2nd Annual Positive Aging Conference

With a goal towards advancing a national conversation around positive aging, this day-long conference will share important tools and resources to explore purpose, meaning and vitality in the second half of life. Broadcast live from the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality & Healing, world-renowned experts and best-selling authors will address the importance of purpose and meaning in later life as well as lessons for health and longevity learned from regions around the world.

We will broadcast the conference online looking to spark community conversations throughout the country. Participants will be encouraged to respond to speaker remarks and discuss strategies to promote positive aging in their respective communities. Organizations are welcome to host an online site broadcast to engage their community in this discussion.

The conference will feature experts and thought leaders including Richard Bolles, author of What Color is Your Parachute?; Richard Leider, author of Something to Live For and founder of The Purpose Project; Mary Jo Kreitzer, Director, Center for Spirituality & Healing; Harry R. Moody, Director, Academic Affairs for AARP; Dan Buettner, explorer, educator and author of The Blue Zone: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who Live the Longest; and Joanne Disch, Director, Densford International Center for Nursing Leadership.

To register, please download our Registration Form.  For more information about the conference, hosting a site, or sponsorship opportunities, please contact Beth Somerville at somer012@umn.edu or visit www.csh.umn.edu.  A flyer for the event is available.

Tentative Agenda

Interested in more information about aging?  Check out this MSNBC special from 2003 entitled Aging in America:  The New World of Growing Older.

Companion Activities

Companion activities during the Second Annual Positive Aging Conference provide further opportunities to explore living on purpose and positive aging.  They include:

Working on Purpose Workshop—Monday, November 10^th
Based on 20 years of research and practice, Working On Purpose is designed for people who want to explore alternatives to the conventional notion of retiring from work. This full-day workshop will provide clarity around life direction, knowledge and tools to help make conscious life choices as well as the motivation and confidence to help you move forward. Facilitated by Richard Leider - ranked by Forbes as one of the world's top life coaches - Working on Purpose will creates an opportunity to prepare for the second half of life and help answer, "What's next?"  Space is limited.  Click here to register.

Purpose Project Guild and Training—Tuesday, November 11^th
The purpose of the Guild is to enhance the competencies of facilitators who specialize in coaching "new elders"—individuals who are entering into or moving through the second half  of their lives.  The other purpose is to be a member of a "community of practice."  This day-long session will provide in-depth training for leaders wishing to become a Guild member and bring the Working on Purpose format to their organization or community.  Attendees must have attended a ‘Working on Purpose’ workshop.

I and I: The Sense of Self with Charles Keating—Tuesday evening, November 11^th
I and I: The Sense of Self is a collage of poems and opinion, essays and insights on the subject of age and aging. In a society where growing old is something we’re told to dread, mask and avoid at all costs, this personal reflection offers a delightfully differing viewpoint. Held in the Mayo Memorial Auditorium, the $25 registration fee includes a dessert reception. Discounted tickets are available for students and attendees of the Positive Aging Conference. For more information click here.  To register, click here.

Purpose Project Guild Dinner Gathering—Wednesday, November 12^th
The Purpose Project Guild dinner provides members with a time and place to share teaching experiences, share new ideas, and be supported in their individual purpose efforts.  As the Guild’s only in-person meeting, members use this opportunity to ask/answer questions, renew or form new collaborations, and discuss how the positive aging movement is continuously changing  the ‘Working on Purpose’ workshop’s design and content.

Community Earth Councils Launch Event—Wednesday evening, November 12^th
Led by social entrepreneur, Eric Utne, the Community Earth Councils initiative will inspire and support local groups interested in taking action at the intersection of environmental and social justice issues.  The initiative’s official launch is being planned in conjunction with the Positive Aging Conference because the ideal Council will be intergenerational, and many attendees might consider participation as a way to carry out their personal/societal purpose goals.  Community Earth Councils leaders are working in conjunction with AARP and Campus Contact as well as many activist organizations in the youth service movement. Click here to register.

Event Hosted by One of Our Promotional Sponsors
Coming Home to Who We Really Are—Thursday, November 20^th at 1 PM EST
This audio conference will feature a 90-minute conversation with internationally-recognized teacher Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, whose book, From Age-ing to Sage-ing, helped launch the positive aging movement in the 1990’s, and with author  and architect Sarah Susanka, whose new book, The Not So Big Life, applies her "Not So Big" philosophy to the way we inhabit our lives. Sponsored by Second Journey. More information at www.SecondJourney.org.