Vida Network

The Active Ageing Seminar 2011 was held in London in June. This event was hosted by the BHF National Centre for Physical Activity & Health and Vida Wellness, and sponsored by HUR Health & Fitness and Later Life Training.

Delegates learnt from marketing experts, fitness professionals and older adults themselves. There was the opportunity to try out the great HUR Labs iBalance Plus Platform, and plenty of time for valuable networking.

Read what seminar delegates had to say about the day

Bob Laventure started the day off by acknowledging Alison Morby (of Kirklees Council). Alison received a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours this year, for services to older people and public health. She has been instrumental in developing a programme for elderly people in using activity to help maintain flexibility, quality of life and independence. This is a wonderful personal acknowledgement for Alison and great recognition for our industry, helping to spread the word about all the worthwhile active ageing work happening up and down the country.

Our first speaker, Jennifer Banks-Smith, left us with tips about the new commissioning market. She stressed that, as our business is about behavioural change, we need to have data that demonstrates results on this front in order to successfully bid for commissioned projects.

Peter Gilheany from Forster AGEncy shared key insights into the world of older consumers, based on their most recent research. His primary message was that we should be marketing by attitude, not by age (the former defines people much more than the latter). Forster has developed a segmentation model of older consumers and Peter presented this from a marketing point of view. Delegates followed this with a discussion on how they could apply these learnings to their work.

To finish the day, two delightful participants shared their personal perspectives with us. One requested that we all ask our clients on our first meeting how they would like to be addressed, "please don't assume it is OK to call us by our first name, it can be seen as a sign of disrespect or even contempt, so please ask us..."

Thank you to the team from Vida Wellness, the BHF National Centre, all our speakers and the delegates who made this such an interesting and inspiring event.

Download seminar presentations

Download event programme with speaker biographies

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