Building a Brand for Your Company and Telling Your Story

Is your brand trusted?  Trust is vital for companies operating in the longevity market.  What does your brand stand for? It is one of the most important questions an entrepreneur must answer. Your brand must tell the story of who you are and what you do. It must convey meaning while being simple and easy to understand. If you don’t get the brand right, you’re off to a difficult start that is expensive and timely to fix.

We have assembled experts with diverse knowledge on how best to create an effective longevity market brand. Speakers come from a high-impact UK branding agency, Older, the national non-profit organization that has built one of the most trusted brands, AARP, and a leading expert on building brand through social media platforms. Join us to learn how to create and deliver on your brand promise, which will drive your company’s success. 

In this session, you will learn:

• What is a brand?
• What makes a brand successful
• How to develop a brand
• The right time to invest in branding

Moderators: Mary Furlong, President, Mary Furlong and Associates and Eric Kihlstrom, Chairman, Centaur Robotics

Presenters:

Phil Goodman, CEO, Older Agency 

Barbara Shipley, SVP Brand Integration/Chief Brand Officer, AARP

Kaitlin Stich Bellay, Head of Partner Marketing, LinkedIn

The Longevity Marketplace: A 360-Degree View

This session will present an overview of the longevity marketplace and the channels into the market. Dr. Jean Accius will share AARP’s latest Longevity Economy Outlook report highlighting the economic and social costs of disparities in life expectancy, elevating solutions that will help promote longer, healthier lives for all. You will also learn how new companies entering the market can successfully tell a story and pitch their company to attract funding from angel, seed and private family offices. We will take a deep dive into what a family office is, as well as why and how they support entrepreneurs in the longevity market and how to reach them. Finally we will provide an overview of the AgeTech ecosystem.

Participants will learn:

• Multiple ways to segment the longevity market
• How to identify key stakeholders in different channels into the market
• How to pitch a new business to an angel or family office investor
• What a Family Office is and how to appeal to them 
• What the next generation of family offices is and its focus on social impact
• How AgeTech plays an important role in the longevity economy

Moderators: Mary Furlong, President, Mary Furlong and Associates and Dan Hermann, President & CEO, Head of Investment Banking, Ziegler

Presenters:

Jean Accius, Senior Vice President of Thought Leadership & International Affairs, AARP

Lauren Weiniger, serial entrepreneur, family offices expert, and cofounder of Total Life

Keren Etkin, Founder, The Gerontechnologist  

Finding Product/Market Fit With the Right Partner

Finding the right product/market fit and creating a value proposition unique to your offering is critical in any business venture, whether you are selling into senior housing, home care, e retailing or direct to consumer. This session will feature entrepreneurs and their pilot partners sharing how they found the right product/ market fit. You will learn how you can promote and scale your business by understanding the needs of your customer and finding the right “use cases” to tell your story. You will also discover how partnering with investors, corporations and the government can help propel your success.

Moderators: Mary Furlong, President, Mary Furlong and Associates, and Paul Stich, CEO, Countable

Presenters:

Paul Stich, CEO, Countable

Jeff Clark, Community Living Section Manager, Wyoming Department of Health in the Aging Division

Lawrence Kosick, Co-founder, GetSetUp

Lisa Taylor, CEO, iN2L

Courtney Baldridge, Corporate Strategist, USAging  

Best Practices in Working With Incubators and Accelerators

How can entrepreneurs and startups most successfully work with incubators and accelerators to launch their offerings and take their businesses to scale? You will learn from the experts who have worked with businesses and helped them succeed. They will describe the process and explain how working with them can provide early feedback and de-risk investments. You will also see an example of an successful pitch video

You will learn:

• Unique benefits of incubators and accelerators
• How to find out which is best for your company
• Criteria and schedules for pitching to incubators and accelerators
• Who supports the incubator as partners and areas of specialization among various incubators

 Presenters:

Keith Camhi, Managing Director, Techstars Future of Longevity Accelerator

Rick Robinson, Vice President of Startup Engagement, AgeTech Collaborative from AARP

Ariel Cadby-Spicer, Startup Collaboration Advisor, AgeTech Collaborative from AARP

Heather Walsh, Executive Director, MedTech Cohort, mHUB Accelerator Program

Chris Pagano, Director of Venture Acceleration, MATTER

Melissa Cohen, Managing Director, Edward-Elmhurst Health Venture Capital

Sean Liu, Founder, Ping

Jonathan Landers, CMO, iGuard

Creating a Revenue Pipeline with Senior Housing Sales

This session will provide practical knowledge on generating sales revenues by partnering with home health providers, skilled nursing facilities and senior living communities. Insights from CEOs of market leading organizations will be shared. The session will also look at innovative solutions to aid seniors, with a focus on identifying the need, expressing the value proposition for the senior and the providers responsible for their care, and understanding the channels and strategies for product acceptance. 

Moderators: Mary Furlong, President, Mary Furlong and Associates and John Reinhart, Entrepreneur In Residence NIH National Institute on Aging

Presenters:

Lynne Katzmann, President and CEO of Juniper Communities
Steve Hendricks, Chief Executive Officer, Home Instead, Louisville, Kentucky
Dennis Jakubowicz, Vice President of Sales, Partners Pharmacy and Advanced Pharmacy Solutions

Accessing Government Programs and Support

In this session you will learn how to determine what government-funded programs might be a good opportunity for businesses and organizations that serve older adults—and how to go about pursuing them. Discover the multitude of agencies within the federal and state governments that are focused on serving older adults and their caregivers—and improving the way in which these populations are served and supported. Determining the right paths to pursue, knowing how to navigate, and what supports are available is critical to successfully partnering with these entities. Presenters will share information on research, grants and support programs, including a new start-up prize competition that aims to foster diversity in aging innovation and entrepreneurship. 

Moderator: Mary Furlong, President, Mary Furlong and Associates

Presenters:

Ted Fischer, CEO, Ageless Innovation

Greg Olsen, Director, New York State Office for Aging

Joy Toliver, Program Analyst, Office of Small Business Research, National Institute on Aging