ageing

Last week I was in Dublin attending a conference organized by the Ageing Well Network.

I get contacted by lots of journalists and have developed a sixth sense for spotting the variety that know what they want to hear and if you aint saying it, will keep searching until they find somebody who does. This happened to me a few weeks ago.

It is fitting that probably the best two US sources of information and comment about older people and how they use technology conclude 2010 with more insights into the way the factors of ageing and technology interrelate and how things might change in the future.

Targeting Boomers or seniors with your advertising? Keep it simple. While that’s usually good advice for any kind of advertising, brain scans show a dramatic difference in the ability of older brains to suppress distracting information. Studies by Dr. Adam Gazzaley (then at UC Berkeley, now at UC San Francisco) found the suppression difference in older vs. younger brains was the key factor in memory formation decline in older people.

“Trends in Disability and Related Chronic Conditions among People Ages Fifty To Sixty-Four “is a paper published by the RAND Corporation in the current edition of the Health Matters Journal.

I have already written about this conference and how well run and attended it was.

Most of the presentations are now available for download. You can also see in graphic detail photos of the speakers, including a group shot with the Irish Taoiseach.

These charts were constructed using ZenithOptimedia’s ROI Tracker - a consumer research-based tool that measures and helps plan marketing activities across the range of brand contact touchpoints.