The Emerging Researchers in Ageing (ERA) section of BSG held an
extremely successful conference over the 7th and 8th May at Brunel
University. The conference ‘A New ERA in Ageing 2008’ was ERA’s
first event since it was formed out of NOGS in November 2007. The event
ran over two days in early May and included a number of innovative
field trips. In total around 40 people contributed to the success of
this event.
ERA papers
The aim of the event was to provide an exciting,
stimulating and supportive atmosphere to enable emerging researchers in
ageing to present their work and network with others. In total 16
emerging researchers presented their work over the two days in five
lively and thought provoking sessions. The papers presented showed the
depth and diversity of ageing research within the UK. The five sessions
were:
- Challenging theory and methodology
- Special session on biological ageing
- Ageing within older ethnic minority groups
- Lifestyles and ageing communities
- Health, spirituality and mobility.
Keynote papers
A number of keynote speakers were also arranged, with the BSG President
Dr. Kate Davidson and BSG President-elect Prof. Judith Phillips opening
and closing the conference respectively. Dr Ian Kill (Deputy Director of
the Brunel Institute for Ageing) gave a very interesting and
entertaining lecture on the ‘The cellular basis of human ageing’ which
opened the special session on biological ageing.
Two further keynote addresses were given which were related to the field trips that directly followed them;
Prof. Heinz Wolff, who in the past week had celebrated his 80th
birthday, and the 25th anniversary of the Brunel Institute of
Bioengineering which he founded, spoke on the role of technology in
improving the lives of older people. Following his talk delegates were
shown ‘the caring cottage’ and a demonstration of ‘the companion’. The
caring cottage is a prototype of an ‘intelligent’ house which sensed and
informed the occupants or carers when things may be wrong.
See:
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/acad/bib/researchareas/rehabilitationengg/millenniumhomes
he companion a device based on a laptop PC enabled older and disabled
people to shop for themselves from home. Further extensions to the
software are also being undertaken to aid in the accurate taking of
prescribed medicines. The companion is currently being used by a number
of organisations.
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/business/news/cdata/TheCompanionissettoTransformLifefortheHouseboundElderly
Dr. Bernadette Bartlam (Keele University) presented a paper on
‘Researching new lifestyles in old age’, prior to our visit to Denham
Garden Village. The village is currently being studied as part of a
long-term research project. See http://www.keele.ac.uk/research/lcs/csg/larc/index.htm
The village is run by the Anchor Trust http://www.anchor.org.uk/index.asp
. On arrival at the Village, Marion Adkins, who is Head of Care
Management at Anchor Trust, gave a presentation on ‘Anchor’s vision for
care homes of the future’.
Following the presentation, its residents treated delegates to a tour of the village. http://www.denhamgardenvillage.co.uk/
Social events
Holding the event over two days allowed ERA
members to continue discussion into the evening. The networking
opportunities were enhanced by the generous contributions of Prof. Mary
Gilhooly in donating the wine for the evening reception, hosted by the
newly formed Brunel Institute of Ageing. The conference dinner was held
at the Red Lion Hotel, Hillingdon, and was deemed a success.
Feedback from the conference
The feedback from the event was extremely
positive. Of the people to give feedback 67 % had not been to a NOGS/ERA
event before, but all would recommend future BSG ERA events to
colleagues, and 96% said that they would be ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to
attend another BSG ERA event.
The decision to hold the event over 2 days also
seems to have been a good decision with 96% of the delegates stating
that this enhanced their experience of the event.
For the delegates who presented all ‘agreed’ or
‘strongly agreed’ with the statement that ‘the general atmosphere of the
event was constructive and supportive’. In addition, 95% of delegates
who presented, ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ with the following two
statements that: ‘this was a good place for me to present’ and ‘the
feedback/questions I received were useful’. All of the delegates who
presented and completed the questionnaire ‘agreed’ (13%) or ‘strongly
agreed’ (87%) with the statement ‘I would encourage other emerging
researchers to present at future ERA events’.
The introduction of field visits and the
presentations from the invited speakers also appeared to be a success
with over 90% of the respondents finding them ‘useful’ or ‘very useful’.
Thanks
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank
the BSG Executive Committee for supporting this event, and to give
special thanks to: Prof Judith Phillips and Dr. Kate Davidson for their
thought provoking and stimulating presentation; Dr Jenny Hislop who
offered considerable support and valuable advice throughout; Dr
Bernadette Bartlam for her support during the event, her own
presentation and for organising the visit to Denham Garden Village; to
Prof. Mary Gilhooly for liaising with conference planning staff at
Brunel University and for personally hosting the wine reception; Prof
Heinz Wolff and his staff for their time and organising the visit to
‘caring cottage’ and the demonstration of ‘the companion’; Dr Joanna
Bridger for taking time out to persuade her husband Dr Ian Kill, who I
also thank, and her own research students to participate in a very
successful session on biological ageing; and finally to all those who
presented their work and attended the conference. The success of this
conference was very much down to your input.