Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia

I eagerly anticipated attending my first meeting of the British Society of Gerontology and the 2008 meeting held at UWE in Bristol more than lived up to my expectations. Delegates were presented with an engaging and diverse program, show-casing a good mix of well-known and emerging researchers. A relaxed and friendly atmosphere was present over the entire conference, with plenty of opportunities to interact with fellow delegates.

The presentations were grouped into the main conference themes of long-term and community care, housing, sustainable communities, income, families and intergenerational support, health and well-being, and research methods. The number of concurrent sessions at times meant missing out on some interesting talks, nevertheless I attended some very inspiring presentations, all of which underscored the new ground being forged in social gerontology and most leaving the audience with plenty of enthusiasm for future research directions/unanswered questions. A particular highlight for me was the presentation by a group of older researchers (the North East Research Group) who described their work involving focus groups and a survey of older people on the issue of pensioner poverty in Britain, as underlined by the thought-provoking title of their paper “do we heat or do we eat”? It struck me that the UK is clearly making steps towards an emphasis on older people as researchers in their own right as well as the more common involvement of older people in research (as consultants or reference group members). From my experience in Australia, our focus has to date been more on the latter.

Another session with which I was particularly impressed was that on writing for publication in social gerontology, chaired by Mima Cattan. This session was very well-attended and included talks on publishing in journals, writing chapters and the process involved with writing proposals for edited books. I think integration of this sort of ‘skills-building’ session with more formal research presentations is a valuable adjunct to the conference.

Lastly, all three of the plenaries left me with much to ponder for the future of ageing research, common to all in the developed world. Alex Kalache, former Head of the Ageing and Life Course program at the WHO, ended his plenary with a call for those in the 'north’ (developed world) to not lose sight of the fact that those in the ‘south’ (developing world) need our expertise, and that future gerontologists can play a pivotal role in working with those poorer countries who will be facing immense pressure in coming decades as their populations age in the absence of relative wealth afforded to those in more developed settings. As he stated, “those in the north got rich before they got old; those in the south got old before they got rich”. The plenaries by both Mim Bernard and Graham Rowles emphasised the importance of place and the built environment for older people, with a view to looking ahead in terms of sustainability of housing (Bernard) and embracing new technology (Rowles). One stand-out feature of the conference for me was the somewhat contentious notion suggested by Graham Rowles to consider the role of virtual reality (including the use of avatars or virtual representations of oneself) as a possible means of ensuring older people retain their connections with ‘place’ when faced with possible disconnection from their familiar surroundings in later life.

I found my attendance and participation at the BSG to be an immensely rewarding experience. The hospitality of the conference organisers and staff at UWE even made up for the incessant rain present for the three days of the conference! The range of topics under discussion gave me an appreciation of current directions in gerontological research not only in the UK but also Europe. It was very pleasing to see the commonalities in terms of the research and social policy emphases we have in Australia, but also some areas to consider for possible future expansion.

End of news and reviews section.