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Here's my recap of this terrific session, featuring:
Lori: The three things we want to cover are:
1. Why reaching out to the elder market is good business
2. Why it's a social good
3. What needs to change as far as products, services and marketing
Lori starts by throwing up some brief slides illustrating the size and composition of the elder market. Usually BlogHer frowns a bit on PowerPoint, but n this case it really was easier to picture what she was talking about by seeing it.
Basically, the number of elderly in our population is going way up. By the year 2030 20% of our population will be over 60.
Other key points:
-The elderly are not either poor or wealthy...there is a great middle where they may be cash-poor but have assets.
-The baby boomers did not have enough children to provide sufficient "informal" caregivers.
Ronni: Blogging and other online opportunities will revolutionaize what old age can and will be. She quotes someone I didn't catch:
If you are unsung, sing
If you are unflung, fling
That's what blogging is about.
When you retire your world immediately shrinks, plus with familis dispersing and friends dying, the world shrinks even further. Blogging and online interaction can stop and reverse that shrinkage.
Ronni mentions a neurological study that shos why blogging is good for helping elders retain mental acuity.
The Blogging Brain is engaged in:
-Critical Thinking
-Intuitive Thinking
-Analogical Thinking
-Exposure to quality thinking by others
-A combination of solitary reflection and social interaction
When Ronni polled her ElderBlogger friends the number one benefit of blogging was Friendship.
We are healthier when are minds are engaged...healthier both mentally and physically.
Some other key facts from Ronni:
-When she was young children were still dying of diseases like polio, whooping cough, diptheria etc. Now health care dollars are shifted to taking care of us in our last years.
-<1% of MDs are board-certified geriatricians
-80% of elders actually live independently, so it's not just a matter of getting a computer in every retirement community, but in every elder's home.
What could computer access be used for besides hooking them into social interaction:
-Monitoring vital signs
-Prescriptions
-Medical questions
So the market for products with imrpoved design and usability isn't just for the elders, but also for the somewhat technologically-resistant medical community.
Clinton spearheaded an outreach program (government and corporate) to put computers in every classroom. In ten years that penetration is at about 90%. Need the same thing for elders. Not just equipment, also training.
Lori: Mature work force. People don't want to retire based on some arbitrary retirement age devised in the 30s. Most of these people may quit working, but they will do something.
Microsoft had announced an initiative for Adaptive technologies, but there is no sign of it to be found on their site.
There is no rallying cry around elders like there have been around children.
Audience member Dan, a social worker: HR departments are not really equipped to handle 4 generations in the workforce. Also octogenarians think government is going to take care of them...big pitch for consumder directed health care.
Audience member, Sue Thomas: In her university in England there is a department of mechatronics. Working on building sensors into buildings, so alerts would go off if vital signs changed. However, there is resistance bcause people don't want to feel Big brother is watching. Blogging can be an acculturation to the online connection.
Ronni: While there are pograms that give high school and college credits for training elders, a recent British study indicated that elders learned best when taught by really youngchildren, like 5-8 years old.
She then introduces Steve Garfield to talk about his mom, Millie, an octogenarian blogger.
Millie knew how to type, and after seeing an article 3-4 years ago about blogs Millie asked her son about them. So he set her up. At first when she gots comments she though "who are these people?" But those people became her friends.
Millie says: her physical friends don't listen. Everyone is just waiting to say their piece. But in the blogosphere people read her and listen to her more. Throughout her day Millie is constantly taking mental notes and always thinking about how to blog her life (as are we all, no?) but it keeps her mind very active.
All of the postive comments and emails are a kind of reinforcement and encouragement she never got as a mom or a secretary.
Audience member, Baratunde: His mom is concerned about security, but she got a PowerBook and just loved it. Now she wants to podcast...she is communicating with the world.
Ronni: Equipment elders can use already exists for
