The need for a Workshop on the Potentials of Aging Professionals

    The trend towards ever better health care and ever longer life spans in the industrialized countries of the world is not without problems. Increasing numbers of people are reaching what is mandatory retirement age in many countries. Current economic and social policies do not seem to support the continued active life of retirees. This is the case in the European Union as well as in the rest of the world.

The effects of an aging population are not a thing of the future, but started to influence society more than a decade ago. Scattered over Europe, some regional activities have raised attention for this phenomena. In that sense Germany had a very active 2005; other countries are still on the benches. But there is little cohesion and too much local focus, while time is running out. The proposed workshop aims to address the problem at large, especially adding the role of the older engineer, and means to bring this to the European level.

In Sweden there is a tradition of care for the elderly. One of the highest life expectations in the world and a long term commitment by elected government for social support has combined to place Sweden on the frontiers of social innovations to solve the problems of the elderly.

    We believe that members of IEEE are in a good position to study the challenge of aging and to provide workable engineering solutions, technical as well as social.

    Objectives of the event

To create an appropriate environment for the discussion, dissemination and development of scientific, engineering and social research and studies about:

1. The challenges of a mostly healthy life beyond compulsory retirement

2. The development of friendly user interfaces for accessing new technologies

3.  The use of intellectual capital available from retired professionals, especially those involved in the information and computer technologies

4. Accelerating the applicability of the research results to all aspects of the human lives through the use of organizations based on the employment of senior professionals, retired or near retirement

5. Applications of information and computer technologies in small geographical socially active regions

6. Innovative social schemes: Promote finding solutions from the event for contributing to enhance the quality of life based on the availability of retired people.

    Criteria used for the organization of the event

The event ultimately aims to raise public awareness of one of the most important societal challenges of the present and near future and to influence the debate about public and commercial policy in this regard

We will publicize the workshop and its proceedings nationally and internationally and make the proceedings available in digital form (CD and/or web). The true value of the proceedings is that they are read and that the message is retained.. A large workshop attendance will increase visibility and indirectly, to further our goals. We expect a successful event to have at least 60 individuals (exclusive of invited speakers etc) attending the workshop. Attendees will come from both Sweden and from abroad.

    Persons and Institutions expected to be interested in the Workshop

    Both society and private companies have invested in the education of people, which still have energy and the intellectual capability to return this investment.

    People with such energies, when retired, suffer if they are neglected by the society in the sense that they feel no more needed. A quite evident contradiction is observed when considering international leaders, which still can be seen working in positions of high responsibility.

Engineers belonging to the IEEE, one of the largest professional organizations of the world, have provided much of the infrastructure that directly and indirectly have transformed society in the last fifty years.  As we are retiring, there is among many of us a desire to continue our careers helping ourselves by helping others.

    We believe also that many socially responsible companies would benefit from showing an interest in an initiative seeking new opportunities for an aging but active professional population.

Program (separate page)

   Expected outcomes 

    Plenary discussions will examine the general challenge of the aging phenomenon and project its future including a quantitative analysis. A statistical analysis of the life expectancy offers the background for an extrapolation for the next decades.

    An associated challenge of aging is the ability that people will have for assimilating new technologies. This is related to the possibility of creating interfaces that are so simple that no preparation may be needed for their general use.

    The parallel sessions are devoted to specific proposals - solutions. It is expected that there will be discussions of social innovative concepts. After the separate sessions; four subjects will be examined in ad-hoc working groups.

    The objectives of these working groups are to find practical ways to employ retired persons.

    The second day is devoted to an analysis of the results of these groups and to wrap up the discussions. The presented papers will be published as Proceedings, but in the plenary sessions of the second day, small groups will created to make a summary of the event. These summaries will also be included in the Proceedings.

    We believe that we have several reasons to believe that we will have a successful conference as reflected in the Proceedings and in local media coverage. The workshop coincides with the Swedish general elections where the problems of the aging population will have been thoroughly discussed. Starting in Sweden will emphasize the non-political, social objectives of the workshop.

    Just as in Sweden, similar discussions have been carried out in the European Union, where the fairly recent opening of borders has resulted in a considerable increase in seasonal and permanent migration to areas with warmer climate, especially from the Scandinavian countries to the Mediterranean basin.

Status (separate page)

Workshop Management and Contact Information (Separate Page)