Tomorrow Together – join in the conversation about re-imagining the future

Something very exciting happened yesterday. I was sat around a table at the RSA in London as one of a panel of  experts talking about what it means to get older and what products and services would allow us all to do that well. And then, this is the exciting bit, how we might go about achieving that aim.

The roundtable discussion was organised to kick off a new initiative from the UK’s innovation agency, The Technology Strategy Board called Tomorrow Together which is about encouraging people to talk about what they want in later life. The panellists included Nigel Campbell and Mat Hunter from the Design Council, Geraldine Bedell, editor of Gransnet, Denise Anstey, British inventor, Stephen Burke of United for All Ages and Kevin Johnson from Cisco.

According to findings released today, a staggering 90% of people in the UK are not looking forward to older age with concerns about health, mobility, wealth and social interaction ranking highly. Nearly half of people think that better products and services to sustain independence would change this with 79% of people wanting more innovation in products and services for older age.

The good news is that what became apparent from the discussion last night was that there are already very many passionate people engaged in innovating in this area. In the UK we certainly do not lack the skills or creativity to bring forward new products and services, more it is about bringing together the people, the businesses and the institutions to work together in a more focused way. And also about persuading those who have not yet embraced the challenges and opportunities of our ageing population to get on board.

As Jackie Marshall-Cyrus from The Technology Strategy Board says :”We need urgent innovation. It’s time for the talented, passionate brains of today to re-imagine and rethink for the future and work on tomorrow, together”.

As someone who has been working for a while now with some of our most talented and passionate brains at the University of Brighton, I wholeheartedly endorse this view.

I think this is a very opportune time to launch Tomorrow Together but it will only make a difference if we all join in the conversation and discuss how we can all work together in the UK to imagine and then help create a better future

So please do get involved at www.tomorrowtogether.org.uk and for those Tweeters amongst you, by following @tomorrowtogethr or the hashtag #innovateforage.

Exciting stuff.

To read my blog post on the Tomorrow Together website CLICK HERE

Image: Displacement Jug by Sophia Fong