In This Issue:

• LETTER FROM MARY
• WHAT'S NEXT PREVIEW: VIJAY NADKARNI
• INTERVIEW: LORI BITTER
• AGING IN PLACE TECH WATCH
• SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
• MARKET FINDINGS
• NEWSWIRE

LETTER FROM MARY

Am writing this note from Chicago at the Aging in America Conference. We had two great boot camps this morning; one on the $800 billion dollar caregiving marketplace and one on entrepreneurship. It was wonderful to hear how HeartMath was using webinars to drive participation and trial in their product. It was also very interesting to hear the stories of how Caring.com is using social media as a way to connect with customers.

Looking ahead there is more to come. We have boot camps on Social Media and Consumer Directed Health Care on Thursday and then an amazing set of speakers for What's Next on Friday.

I just reviewed the slides of Jeff Hasen of Hipcricket where he shares the data that 89 percent of the population uses mobile and more texts are sent than mobile calls -- there are more than 4.1 billion texts sent. He makes a strategic case to use text to connect with your customer. We also have Catherine Roe of Google speaking at What's Next to help us learn how to develop great search strategies. Over 300 million Google searches take place each day.

Register now at the Friends of Mary rate -- use the promo code FOM1. It is the talent, the research and the networking that everyone loves.

All for now,

Mary

PS: Mark Miller, author of "The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security," gave a great presentation at our Entrepreneurship and New Career Opportunities within the Boomer Market boot camp (and of course you will be able to hear him at What's Next on Friday). See his PowerPoint slides here: Boot Camp Powerpoint

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WHAT'S NEXT PREVIEW: VIJAY NADKARNI

Vijay Nadkarni, co-founder and CEO of Wellcore Corp., will be speaking at the What's Next Boomer Business Summit this week. In a recent interview, he talked to us about Wellcore and its new automatic fall detection and wellness monitoring system, which was unveiled at this year's Silvers Summit. We also got his insights on the key issues facing boomers today and some hints on what he will be speaking about at What's Next.

Q. What do you see as the key issues affecting boomers today?
The basic issue is, first of all, boomers are aging and it's a very well known statistic that the age bracket 65 and over will double in the next 20 years whereas every other age bracket from newborns to 65 will have only a very modest increase if any in the next 20 years. In most age brackets, there will be some that will increase by 3 or 4 percent and there'll be some that will decline by a percent or two. But 65 and over will increase. So what happens is that the baby boomers are hitting retirement age as we speak and what needs to happen is an assurance that in their retirement years they'll be able to continue to live with peace of mind regarding their safety and also some peace of mind regarding the quality of life. Right now, being a senior is unfortunately a very difficult thing in this country and not just here but in the world in general. What we try to do is improve the quality of life for seniors and give them some more peace of mind regarding safety and staying connected with people. I think those are the key issues for boomers as they age is how will they approach their retirement years yet have peace of mind.

Q. What opportunities does the boomer demographic present for your company in terms of products?
There clearly will be additional products that we will introduce as a company as we go forward. Fall detection is a key piece but overall what we are really trying to do is provide a better lifestyle experience for aging boomers. That better experience consists fundamentally of making seniors feel better about themselves. They feel better about themselves if they feel that they are safer, if they feel they are better connected, if their feelings of boredom, loneliness, anxiety, depression, irrelevance are reduced substantially. What we are trying to do at Wellcore is build a product line that without getting too complex or too disparate will enable them to enjoy all of these things in a much better way not currently possible. Staying connected and having peace of mind regarding your safety seem to be somewhat different things but the way we have done it at wellcore they are actually linked nicely and anyone who sees a demo of our system sees that instantly.

Continue reading this intervew...

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INTERVIEW: LORI BITTER

Lori Bitter, president of Continuum Crew, will also be speaking at What's Next this week. Her company is an integrated communications firm that focuses on what it takes to engage mature consumers. The author of numerous papers on topics relevant to the senior and boomer population, she has more than 25 years' experience in advertising, public relations and strategic planning. We recently got some of her views and insights on key boomer issues, social media and the topics she will be addressing at What's Next.

What do you see as the biggest issues concerning boomers today?
In our most current research, we asked boomers what had changed since we talked to them in the Fall of 2008 – pre-election and in the midst of the financial downturn. Not surprisingly boomers’ concern then was the economy and it’s impact on their personal financial situation. In 2009 this concern has shifted to healthcare – what reform means, how the costs will impact them, and what that will mean for their retirement.

While many experts expected anxiety levels to decline after the 2008 election, they haven’t for boomers. There is a sustained grey cloud of general anxiety about their future. This may be exacerbated by the fact that more adult children are moving home than are leaving it, and increased need to focus on aging parents in this downturn.

And we can’t forget some very compelling labor statistics of late. Boomer men lost the majority of jobs during this downturn; boomer women are becoming “breadwinners” in many households, so we are seeing seismic shifts in the family structure.

Developmentally boomers are moving into a more self-actualized phase of their lives, so we are seeing them value experiences over things; mastery over material success; and preservation of legacy/the desire to give back over climbing into the corporate morass.

David Wolfe, author of "Ageless Marketing," recently reminded me of this quote from Tom Stoppard from the play "Arcadia": “It makes me so happy. To be at the beginning again, knowing almost nothing . . . a door like this has cracked open five or six times since we got up on our hind legs. It’s the best possible time of being alive, when almost everything you thought you knew is wrong.”

What opportunities do they present for Continuum Crew?
The culmination of boomer sentiment, life stage and development – coupled with economic challenges is creating unprecedented opportunity, as I believe the quote above eloquently articulates.

Continue reading this intervew...

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AGING IN PLACE TECH WATCH

Orlov also has some thoughts on how mobile health or mHealth might fit into the "doomsday boomer prediction" of a healthcare nightmare and why those devices should be deployed now as opposed to later and also wonders why organizations keep doing the same telehealth studies over and over.

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Save the Date! 2nd Annual Florida Boomer Lifestyle Conference, April 15 in Clearwater, Fla.
The second annual Florida Boomer Lifestyle Conference will take place April 15, 2010 at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Fla. The organizers report that the 2009 event generated great feedback and that this year's conference will further explore how the economic upheaval of the past two years has affected boomer consumers' buying behavior and which messages and approaches resonate most with them today. Registration is under way at: www.floridaboomerlifestyle.com. For more information, contact Michelle Bauer at michelle@common-language.com or 727-510-2524.

Save the Date! ALFA Conference & Expo, May 15 in Phoenix
The ALFA conference puts the spotlight on new ideas, strategies and creative solutions for what lies ahead and is described as the most important event for senior-living executives. More info here.

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MARKET FINDINGS

Schwab Finds Investors Focused Again on Actively Growing Retirement Saving
According to the latest Real Life Retirement quarterly pulse survey by Charles Schwab & Co, Inc., investors still remain uncertain about the future of the economy, with more than half (54 percent) expecting another dip before the stock market settles. But investors are taking a proactive approach to future investing, with 46 percent focused on growing their retirement savings and just 29 percent on protecting, according to the survey.Read more.

VibrantNation.com Research Shows That "Empty Nest" is Now a Dream
A recent survey by VibrantNation.com, the leading online community for smart, successful women over 50, reveals that while members of the Baby Boomer generation typically would be dealing with “Empty Nest” syndrome as their children leave home, many Boomer women are in fact running multi-generational boarding houses. Nearly 2/3 of Boomer women respondents reported that one or more of their adult children have returned home to live and of those adult children, nearly half have brought one or more of their own children along too. And that’s on top of the 13% of Boomer women who report that their parents or in-laws are living with them as well. Read more.

Live entertainment draws baby boomers to Atlantic City venues
One idea dominates when Atlantic City casino executives fill their calendars with entertainment bookings: What act can I sign that the younger baby boomers and Generation X want to see? Read more.

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NEWSWIRE

For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits — billions more each year.

Not anymore. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes — nearly $29 billion more.

As economy changes, boomer workers are volunteering with a purpose
Spurred by the tight job market or often career-change aspirations, older workers with specific goals for donating their time are remaking the face of volunteerism. Call it giving back with an agenda. Executives at nonprofit organizations around the country testify to the new worker demands, many of them from baby boomers used to pushing for what they want. The execs are hardly complaining -- volunteerism is on the rise, and it's the older population that's behind it.

Pfizer Alzheimer's disease drug fails in study
A promising Alzheimer's disease drug Pfizer Inc. and a partner are developing failed to work in a late-stage study, a startling disappointment after the potential blockbuster kept symptoms from worsening for a year in a prior test. Pfizer and partner Medivation Inc. said that the experimental drug, Dimebon, failed to meet its primary and secondary goals -- improving thinking ability and overall daily function over six months in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.

A different kind of senior prom is making a scene
At first glance, this was like any other game show. The host chatted. The contestants giggled. The crowd cheered. Except the music was more Sinatra than Soulja Boy. The host joked about his time as a Brooklyn Dodgers bat boy. And competitors needed senior citizen status. Welcome to Senior Prom, a television pilot one local production company hopes will become a regular program. The goal is to craft a mix of dating game show and comedy skit geared, as the name implies, to the over 55 crowd.

2 New Lenses Improving Eyesight
It's something many people struggle with after age 50 -- failing eyesight. Now a new generation of lenses is giving people the freedom to ditch their glasses for good. Whether it's cataracts or just the loss of near vision, two new lenses are improving eyesight for baby boomers without the need for glasses.

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