The Business of Aging

Event Review: 2009 Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit

I attended the Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit & Business Plan Competition this week .  We (SeniorCareMarketer.com) helped sponsor the event.

How was it?

In a word, remarkable. In two words, highly worthwhile.

This year's event had record attendance (how many events can say this these days?) and Mary Furlong and Associates puts on the event and does an extraordinary job. Their next event is in March  after the Aging in America conference. Block off the date and attend both.

So who attended this Boomer summit?

Prominent Silicon Valley VC firms like Piper Jaffray and corporate VC's including Johnson & Johnson's Business Development Group which is responsible for identifying businesses for J&J to invest in and/or acquire. 

Bloggers, analysts and Authors including Ken Dychtwald from Age Wave.

Innovators (companies)  that develop and market products and services relating to Boomers and the aging population. A very diverse group. Some of these include:

First Street: An online and print catalog of innovative products for Boomers.
GilberGuide:  Senior housing guide and resource database.
Read How You Want: On-demand, optimized alternative format editions of books, etc.
Caring.com: Content and resources for people caring for aging loved ones. 
HeartMath: Products and services that enable caregivers manage stress (some very cool technologies).
CareSquare: Online community/social network for families and caregivers.
Halo Monitoring: Technologies that help seniors live more independently (fall detection etc.).
Silver Ride: Transportation options for the aging population.
Boomers and Beyond: Wellness services for Boomers and aging population.
Immersion Active: Interactive agency for the mature market.
Posit Science: Brain fitness programs (very cool stuff).
The Senior List: Online directory of senior care providers. 
SeniorCareMarketer.com: Marketing and PR software for companies marketing to Boomers and the aging population.
ETR: Help children, young people and adults develop attitudes and behaviors that contribute to optimal health and well-being.
Famililink: Web site that helps families stay in touch.
Magnolia Prime: Telephone reassurance and support system for the aging marketplace.
PharmaSurveyor: Online software to check drug interactions and side effects (very useful). 
Traveling4Health: Medical tourism.

There were a bunch of great sessions . Too many to write about. But four I really enjoyed included:

Jody Holtzmann, SVP of Research at AARP gave an absolutely wonderful keynote presentation on market research relating to Boomers and the aging population. Mr. Holtzmann's information will benefit any company marketing to this sector and AARP has some of the best data available anywhere on this space. Visit AARP's research page regularly if you compete in this space.  I do. RSS feeds here.

Steve Jurvetson from DFJ Global Network (his blog is here - it's a good one) spoke about four market forces that present excellent opportunities for breakthrough innovation and entrepreneurship (IOW, product ideas). These include:

1. Disruption: Without disruption entrepreneurship and start-ups don't exist. Three types;

A.  New distribution channels (Internet)

B.  Technologies 
C.  Structural Changes in Markets

2. Deregulation
3. Financial Turmoil
4. Demographic Shifts (e.g., aging population)

Laurie Orlov, senior care and boomer industry analyst spoke about technologies for aging in place. I was intrigued about her definition of a good analyst - "someone who describes market shapes, identifies and describes participants in the space (vendors), and predicts trends".  Laurie does a good job at this and compares the current Boomer marketplace to eCommerce in 1999.  She presented what she believes are the four categories to aging in place technologies, a sector that will be huge in the coming years:

1. Home and Personal Safety (e.g., alarms, motion sensors, med reminders, etc.)
2. Communication/Engagement  (e.g., email, video, cell phone, etc.)
3. Personal Health - med reminders,  wellness, etc,)
4. Learning (cognitive improvement, social networking, education, distance learning, etc.)

Ken Dychtwald from Age Wave gave a stellar presentation on marketing to Boomers. Ken is amazing and should be on any event organizer's short list of keynote presenters. He presented agents of change that any company marketing to Boomers and the aging population (pretty much every company) must know. Here are four:

1. Maturity not what it used to be. Today's "seniors" are active, have money (control more wealth than any other demographic group), are healthier and live longer. The average life expectancy was 25 in year 1000 and is near 80 today - BTW, Ken says the human body has a biological potential of  140 :-). Lessons for marketer's: Be Aspirational, not desperational in your marketing.
2. Demography is Destiny. There were no pediatricians in the 1940s - wasn't considered a necessary sub specialty - until the Boomers arrived.  The point? All modernized countries are about to get hit with this age wave explosion and things will change. Ken's advice - get out in front and dig a big hole. IOW, as marketer's you need to act now.
3. The New Power is Consumer. It is hard to identify a product category where people 55+ don't spend the most. Furniture, health, travel, entertainment, etc. I found this very interesting. 
4. New beginnings. Cycle Lifespan. There used to be distinguished segments. We're born, go to school, work, retire, die. And products were marketed accordingly. No more. Education, work and leisure are no longer separate. IOW, target "mindset" and "lifestage", not age.  Think about this - Ken is saying that age is NOT best way to break up the population. This is very interesting. Careers, marriage, singlehood, caregivng, empty nest, retirement, grandparents - they happen at different times for people. 

OK....who didn't attend this event?

Traditional HR technology, work-life, EAP or wellness companies. Why more human resource professionals and vendors are not focusing on this space is beyond me.  Baby Boomers (born from 1946 to 1964) are planning to work longer and many until they are physically no longer able to do so according to AARP research.  No matter how you look at it, the workforce is going to age considerably the next 10-20 years and this will have profound implications for organizations - on recruitment, talent management, employee wellness, management, leadership development, etc. Within the last ten years we've already seen employers shift benefit spending - they now spend more on elder care benefits than child care benefits but this is only the beginning. But simply offeering employees LTC insurance as a voluntary benefit or access to an R&R for elder care support won't cut it.

Brain fitness is a booming market at the moment (50% of boomers state losing mental capacity as biggest fear). With an aging workforce you can bet that employers have a vested interest in maintaining employee cognitive function - which by the way begins to decrease in your forties. Over thirty published clinical studies show brain fitness software works. What a huge opportunity for talent management software companies, training & development, wellness and other HR vendors.

BTW, another interesting shift may be in outsourcing. With such a vast and educated population (Boomers) we will likely see more "outsourcing" inside America. The Boomers can serve this market. More on that in a future post.

Online or Onsite Conferences. No Comparison for me.

In this down economy with reduced corporate training and travel budgets, I am seeing a lot more online or "virtual" trade shows. 

I attended the McKnight's Online Expo   yesterday and today and I wasn't impressed. It wasn't McKnight's fault - in fact they did a great job running the event and I was impressed with the virtual website platform they used.  But there were only about 15 exhibitors and just a few sessions (5 or 6). Really small. So if online events are growing in popularity due to the economy I'm not seeing it.  Conversely, I attended two onsite events last week in Las Vegas and they were fabulous. So in this blogger's opinion, even with their additional expenses, I believe there are advantages that onsite events provide that cannot be matched by online events.

When it comes to virtual events, the lure for event organizers is less risk/up-front costs (no need to buy blocks of hotel rooms) and the possibility for a higher margin event - assuming enough vendors ante up for exhibits and sponsorships.

The attraction for vendors? Less expenses (no travel, shipping, meals, hotel room, etc.) and the possibility of more targeted leads (the biggest advantage of a virtual trade show is that you can track what people at the do).

But when exhibiting at onsite events we can often initiate conversations that would not have happened online. Online you rely 100% on the attendee to visit your virtual booth whereas onsite you have some control. We can also walk the exhibit isles, collect competitive information and observe how buyers interact with other exhibitor's products/services.

As an "attendee" online events don't allow me to interact with my peers the same way I can onsite (I often learn more from other attendees that I do from presentations at events). And if I do want to talk with exhibitors onsite events are superior - I can view a quick product demo, get to know the company, their culture, etc.  I know you can do this online but it's not the same.

The one advantage that online events have over onsite events is the ability to attend more sessions because they are recorded - and I can quickly jump around to find the better sessions. If onsite events want to improve their product they should allow paid attendees to listen to podcasts and/or webcasts of the sessions they were unable to attend when they get home.

Aging in America and NCOA 2009 Conference. Comments and Observations. Part 3

Following up Mark Willaman’s two blog posts recapping the 2009 Aging in America Conference, I wanted to share some of my experiences walking the expo hall floor and attending one of the conference sessions.

I applaud the conference organizers for including seven sessions relating to marketing and communications in addition to the two-day special session on Boomer Marketing. Obviously, people are hungry for this content and knowledge.

I attended packed room to hear Adriane Berg of Generation Bold present on “Winning Strategies for Social and Venue Marketing.” The audience was comprised both of social advocates and leaders from profit-focused enterprises serving the senior space. Ms. Berg did a great job of addressing and engaging the unique needs of both groups. She also convincingly made the point that the marketing and communications needs of both groups are more similar than many may think.

Ms. Berg offered ideas and exercises for everyone in the audience to stay connected to the core drive and passion that brought them to social advocacy or entrepreneurship and use that to develop the message or elevator pitch.

She then provided framework for content marketing when she describes as a “frequency program.”

She hit on many of the same points we discussed in our free eBook “How to Reach and Engage Buyers of Senior Care Products and Convert Them to Leads.”

After Ms. Berg’s session, where she kindly gave me the floor along with many others in the room to introduce ourselves and give our own elevator pitches, we had quite a number of session attendees come find us at the SeniorCareMarketer.com booth.

The co-founders of AgingParents.com stopped by. They’ve already done enormous work to generate some great online content and are finding new ways to promote this content and engage their audience of caregivers.

The fundamentals of great marketing have many advocates. Adriane Berg is certainly among them. The need to support organizations and business in the senior care space apply these fundamentals is real. We heard it first hand from many passionate business owners.

- Posted by Jonathan Goodman

Aging in America and NCOA 2009 Conference. Comments and Observations. Part 2.

As a follow-up to the post Aging in America and NCOA 2009 Conference Comments and Observations Part 1, this blog posting (Part 2) focuses on the exhibitors at this year's event. 

(The photo below, taken from the exhibit floor, shows some of the members of our company SeniorCareMarketer.com - from L to R, Jonathan Goodman, Mark Willaman (me), and Jocelyn Goodman Cook).

Here is a short list of my observations:

1. There were over 100 exhibitors. See complete list here.
2. The exhibit floor was an interesting mix of (a) well known national health care, senior care and related businesses (AstraZeneca, Philips Lifeline, ADT, Home Instead, Visiting Angels, etc.) (b) non profits, associations and government agencies (AARP, Alzheimer's Foundation, CDC, etc.) and (c) start-ups and smaller less established businesses. 
3. Many of the exhibitors were local or regional businesses from around the country (as opposed to selling nationally or globally). In my experience, most senior care / caregiving companies are local.  One reason is that hands-on caregiving businesses can be difficult and expensive to scale.   See number 5 below for another reason.
4. The smaller senior care companies that were national in scope tended to be consumer product or software companies - both of which are more scalable. Two I spoke with included Walker Wonder  (a company that provides fun and uplifting walker accessories) and O Koncepts LLC (a company that markets a product called MediSunMinder that allows you to electronically store your prescription medicine information - very cool).
5. Many senior care businesses on the exhibit floor were inspired by the founder's personal experience with caregiving. This can be good and bad. It is good because of the passion this inspires. These company's really do care. Its bad because passion alone doesn't grow a business - you need a good strategy and good marketing, and far too many of  the senior care businesses I speak with (not many at this event) seem to have neither  - especially marketing. One that does appear to have a very solid strategy and outstanding marketing is a company founded by Andy Cohen - Caring.com.    Andy was inspired to co-found his company based on his personal experience with caregiving. And they are off to a tremendous start. Kudos Andy.
6. There were a lot of start-ups - and expect a lot more as the senior care market is just getting started and on the verge of dramatic growth due to the aging population's explosive growth.   Think about this - $800 billion is spent on end-of-life issues today and it will only rise as the Boomers age. 
7. There were a handful of senior care "dot com" businesses on the exhibit floor. I already mentioned Caring.com.  Two others include Caresquare.com  (a social network for caregivers and families) and SeniorCareMarketer.com (a marketing service for companies that sell products and services relating to the aging population, helping them to gain increased online visibility, web site traffic and sales leads).
8. One very interesting company I came across - Priceless Legacy, a company that helps individuals, families and organizations preserve and celebrate their life legacies for the benefit of future generations. You have to check this feel-good company out. Everyone should consider doing this for their aging loved ones. It's very cool and the sample books they displayed at their exhibit were wonderful - good marketing. 
9. The event's co-host NCOA has a wonderful service called BenefitsCheckUp that was on display. Developed and maintained by The National Council on Aging (NCOA), BenefitsCheckUp is the nation's most comprehensive Web-based service to screen for benefits programs for seniors with limited income and resources.BenefitsCheckUp includes more than 1,650 public and private benefits programs from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
10. Lastly, the U.S. Census bureau was exhibiting and had some very interesting reports on display. One I found quite interesting was a report, "The 65 Years and Over Population" which had a map showing the percent of total population 65 years and over by county throughout the U.S., Check it out here.

I wish I could discuss every exhibitor as there were so many interesting companies - and it was a real pleasure meeting so many of the exhibitor's.  This was a quality group of people and fun to be around. Some of the other exhibitors and many others senior care companies can be found in the SeniorCare Buyers Guide - if you have a senior care company make sure to get your free listing in the  Buyers Guide.

Breadth and Depth of Senior and Boomer Marketplace. And More Trade Shows.

One can often diagnose the health of a market or industry by the number of conferences and trade shows.  And if this is the case, it appears the senior care and Boomer markets (they are interchangeable) are quite healthy - in spite of the economy.

One obvious reason is  that people have no choice when it comes to aging. And when deciding whether to buy another big screen TV or computer gadget versus an emergency response system for mom or dad (or other health care need), the later will always win out.  So a lot of the companies we see doing well these days are companies that produce stuff that people genuinely need.

And as the chart on this page shows there is quite a bit of breadth and depth to the boomer and senior care marketplace.  On an aggregate basis, this $2 trillion+ dollar market appears to be a recession proof - care giving and elder care needs don’t go away in a down economy.

Anyway, back to events.

SeniorCareMarketer.com tracks hundreds of boomer and senior care conferences and trade shows across North America (as well as media outlets, advertising oppourtunities, journalists, associations, direct mail lists, buyers guides, award competitions and more) and three great events that we're going to include the following. We hope to see you there.

NCOA-ASA Aging in America Conference. March 15-19, 2009 in Las Vegas, NV

Boomer Business Summit, March 19, 2009 at Bally's in Las Vegas, Nevada

Design for Living - May 7, 2009 in Santa Clara, CA