Friday and Saturday, December 7 and 8 

The highly publicized “silver tsunami” presents a robust professional opportunity for life and career coaches, retirement consultants and various related professionals to inspire and guide leading-edge Boomers to thoughtfully enter and navigate a newly recognized life stage – known variously as the third age, the bonus years and second half of life – in order to create purposeful lives that express their talents, feed their passions, and drive positive change.

For pioneers in the emerging field of third age life planning, the time is right for a national conversation that explores a holistic model -- one that recognizes all aspects of people’s lives and involves partnerships with professionals from diverse fields such as health care, financial and estate planning, housing, community and social service, business and the arts. The time is also right to create a national network that establishes professional standards and best practices, fosters partnerships with professionals in diverse fields, shares resources and information, and develops and mentors new leaders in the Positive Aging movement.

This first-ever third-age life planning conference is designed to stimulate cross-fertilization, communication, and collaboration among professionals from around the country. Throughout the pre-conference and conference track, we offer presentations and dialogue with major speakers, highly interactive workshops, facilitated world café discussions, and working groups.  There will also be opportunities for program exchange and networking sessions.  Several of the sessions we hope will appeal to all conference attendees.  Do join us!

THE ROLE OF MEANINGFUL WORK IN THIRD AGE PLANNING
Friday, December 7, 8:30 - 10:00 am

Recent research, demographic shifts, and changes in the economy prompt attention to the role of meaningful work in Third Age planning.   Jan Hively, PhD, founder of Minnesota’s Vital Aging Network,  co-founder of  SHiFT,  and a Civic Ventures Purpose Prize Fellow, will prove the relevance and value of emphasizing “meaningful work, through the last breath.” She will then describe four replicable Third Age planning programs emphasizing meaningful work that match up with Gene Cohen’s stages of human development in mid-life and beyond.  Participants will respond to questions about the topic in buzz sessions.  A bibliography and powerpoint will be available.

Presenter/Facilitator
Janet M. Hively, Senior Fellow, University of Minnesota

ON THE CUTTING EDGE: BRINGING TOGETHER LIFE PLANNING, FINANCIAL PLANNING AND BUSINESS IN THE SERVICE OF 3RD AGE TRANSITIONS - HOW DO WE MAKE IT WORK?
Friday, December 7, 10:30 am - Noon

This panel and audience participation discussion will address a fundamental yet unsolved challenge facing 3rd Age Professionals: How do we create collaboration across professional boundaries?

Traditionally, life planners, financial planners, and business have offered their services to consumers through parallel but separate models. While we believe they are natural allies in collaborating on an integrated delivery of life planning services, they continue to stand uncomfortably side-by-side, not knowing how to take full advantage of this opportunity. This panel of diverse professionals will lay out the case for collaboration and present possible models and approaches. The panel will engage with the audience in a lively conversation focusing on opportunities and issues, and how to think innovatively about this challenge.

Moderator   
Betsy Cole, Co-President Life Planning Network

Discussant Colleagues
Third Age Life Planner:  Roberta Taylor, Principal, Pathmaking for Life
Financial Planner: Elizabeth Jetton, CFP(R) Mercer  Advisors
Business Professional:   Will Prest, Chief Marketing Officer, Transamerica Retirement Management

THE CREATIVE DILEMMA: WHAT THE GREAT MASTERS OF ART CAN TEACH US ABOUT THIRD AGE TRANSITION AND PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION
Friday, December 7, 2:00 - 3:30 pm

As Third Agers approach the prospect of a new kind of transition few models exist to help them frame the challenge and opportunity or to provide tools to undertake the journey.  Participants will be presented with an entirely new creative model of personal reinvention. This session also integrates the Seven Core Creative Competencies of the Great Masters of Art and shows how they can be applied to the journey of personal transformation in the Third Age.  Drawing on current research related to the connection between the brain, creativity and personal performance as well as a fresh reading of the lives of many of Great Masters this session will be highly interactive and provide opportunities for participants to explore and discover their creativity in the service of a more fully integrated personal transition. 

Presenters
Kathleen Jordan, HotHouse Innovation, Hull MA
Fred Mandell, HotHouse Innovation, Needham, MA

Still Kicking, Film by Greg Young, 33 minutes
Friday, December 7, 7:00 pm

Still Kicking follows 6 artistic women all over 90, and honors the gift of age. It illustrates that growing old can be a time of creative expression and satisfaction. Challenging the perceptions and attitudes towards being old, Still Kicking is certain to spark dialogue and reignite our personal visions and expectations.

The women featured in Still Kicking are extraordinary because of their vitality. They lead us to the realization that we all can uncover and act upon our own inner passions. Well into our old age we can wake up each morning and live fully in the here and now, just like the women in Still Kicking.

The moderator of the session, Amy Gorman, is the author of the book, Aging Artfully, on which the film is based plus a CD of songs honoring the women interviewed for the film.

Program Moderator and Discussion Leader
Amy Gorman, M.A., M.S.W. Author and Member of the National Center for Creative Aging West

DO NOT GO GENTLY - A FILM  PRESENTATION
Friday, December 7, 8:00 pm

Do Not Go Gently, a 60-minute documentary, explores the power of imagination in aging as revealed through Gee’s Bend quilter Arlonzia Pettway (82), premier danseur Frederic Franklin (90), and composer Leo Ornstein (109). Narrated by Walter Cronkite (90) with commentary by Dr. Gene Cohen, Do Not Go Gently looks at the 80s, 90s, and 100s as a stage of human development with immeasurable potential. Creative engagement by the organization Arts for the Aging with seniors suffering disabilities of age, such as frailty, depression, and dementia, suggests that imagination may be more durable then memory. Presenters will screen the film and host a talkback with the audience about insights into the issue and how it relates to third-age life planning. The fastest growing age group in America is ages 85 and above. This film paints a portrait of hope while remaining grounded in the vagaries of age.

Presenters
Eileen Littig, Executive Producer, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
Melissa Godoy, Director / Producer, Cincinnati, Ohio
Arts for the Aging – Executive Director Janine Tursini, Instructors Julia Burger & Anthony Hyatt

WE BUILT IT AND THEY CAME: A CONVERSATION WITH FOUR SUCCESSFUL MARKETERS
Saturday, December 8, 8:30 - 10:00 am

The question is not whether Third Agers need life planning, but where and how to communicate with them about this important subject, and motivate them to sign up for a program.  Moderated by Howard Stone, chief trainer for the 2young2retire course, this panel offers four approaches that have been effective.   

Moderator
Howard Stone, CEO, 2young2retire Associates, Palm Beach Gardens, FL

Discussant Colleagues
Ron Manheimer, Executive Director, North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement, Asheville, NC
Lin Schreiber, Professional Certified Coach and Retirement Revolutionary
Jan Fulwiler, 2young2retire Certified Facilitator

STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE: A GROUNDBREAKING FORUM
Saturday, December 8, 8:30 - 10:00 am

The purpose of this session is to discuss issues related to the professionalization of the Third Age Life Planning field.  Is there a need to professionalize?  What does this mean? How do we promote and ensure the quality and ethics of life planning practice?  Are there existing norms of practice?  How do we establish and disseminate standards of practice? Using work initiated by the LPN Praxis Committee and the experience of pioneers in the field as a framework, we will discuss the above questions, with the intention to bring greater clarity, quality, and consistency to this emerging field.

Moderator
Sharon Sokoloff, Principal Opus II, Director Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Brandeis

Discussant Colleagues
Helen Dennis, M.A., Specialist on Aging, Employment and Retirement
George Klavens, MD Psychiatrist and Executive Coach

Based on his bestseller, Claiming Your Place at the Fire and his new book, Something to Live For (June, 2008), this session's central message is: How purpose dramatically affects aging. Based on his lifelong work of helping people "discover the power of purpose," Richard will show why purpose is good medicine in the second half of life. Using his "Four Flames of Vital Aging" model, he will share lessons learned from The PUPROSE PROJECT at the University of Minnesota's Center for Spirituality and Healing (www.csh.umn.edu) and from his purpose-centered coaching practice.

GROWING LPN(S): WHAT DO WE WANT AND HOW DO WE MAKE IT HAPPEN?
Saturday, December 8, 1:30 - 3:00 pm

This forum is for anyone who shares LPN’s conviction that there is power in collective action to bring third-age life planning into everyday use and who generally subscribe to the LPN vision, mission, and values.  LPN (New England) hopes that other professionals in 3rd-age life “planning” around the country will want to start aligned organizations, along with a structure and process for communicating and sharing among them.   We envision this session as a lively structured and facilitated discussion, with few preconceptions about forms or even specific next steps.

Session Facilitators
Judy Goggin, Senior Vice President, Civic Ventures
Helen Dennis, Specialist on Aging, Employment and Retirement
LPN leadership

Myths and Realities of Midlife Women: Menopause and Beyond
Saturday, December 8, 1:30 - 3:00 pm

The current cohort of midlife women, numbering at least 33 million, are balancing the menopause transition, changing work and family roles, and planning for retirement. It is important for Third Age Planners and allied professionals  to affirm women’s potential for growth and development in the second half of life in a cultural, social, political, and economic context that often does not support all women as they age. This session will focus on the latest issues of menopause and the potential for midlife women to age well and healthfully with a sense of power, passion and purpose during the menopause transition and beyond.

Presenter/Facilitator:

Joan Ditzion, LICSW, Co-founder of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, Adjunct Faculty, Lesley University

Effective Life Planning for Those Who Are the Most Challenging and Needy Clients: CEOs of Family and Closely-held Businesses
Saturday, December 8, 3:15 - 4:45 pm

CEO’s of privately held firms are faced with the unique difficulty and extremely overwhelming connection of their personal identity with the firm they lead. For many, it is their life, or at least, the most important child.  Life-planning must come with succession planning so they will know who they can become, and how they can contribute to society in the future. Successful successions are very important to the future of American businesses. Current life-planning for Boomer CEO is different. This 90-minute interactive presentation will bring the research, experience, and passion of practitioners as well as what they have learned from their several decades of personal client relationships, conference presentations, live international tele-classes.

Presenters/Facilitators

Richard L. Haid, Ph.D.,MBA, PCC, Adult Mentor

Terry Schaefer, LCSW-C, MSW, MS, PCC