I announced two months ago (Global Agenda Coun­cils: The Chal­lenges of Geron­tol­ogy) that I had been invited to join a very stim­u­lat­ing new ini­tia­tive by the World Eco­nomic Forum.

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Update (Novem­ber 2nd, 2008): my pro­posal is to cre­ate a Global Con­sor­tium for Neu­rocog­ni­tive Fit­ness Inno­va­tion. Thank you for your com­ments below!

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Next month, 700 experts will meet to drive an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary agenda cov­er­ing 68 top­ics (see below); 16 of us focused on the Chal­lenges of Gerontology.

Dubai To Host 700 Of The World’s Most Influ­en­tial Lead­ers From Acad­e­mia, Busi­ness, Gov­ern­ment and Soci­ety At First World Eco­nomic Forum Sum­mit on the Global Agenda (I didn’t write the title of the press release…)

- “The World Eco­nomic Forum, in part­ner­ship with the Gov­ern­ment of Dubai, will hold its inau­gural Sum­mit on the Global Agenda in Dubai from 7 to 9 Novem­ber 2008. The Sum­mit is a new, unique gath­er­ing of the world’s 700 most inno­v­a­tive and rel­e­vant minds – lead­ers from acad­e­mia, busi­ness, gov­ern­ment and soci­ety. In Dubai, Mem­bers of the Forum’s Net­work of Global Agenda Coun­cils will share ideas and col­lab­o­ra­tively address some of the most press­ing issues on the global agenda.”

- “Dur­ing the three-day Sum­mit, the 700 par­tic­i­pants of this inter­dis­ci­pli­nary event will engage in inter­ac­tive work­shops and ses­sions to set pri­or­i­ties for the most com­pelling ideas for improv­ing the state of the world – from ground­break­ing areas of research to new and excit­ing devel­op­ments to address the world’s chal­lenges. The out­comes will be pre­sented at the World Eco­nomic Forum Annual Meet­ing 2009 for fur­ther dis­cus­sion and action.

The list of Global Agenda Coun­cils (I have high­lighted with Bold top­ics rel­e­vant to the aging soci­ety and gerontology):

- Global Chal­lenges: Demo­graphic Shifts; Migra­tion; Urban Man­age­ment; Gen­der Gap; Skills Gap; Cli­mate Change; Alter­na­tive Ener­gies; Water Secu­rity; Bio­di­ver­sity and Ecosys­tem Degra­da­tion; Mit­i­ga­tion of Nat­ural Dis­as­ters; Food Secu­rity; Eco­nomic Imbal­ances; Sys­temic Finan­cial Risk; Global Trade Regime; Global Cap­i­tal Flows; Finan­cial Empow­er­ment; Eco­nomic Growth and Devel­op­ment; Trade Facil­i­ta­tion; Global Gov­er­nance; Energy Secu­rity; Cor­rup­tion; Illicit Trade; Ter­ror­ism; Pro­lif­er­a­tion and Weapons of Mass Destruc­tion; Cor­po­rate Gov­er­nance; Human­i­tar­ian Assis­tance; Frag­ile States; Inter­na­tional Legal Sys­tem; Wel­fare of Chil­dren; Tech­nol­ogy and Edu­ca­tion; Health­care Sys­tems; HIV/AIDS; Chal­lenges of Geron­tol­ogy; Pan­demics; Chronic Dis­eases and Mal­nu­tri­tion; Chal­lenges of Nan­otech­nol­ogy; Human Equal­ity and Respect; Islam-West Dia­logue; Nego­ti­a­tion and Con­flict Res­o­lu­tion; Empow­er­ing Youth

- Industry-oriented: Future of Mobil­ity; Future of Media; Future of Enter­tain­ment; Future of the Inter­net; Future of Mobile Com­mu­ni­ca­tions; Future of Met­als and Min­ing; Future of Sus­tain­able Con­struc­tion; Future of Real Estate

- Regional/Country-oriented: Future of Africa; Future of Latin Amer­ica; Future of the Mid­dle East; Future of China; Future of Rus­sia; Future of Japan; Future of Aus­tralia; Future of Korea

- Exper­tise Coun­cils: Design; Mar­ket­ing and Brand­ing; Entre­pre­neur­ship; Phil­an­thropy and Social Invest­ing; Bench­mark­ing Progress in Soci­ety; Emerg­ing Multi­na­tion­als; Finan­cial Mar­kets Devel­op­ment; Future of Gov­ern­ments; Sports in Soci­ety; Geog­ra­phy of Inno­va­tion; Strate­gic Fore­sight; Diver­sity; Social Entre­pre­neur­ship

Home­work assign­ment: I have been asked to write “an 800 words sum­mary of your most com­pelling action­able idea on the chal­lenges of geron­tol­ogy” by Octo­ber 28th.

Can you help me out? In your view, and in just a cou­ple of paragraphs,

1) what is the sin­gle most impor­tant thing that as a soci­ety we could be doing to engage the grow­ing num­ber of brains over the age of 60 in our planet,

2) how can we help trans­form a “chal­lenge” into an “oppor­tu­nity” to add value to other top­ics listed above — and to the brains involved in doing so?

You can either write a com­ment below, or send your thoughts to me using this Con­tact Us form. Thank you!

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