Innovation for a New Old Age

Date: 05.10.2010 09:00 - 10:45

Location: NESTA, 1 Plough Place, London, EC4A 1DE

This event argued that the traditional model of a working life needs to broken down and rebuilt to reflect the changes and challenges of our modern society

Watch the event video

Cycle through the speakers using the pictures below. Please note that these videos start after 10 - 20 seconds.

Retirement challenge

What is the future of retirement? 68% of Britons now expect to work past retirement age while one in 10 believe they will never be able to afford to give up work.

As the default retirement age is abolished and the state pension age recedes, what are the implications for graduates who can’t get jobs? What does the future hold for people now in their forties, fifties and sixties?

As the UK faces up to the challenge presented by an ageing society the need for innovation and a reconeptualisation of later life in paramount.

Innovation for a New Old Age brought together leading innovators in this area to discuss and debate the rhetoric around this issue and dicuss the paradigm shifts that will need to take place within society if later life is to become more productive, sustainable and rewarding.

Geraldine Bedell from agebomb blog started by outlining the stark challenge facing the UK and posing questions about how retirement is currently conceived for the speakers.

Download Geraldine's presentation (PDF 0.2Mb)

Marc Freedman from Civic Ventures talked about the differences between the USA and the UK and called for the invention of a new stage of life, for a period that used to be retirement. Much like adolescence was invented in the early 1900s there should be a new stage of life before retirement, the new old age.

Charlie Leadbeater - NESTA fellow and a leading thinker on social innovation chaired a panel including  Caroline Waters from BT and Chair for NESTA’s work on ageing, Jane MacLachlan from Age Unlimited and Marc Freedman.