The 19th IAGG World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics was held in Paris this summer. Addressing the broad theme ‘Longevity, Health and Wealth’,
the conference was truly a big and successful international event for
gerontologists and geriatrics, attracting more than 6,000 delegates from
as many as 82 different countries from around the globe. I attended the
conference along with members of my research team and a couple of my
colleagues from the School of Health and Social Care at the University
of Reading. Being new to the area of social gerontology, it was my first
experience of an international conference on gerontology and in this
report I share my experience of the conference.
The conference venue was Le Palais des Congrès, a
very large building that – in addition to serving as a conference venue –
also had several shops, restaurants and coffee-shops in it. On my first
day, although from the outside the building appeared very big, and
somewhere I could easily get lost within, once inside all the conference
rooms were clearly signposted and there was also lots of help
available. Within fifteen minutes of getting to the conference venue, I
was already registered and was excitedly going through the contents of
my conference bag; it contained all the important stuff that you needed –
a very heavy abstract book of 794 pages; a CD of all the abstracts
(very useful); the conference programme book; a mini ‘pocket’ programme
booklet (again very useful); a note-book; a tourist walking guide and a
map of Paris. This was going to be a great conference!!!
The conference programme was very wide-ranging
in terms of topics and the types of formats of the sessions, but it was
nevertheless very well-organised with a clear and easy to follow
structure. There were posters as well as over 250 oral sessions. Both of
these were organised around four different themes/areas: biological
sciences; health sciences/geriatric medicine; behavioural and
psychological sciences; and social research, policy and practice. These
four different themes were colour-coded in the programme books, allowing
one to quickly pick and choose the sessions that were more relevant and
of interest. The posters were further arranged according to topic and
most oral sessions were in the form of symposiums.
The range of topics covered within the ‘behavioural and psychological
sciences’ and the ‘social research, policy and practice’ streams was
impressive. While nearly half of the sessions were either of little
relevance, or of little interest, to me as these were in the areas of
biological sciences and geriatric medicine, as a new social
gerontologist there were still enough interesting sessions on varied
topics that I could attend. The oral sessions that I found particularly
interesting included symposiums on the topics: loneliness in old age and
loneliness in various societies; the social roles of older adults in
multigenerational families; filial piety in East Asia; ethical issues
with advancing age; ageing in place; digital ageing; urban ageing; and
immigration, emigration and ageing. This also reflects somewhat the
range of topics within social gerontology that were covered at the
conference.
As with the symposia, some of the keynote lectures
also addressed interesting issues relevant within the present social and
economic climate. John Beard from the World Health Organisation in
Geneva (Switzerland) in his keynote lecture on ‘The global financial crisis and the health of older people’
talked about the possible implications of the current financial crisis
for older people and some of the strategies that may prevent the likely
negative consequences of this crisis for older people.
Not all of the oral papers presented at the conference were of an
equally high quality though or had something new to contribute to their
respective areas. However, most of the papers were well-attended. This,
along with the wide range of the audience in terms of cultural
backgrounds and national origins, led to very lively and engaging
discussions in many of the sessions as the audiences shared their own
different cultural perspectives on the various issues and topics that
were under consideration.
The IAGG was a very huge conference with a very large number of
delegates and lots of sessions running parallel to each other. Although
quite well-organised, being somebody new to the area of gerontology, and
thus unfamiliar with the names and works of most of the academics from
countries other than Britain, I could have easily felt a bit lost. It
was, therefore, really nice to see some familiar faces from the BSG.
Among some of the BSG members that I recognised, other than my own
colleagues from the University of Reading, were Vanessa Burholt, Sara
Arber and Simon Evans. The BSG had also set up its own information stand
at the conference in order to attract new membership from the
international community of social gerontologists. It attracted quite
some attention from conference delegates from other countries and so
seemed to be a success.
British gerontologists were also quite well-represented among the
presenters at the conference. There were quite a few interesting papers
presented by our British colleagues including Kate Davidson, James
Nazroo, Anthea Tinker, Alan Walker, Christina Victor, Simon Evans,
Vanessa Burholt, Chris Phillipson and Wendy Martin among many others.
There was enough to do on the social side as
well. The conference social programme included a grand opening ceremony
which was quite well-attended and was followed by a reasonably lavish
welcome cocktail reception. The flag ceremony that was part of the
opening ceremony was quite interesting but I was disappointed as I was
unable to take a picture of our BSG president Judith Phillips since I
could not see her clearly from my seat at the back. There was also an
optional congress dinner which involved a cruise on the Seine river, and
at the end there was the closing ceremony.