In This Issue:

• LETTER FROM MARY
• INTERVIEW WITH KEN DYCHTWALD
• ON THE BOOK FRONT
• GETTING GRAPHIC ABOUT MARKETING
• AGING IN PLACE TECH WATCH
• SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
• NEW MARKET FINDINGS
• NEWSWIRE

LETTER FROM MARY

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It is that time of year when we celebrate the graduation of friends and family. It is always a time of inspiration and relief. The graduates feel both sense of accomplishment and also anticipation at the upcoming uncertain job market. We are pleased to report that Santa Clara University was recently ranked 15th nationally by US News & World Report in its annual "America's Best Graduate Schools" assessment -- up from 19th last year.

Our MBA students in Marketing 709 participated in the selection of the first round screening of our Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit and Business Plan Competition along with angel venture capitalists and executives from companies in the boomer space. We went through two rounds of screening (and 41 judges) to arrive at our six finalists for the $10,000 prize. We also have five finalists for our $1,000 elevator pitch prize. (Finalists' names can be found at the link above).

On June 16 we are producing a Boot Camp for our finalists, semi-finalists, entrepreneurs and business leaders who want to learn about the market. We have an amazing line-up of talent to help shape the story and issue. Susan Ayers Walker, co-founder or SmartSilvers Alliance, will be teaching how to refine your elevator pitch; Ryan McDonough of Constantin Partners will provide advice on how to raise your first $250,000. And, a panel of business leaders who have grown businesses in the boomer space including Andy Cohen of Caring.com, Mark Gordon of firstSTREET, Jeff Zimman of Posit Science and Jeff Maltz of SilverRide will share their best "go to market" strategies.

As I noted at the Florida Boomer Lifestyle conference last month, companies launching products in the boomer, senior, caregiving areas need to have a strategy that encompasses trusted go-to-market strategies including:

• Affinity Partnerships
• Chain Stores - Wal-Mart, Costco (and walmart.com, costco.com)
• Portals and Niche Portals
• Integrated Marketing
• Radio
• Local Print
• Blogs
• Email Newsletters
• Corporate Web Sites and Partnerships

On June 17th, we will host our sixth boomer business competition. In the morning, we are featuring four top tier speakers. To provide an overview of the investment priorities of the venture community in this space, Steve Jurvetson, co-founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, will give a spotlight presentation and answer questions. Jody Holtzman, senior vice president, research and strategic analysis, AARP, will provide a keynote and a research overview of the main areas for business growth for boomers, seniors and caregivers. Laurie M. Orlov will do an in-depth look in her keynote on the business segments of the quickly growing "aging in place technology" marketplace. Recall that more money is exchanged when a senior falls than when a baby is born. There will be a lot of data points indicating that caregiving is the next big market opportunity. You will hear from Andy Cohen, CEO of Caring.com, how caregiving is a bigger opportunity than brides or babies. Our final morning spotlight speaker will be Ken Dychtwald. Ken is one of the top speakers in the world on the Age Wave marketplace. He has a new book out entitled, "With Purpose: Going from Success to Significance in Work and Life." No one has done more to help companies understand the business needs of this marketplace than Ken. He was here to speak to our first business plan competition finalists and it is really nice to have him back and joining us for the day. You can read an interview with Ken elsewhere in this newsletter.

Lunch will include a time to sit down with the featured speakers and sponsors and also to meet with those who cover the age beat, such as Paul Kleyman at the Elder News Roundup blog.

As you know the purpose of this event is to stimulate innovation and business creation of products and services to support the needs of boomers, seniors and caregivers. Increasingly I believe that the revolution that will take place will come from a global network of entrepreneurs, investors and companies acting in an innovative and entrepreneurial manner. We are pleased to be hosting groups from four countries at this event (Japan, Netherlands, Mexico, and Spain). The revolution is global – not local; it is digital, mobile and in real life. And – it is drawing talent from the top universities around the US and globally. We wanted to provide pricing that was affordable. If you register by June 12th, you can get a reduced rate of $85. After June 12th, the price will be $135. Register here and use discount code scump09.

We also will feature a bookstore. My favorite book of late is Jeff Jarvis’ "What Would Google Do?" More about this in the next issue. I am in Washington, D.C., today to exhibit at the American Advertising Federation. Guy Kawasaki says if you want to understand your customer, host an exhibit. We are going to launch a fall campaign on caregivng, and stress-less holidays. It will be an integrated campaign with print, online and mobile solutions that will target 5 million people. We are exhibiting here to test the interest by the advertising community. We are joined in this effort with the NAMPA the North American Mature Publishers Association, Run The Red and Immersion Active. I had great meetings yesterday at AARP – which has done a fine job during the transition to new CEO A. Barry Rand.

Please stay in touch. If you too have graduates – congratulations. I wish you were here in Georgetown with me; we could take a nighttime tour of the monuments. It is such a great city. More later.

All best,
Mary

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INTERVIEW WITH KEN DYCHTWALD

We spoke to Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D. founding president and CEO of Age Wave about a new study from his company that is getting considerable buzz and was picked up recently by The Huffington Post. Dychtwald, of course, has been a leading thinker and visionary on aging issues for decades and wrote the pioneering book, "The Age Wave," published in 1989. The new study is called "Retirement at the Tipping Point: The Year that Changed Everything," and makes for enlightening reading.

Q. A tipping point can be defined as a level of momentum where change becomes unstoppable. What changes concerning retirement do you see as unstoppable?

Dychtwald: I think there are several. First of all, the elevation in longevity, which has always been on the side of people's radar screen, never been taken all that seriously, is a major force that I think all by itself has the power to change everything. When am I old, when am I done, how long will I live? How much can I afford? If I live 5 or 6 years means one thing to contemplate retirement but if it means that becomes 15 or 20 or 25 that's a whole other equation. So point one is longevity.

The second is that we are in the middle of a financial reckoning. I think that what we saw in this study and what we've been thinking about quite a lot is that people have been living sort of a delusion about how ready they were financially for retirement. Lurking around the sidelines have always been the facts, the fact that a third of the boomers' have less than $1,000 in total net assets, (that) the median 401k in America is $38,000 (and) the fact that the savings rate in the 1990s was zero on average, which is tantamount to spending more than you're earning. One doesn't need to be an economist to add that all up and say here you have a generation and more who are highly leveraged and do not have sufficient savings or investments, that's another factor.

I'll mention two more that I think are all sort of heading in a direction that's not going to reverse. The next one is that there was a time after World War II when people could rely on their employer to look after them. Basically it was a lifetime package, employee and employer. That if I work for you and give you my all then you'll look after me the rest of my life. And those began to disappear during the '80s and really washed ashore in the '90s. During an era when the stock market was booming, workers thought it was a reasonable trade to be responsible for their own pension. But then when the market crashed, the capacity to afford retirement had been altered. And I would say that we were already there before this crisis. That large numbers of people, if they really added things up and looked at a lifetime balance sheet, looked at it soberly, would say, 'Boy I'm not sure that I can go the distance financially.' Certainly what's happened this last year has made things worse but also brought to everyone's attention just how thin the ice is for some people.

And the last point is I think extended retirement as a time of non-productive leisure has proven to be a failure.

Continue reading this interview here.

Read the entire "Retirement at the Tipping Point" study here.

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ON THE BOOK FRONT

Marty Silberstein, author and founder of Night Owl Companion Publishing, checks in this month with an excerpt from her book, "Your Work Search Companion: A Toolkit for Finding Your Best Place to Work" (58 pages, $16.95) available at -- you guessed it -- www.nightowlcompanion.com. So take it away, Marty. Starting with a boldface headline, maybe:

Find the Best Places to Work in Less Time with Less Stress!

Many people now find themselves thrust into the job market, whether by choice or by circumstance. Some have enjoyed long tenures in stable companies, until now. Others are career changers, taking advantage of new opportunities in these challenging times. Increasing numbers are heading back into the job market after long absences, seeking financial security, health care benefits and the need to feel productive.

If you find yourself in the job market, you know how overwhelming it can seem. You may be in a quandary about how to find the right work, a situation that will support your contribution and serve you well. The secret is - a sound work search strategy, consistently applied - works. Using the best new online and traditional resources will shorten your search. Endlessly trolling the large online job boards to the exclusion of other effective methods is not a sound search strategy.

From the book:

While the work search is definitely a process, it is also a project with a beginning and an end. Between these points is a critical path, the sequence of activities designed to enable you to reach your goal in the shortest time.

Your watchwords are Explore, Discover, Focus, Target.

Explore your skills, talents, preferences, and the organizations that might be workable for you. Establish your strategy and the tasks that will help you work your plan. Identify several companies. Research them. You will find greater focus as you go through this process. Target those companies that are attractive to you.

Use multiple methods in your work search — networking, exploring Internet job boards and online research sources, attending professional association meetings (and joining where helpful), registering with recruiters, and approaching employers directly. Recruiting has changed with the new technologies. Take full advantage of powerful Internet tools, including social networking, RSS news feeds, email alerts, electronic newsletters, blogs and online groups.

Approaching employers directly, either through referrals or direct solicitation, nets a far better return than just replying to advertised job listings alone.

Learn to source and research potential employers, but take care not to become a professional student of online job boards. Take action based on your research to keep moving forward. Small steps are okay!

Persist. Stay the course. Be open to serendipity. Do your part every day. The work search well done is the best investment you can make in yourself. You’ll richly harvest the rewards when you find that special opportunity that allows you to grow and prosper. We wish you every success!

About the Author:
Marty Silberstein is the founder of Night Owl Companion Publishing, aimed at people in transition. She focuses on self-help for work, career, learning, growth and wellness, drawing on her background in communications, marketing services and HR. Website: www.NightOwlCompanion.com.

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GETTING GRAPHIC ABOUT MARKETING

Ann Mai Bertelsen has a couple of interesting graphics on her blog post "Marketing to Boomers: The New Black" (it was picked up by digiday:DAILY as well) that are worth repeating.

First she notes that marketers who previously avoided targeting boomers are having a change of heart. That change is bolstered by the fact that boomer brand loyalty is up for grabs, she says, as illustrated here:

She also notes that boomers are digitally literate, and engaging in social media:

You can read the entire blog post here.

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AGING IN PLACE TECH WATCH

Laurie Orlov returns this month with some more insights from her blog. As in this one about Twitter:

"Why do execs think they want to tweet about their organizations? Best reason -- it's a terse marketing channel for searchers to find what they need and for those who want to be found to have their messages heard. So that's the upside.

"But let me add a few other negatives that may drive me to post but not follow, and perhaps to also abandon Twitter altogether...." Read the complete blog post here.

Laurie also weighs in on tech vendors trying to make a difference here.

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

ASA's 2009 Conferences on Aging

• West Coast, Oakland CA, Sept. 8-11
  
• East Coast, Philadelphia, Sept. 21-24

ASA’s regional Conferences on Aging offer cutting-edge program and continuing education for professional who work with older adults. They are designed to help you stretch your education and training budget. Since you pay for only the courses you attend, you can select individual courses that match your learning needs, your schedule and your budget. Attend half-day or full-day programs, or create a multi-day program to fit your needs.

1. Individual fees to fit any budget
2. CEU credits are available
3. Programs of interest to all professionals in aging and related disciplines
4. Learn from reknowned leaders in the field of aging
   

For more information go to www.asaging.org/CoA09.

Enter to win! If you visit www.asaging.org/CoA09 before July 31 and click “Add me to your mailing list” and complete the form, you will be entered to win a free session. Enter EWMFA in the promotional code space.

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NEW MARKET FINDINGS

Downturn, boomers will alter everything, Va. researcher says A tanking economy and aging population will result in a new frugality with intergenerational households, changes in transportation modes and more seniors spending their final years at home, a Richmond-based researcher warns. John W. Martin, of the Southeastern Institute of Research, told a local forum audience Wednesday that a wave of baby boomers will crash down on communities, forcing changes in nearly every aspect of life. Read more.

Giving Financial Professionals an Edge in Retirement Income Planning DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Barely a third of Americans nearing retirement have made a financial plan for their golden years1. With some 78 million baby boomers approaching retirement, financial professionals with the right knowledge and tools may have an edge in competing for their business. Read more.

Temp giant Robert Half welcomes boomers The recession is proving tough for staffing giant Robert Half International. (RHI) Sales plunged by a third in the first quarter and earnings dropped 88% as companies were reluctant to hire temp workers. But the $4.6 billion Menlo Park (Calif.) firm is seeing a way to boost its bottom line once hiring picks up: tapping into a pool of skilled baby boomers looking for work. Read more.

More boomers calling adult enclaves home Baby Boomers are once again redefining home and lifestyle trends. According to a recent study, while many will "age in place" in the family home or retire to vacation areas, increasing numbers are choosing over-55/active adult communities close to family, friends, work and civic activities. The study, by the National Association of Home Builders and the MetLife Mature Market Institute, noted that there are now more than 1.2 million U.S. households in age-restricted communities, many in metro areas. Read more.

Baby boomers key to economic recovery

Why should your sales strategy consider boomers in a big way? As a statistical demographic, they control more than half of the discretionary spending; they hold more than 70 percent of the country's wealth; and a behavioral trend indicates that they are still spending that money, even during the recession, reports Sales & Marketing Management. That's why, according to Steve Howard, the author of "Boomer Selling" (ACTion Press), they hold the key to America's economic recovery and why the best thing American business could do right now is market to them. Read more.

Buyers Over 55 Are Changing Their Minds On What They Need

People age 55 and over, who as a group have taken the hardest hit to their net worth in the slumping economy, are waiting out the recession. When they return as homebuyers, they will not be looking for the same kind of house they would have been a year ago, say housing experts. Read more.

Living for social networks, literally

More and more elderly people are joining social networks, according to The New York Times, and it may be saving them from death by boredom. Among senior citizens who ventured online in 2008, the number that visited social networks like Eons, a social network aimed at aging boomers; Facebook, and MySpace grew at twice the rate of overall elderly Internet use, according to comScore. At least one third of older people live alone, according to AARP, and isolation has prompted them to explore social networks where they can make and maintain friendships. According to the BBC, research has shown that high levels of socialization help people live longer. Read more.

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NEWSWIRE

Are baby boomers killing Facebook and Twitter?
The story is as old as the Web: A social network born among twenty-something college kids and young wired professionals sprouts up, apparently out of nowhere, and grows into a cultural phenomenon. Eventually, it reaches critical mass and explodes, its mushroom cloud drawing the attention of millions of Baby Boomers, leading to a huge influx of new users, which in turn triggers complaints from the youngsters who started it all. The invasion of the Boomers spurs some members of younger generations to flee the carnage (and the fallout) in search of fresher territory. We've seen this scenario play out on MySpace and Facebook, and now it is starting to happen on Twitter.

Economics, do-it-yourself popularity bring sewing-machine revival
According to the latest figures released in 2004 from the now-defunct Home Sewing Association, 35 million people in the United States sew. And while the number of sewers is no longer being tracked on an annual basis, there's little doubt that number is growing. "I think it is a combination of issues driving the interest," says Joyce Perhac of the Sewing and Craft Alliance. "Baby boomers are retiring and looking for something to occupy their time; do-it-yourself shows on television and shows like 'Project Runway' are really driving interest in sewing for the younger generation."

Ottawa nudges Boomers to stay in the harness
Ottawa threw a monkey wrench into Baby Boomers' plans for early retirement this week when the finance department announced a surprise revamp to the Canada Pension Plan.

Study: Baby boomers unhappy in academia
For many baby boomer college faculty across the country, job satisfaction is a problem. According to a study conducted at the University of Washington that was released last month, baby boomers in the middle of their lives are less satisfied with their jobs than their older and younger colleagues. The study was based on the Department of Education’s National Survey of Postsecondary Faculty that was collected in 2003 and surveyed 2,400 full-time faculty across the country.

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