to take a look at the book. It will be a great favor if you can at least register a “hit” on Second Journey’s website. If you have the chance to make a comment on the website or to let friends know about the book, that will surely help in creating some buzz. It may also help us all create an alternative to print-on-paper publication which is growing ever more frustrating. -- Ted Roszak

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ON THE CONFERENCE FRONT

Chef Richard Horschar, executive chef at Muncy Valley Long-term Care at Susquehanna Health, puts the finishing touches on a brussel sprout soufflé on the second day of AAHSA's chef challenge. Photo courtesy of AAHSA

The tantalizing aroma of stuffed pork loin, Brussels sprouts soufflé and jalapeno mashed potatoes wafted through the hall as executive chefs from around the country attempted to beat the clock in preparing gourmet lunches. No, it wasn’t an "Iron Chef" taping, but the Chef Challenge at the 2008 annual meeting of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) held Oct. 12-14.

Attended by 8,960 nonprofit long-term care providers, the event drew more than 500 exhibitors representing such areas as architecture, banking, construction, furniture, pharmacy, computer software and rehabilitation to the vast Philadelphia Convention Center exhibit hall. Those in attendance – a smaller crowed than the anticipated 10,000 this year -- were treated to presentations from the likes of Dana Carvey,Whoopi Goldberg, John Glenn and Aretha Franklin, as well as almost 200 educational sessions.

To be sure there were plenty of practical products on display-- such as Urine Off, a popular odor-eater. But also among the featured activities was the lunchtime AAHSA Chef Challenge. For two days, the "Iron Chef"-style competition pitted three culinary executives and their sous chefs against each other. Each team had one hour to create a gourmet platter around a secret ingredient -- Brussels sprouts, for instance -- revealed at the beginning of each round. Talk about challenges. Yet as the clock ticked in the frenzied kitchen, and a professional announcer, wireless mike in hand, dashed about serving up a spicy play-by-play, onlookers’ mouths seemed to water in unison. Panels of prominent providers sampled, judged and declared a winner each day.

The Chef Challenge was only one of the special features developed by AAHSA to boost exhibition interest. For example, two teams of interior design students from Philadelphia’s Drexel University had 48 hours and a limited budget to turn booth space into a long-term care resident’s “dream room.”

Exhibit time was three hours most days -- great for exhibitors but prompting complaints from some conference registrants wanting more educational opportunities. Attendees also could have used an electronic kiosk offering interactive maps to help them locate particular products and services in the Costco-sized exhibition hall.

AAHSA President and CEO Larry Minnix indicated that the association would continue to pursue public, private and personal avenues of support. (In a post-election memo he also outlined the implications of the election for long-term care services). In his opening session speech he asked attendees to take out their Blackberries to see an e-mail he sent to AAHSA members asking them to share an idea to save fellow members at least $5,000, or to generate that much in earnings. He also asked audience members to post ideas to help the immediate economic needs of the field at www.aahsa.org/economy.aspx

Minnix also called on the audience to eschew the frustration in the current economic crisis that can lead to cynicism and bottom-line approaches that only reduce quality care. He urged them to send the message to their elected officials that care and services for older and disabled younger people and those who care for them must be part of health care reform. We know what to do to enact the right policies for the right reasons, because we do it every day,” he said.

Applications of new technology were a prominent theme throughout the sessions and workshops. In his plenary address, Intel Corp. Chairman Craig Barrett urged AAHSA to act more forcefully through its Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST), a coalition of some 400 companies focused on developing, evaluating and adopting emerging technologies in long-term care he helped create.

Barrett emphasized that CAST could play a prime role in developing common platforms of shared information. Common technological platforms will be critical, he said. Without the direction of providers through their association and purchasing power, CAST’s goal of enhancing independent living will default to proprietary approaches by disparate companies. Barrett noted that as with standardized recorded music formats such as MP3s, common platforms in long-term care will benefit many through new industry-wide business models.

Later in a press briefing, Barrett was joined by CAST Chairman Eric Dishman, Intel’s director of product research and innovation.

Dishman and Barrett noted that companies working with providers can meet many emerging needs, such as preventing as many as 70 percent of the unnecessary falls among elders, by using both existing and new sensor technologies. Facebook-type Internet applications for social networking are already providing new communication opportunities to elders, their families and caregivers, they said. And home monitoring systems will be able to monitor an elder’s behavioral and biological changes in real time, rather than today’s limited assessments available only during periodic doctor visits.

Dishman emphasized that CAST’s technology whizzes are not asking AAHSA members to become technologists but to take a leadership role in demonstrating new “care paradigms and how to do quality care. Lay it out for us, and we’ll learn from you about what technology will be best.”

Paul Kleyman is the editor of Aging Today, newspaper of the American Society on Aging, and national coordinator of the Journalists Exchange on Aging.

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AGING IN PLACE TECH WATCH

Laurie Orlov

Next, she points out the gap between what is technologically possible as shown by research and what is actually available in real-world products to seniors today:

"These researchers are justifiably proud of their model homes, apartments and showcases (especially at aging-related events) that demonstrate their engineering vision for the future of aging. They have plenty of categories covered: programs looking into robots, motion sensors, cameras, wearable technology. ...But then I search the Internet looking for more companies than GrandCare or Quiet Care in the home monitoring industry -- so far haven't found any that are viable....Where are the products that should emerge (quickly) from research that confirms usefulness of concepts and design?" Read more.

And in another entry, she wonders whether monitoring a home's "health" through security technology might just be a good way to facilitate independent living by seniors who want to remain in homes that are located far away from their adult children.

Read the complete blog post here.

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Aging in America, the 2009 Annual Conference of the American Society on Aging and the National Council on Aging takes place March 15-19 in Las Vegas. The ASA-NCOA Conference, with nearly 4,000 attendees, is recognized as a showcase for programs and projects that can be replicated, a forum for policy discussion and advocacy, and a prime source of information on new research findings in aging. It is the largest gathering of a diverse, multidisciplinary community of professionals from the fields of aging, health care and education, along with business leaders from across the United States

More information.

Save the date! Silicon Valley Design for Living Marketplace, May 7

To be held at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara, the conference will gather thought leaders to take a an inside look at ideas and innovations needed to support the expanding baby boomer and caregiver marketplace. Details here.

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NEW MARKET FINDINGS

Too old to hit the slopes? Hardly

The ski industry is responding to a new demographic that's hitting the slopes in increasing numbers — senior skiers.

Baby boomers, part of the generation that first propelled skiing to mainstream popularity in the United States, are staying on the slopes for far longer, and in greater numbers, than anyone imagined possible a decade ago.

According to an annual study conducted by the National Ski Areas Association, the percentage of people ages 55 to 64 on the slopes has more than doubled to 9.2 percent since the 1997–98 ski season. And the number of skiers 65 and older has been inching up every year as well. Read more.

Employers avoid axing their oldies but goodies

Last fall, drugstore chain CVS Caremark cut some 800 jobs in Northern California after acquiring Longs Drugs, a Walnut Creek (Calif.) pharmacy rival. Despite those cuts, the company continues to recruit baby boomers and other older workers to staff stores across the country. "We need their expertise," says Stephen Wing, director of workforce initiatives at CVS Caremark in Woonsocket, R.I. "When you're in your 50s and 60s, you're in your prime."

Companies nationwide are laying off workers by the tens of thousands. But many are trying to spare the post-55 set from the ax, a reversal of the top-down trends in past waves of layoffs. More here.

http://www.philanthropyjournal.org/news/retiring-boomers-targeted-social-impact Retiring Boomers targeted for social impact

As more members of the baby boom generation hit retirement age, a new effort aims to lure them into "encore careers" that make a difference.

The effort was launched at a December summit at Stanford University, where boomers were encouraged to use their post-retirement careers as a way to combine social impact, personal fulfillment and income generation.

The summit, sponsored by Civic Ventures, a think-tank focusing on Baby Boomers, work and social purpose, hopes the collective efforts of boomers can help solve social problems. More details.

Demand for reverse mortgages climbs

As the credit crisis has worsened, more seniors have turned to federally insured reverse mortgages to tap home equity and, in some cases, to prevent foreclosure.

While still a very small share of the borrowing market, demand for these mortgages climbed in 2008 as credit tightened and retirement savings plunged. The market is expected to grow significantly as loan amounts increase and baby boomers with inadequate savings tap their home equity to fund retirement. Consumer groups, however, warn that fees are high and the cash sometimes is misused. Details here.

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NEWSWIRE

Baby boomers come back to college
Universities across the nation are seeing an increase in people from the baby boom generation choosing to head back to school rather than retiring. Adults aged 50 and older now represent 3.8 percent of U.S. students enrolled in courses at degree-granting colleges and universities, and that number is increasing.

Eco-friendly seniors pitch in
The idea of conserving resources is nothing new to 80-somethings who lived through the Great Depression. But now they're doing it not just to pinch pennies. They also want to save the Earth.Worried about global warming, regional water shortages, too much reliance on foreign oil and other environmental problems, these retirees are finding big and small ways to go green.

Patty Duke stars in Social Security's online enrollment campaign
The Social Security Administration has launched the Retire Online campaign. Featuring Patty Duke reprising her role as cousins Patty and Cathy Lane from the hit 1960’s sitcom, “The Patty Duke Show,” the campaign will let Americans know that it’s now easier than ever to retire online.

Retiring alone presents financial challenges for single boomers: report
A growing number of Canadians are retiring alone and are unprepared for the financial implications of it, according to a recent survey by the BMO Financial Group. The December survey of 1,325 Canadians aged 40 or older revealed a significant gap between the perception and reality of becoming unexpectedly single and its effect on personal finances.

18-wheeler therapy
With the kids gone and tired of their day jobs, some boomers are hitting the road -- as long-haul truckers.

Voice-Activated Clock aimed at "boomers and beyond"
"This is the best clock we've seen for our 'baby boomer and beyond' demographic," says Chris Fawcett, COO of firstSTREET, a Virginia-based catalog and online marketing company that specializes in products for the boomer generation.

Baby boomers giveth, the economy taketh away
Just a few short months ago, Walgreen's drug stores was in the midst of a monstrous expansion, fueled by the predicted health care needs of Baby Boomers.

Now the company is trying to find ways to save $1 billion in a miserable retail economy.

Boomers gave the company an expansion opportunity, but the economy tempered it.

Boomers find it's time for a change of plans
During the boomers' peaking earning years, it had become a standardized demographic truth that they were going to be the richest retirement generation ever, because those born between 1946 and 1964 spent their working years in prosperity, had turned their homes into piggy banks, and were inheriting a lot from their World War II-generation parents. But in just a few years, that typecasting has been warped beyond recognition.

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