We have received many good ques­tions about the new Sharp­Brains Coun­cil for Brain Fit­ness Inno­va­tion — below you have some answers.

Ques­tion: We are based in Asia/ Australia/ Europe. Will time dif­fer­ences pre­vent us from par­tic­i­pat­ing in monthly brief­ings and ben­e­fit­ing from the Council?

Answer: We will do our best to facil­i­tate a truly global com­mu­nity and exchange. Please con­sider that…

1. we will sched­ule monthly brief­ings at 2 sep­a­rate times, one at 9am US Pacific Time, the other at 4pm US Pacific Time, both cov­er­ing the same topic (but per­haps with dif­fer­ent guest speak­ers). And brief­ings will be recorded.
2. most activ­i­ties and resources are asyn­chro­nous any­way. Our mar­ket intel­li­gence reports and other mate­ri­als are avail­able via this members-only online com­mu­nity 24/7, same as online dis­cus­sion forums, focused groups to track/ dis­cuss spe­cific top­ics, the abil­ity to ask ques­tions to and con­nect with other members…

Ques­tion: Will some­thing change regard­ing SharpBrains.com blog and monthly newslet­ter, which are great free resources?

Answer: We plan to  main­tain those free resources, focus­ing on con­tent of a gen­eral inter­est for every­one with a brain. The Council’s pur­pose is to cre­ate a new valu­able in-depth resource and com­mu­nity for pro­fes­sion­als and orga­ni­za­tions active with brain fit­ness ini­tia­tives, so we can all learn and share dur­ing the year, and help the field mature. That will include a new members-only newslet­ter just focused on industry/ pro­fes­sional top­ics, among many other benefits.

Ques­tion: I have a huge personal/ pro­fes­sional inter­est on the topic, but my orga­ni­za­tion is not really active in the field. May I join?

Answer: the Coun­cil wouldn’t be a good match for you at this point. We have designed it for pro­fes­sion­als and orga­ni­za­tion with bud­get for inno­v­a­tive brain health/ fit­ness activ­i­ties, and the annual mem­ber­ship fees reflect this.  Our book The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness ($19.95) may be the best resource for oth­ers for the time being.

Ques­tion: Will the Coun­cil focus only on aging and Alzheimer’s top­ics or cover a range of men­tal health and brain well­ness topics?

Answer: we are build­ing the Coun­cil plat­form and com­mu­nity on top of Sharp­Brains’ mar­ket research track­ing new research and non-invasive tools to assess, enhance and repair cog­ni­tion across the lifepan. Aging and Alzheimer’s Dis­ease are indeed two very impor­tant top­ics for the Coun­cil, but we will cover and dis­cuss a much wider range, led by the inter­ests of Coun­cil mem­bers. For exam­ple, exist­ing mem­bers have already expressed inter­est in impli­ca­tions and tools related to cor­po­rate train­ing and well­ness, pub­lic per­cep­tion and eth­i­cal impli­ca­tions of dif­fer­ent types of cog­ni­tive enhance­ment, set­ting up mul­ti­ple brain fit­ness cen­ters, using auto­mated neu­ropsych assess­ments, help­ing chil­dren with learn­ing dis­abil­i­ties and mil­i­tary vet­er­ans with PTSD/TBI/MTB.

Ques­tion: Can you give me a sense of who is join­ing the Council?

Answer: we will be able to share more infor­ma­tion dur­ing the month of Octo­ber, but we already have inter­est from inno­va­tors at AARP, Wal­ter Reed Army Med­ical Cen­ter, Bay­crest, Saint Luke’s Health Sys­tem, Har­vard Med­ical School, Cog­niFit, Posit Sci­ence, SBT/HappyNeuron, Chor­at­ech, National Core for Neu­roethics, among others.

Ques­tion: What is the dif­fer­ence between the exec­u­tive and the orga­ni­za­tional membership?

Answer: As men­tioned above, both are aimed at pro­fes­sion­als whose orga­ni­za­tions are active in the field. The Exec­u­tive Mem­ber­ship gives one per­son, the Coun­cil Mem­ber, access to all ben­e­fits described here, which we can sum­ma­rize as: a) in-depth and ongo­ing mar­ket intel­li­gence, start­ing with Sharp­Brains’ 2010 mar­ket report, b) learn­ing and shar­ing with col­leagues and part­ners through the year, via our new member-only online plat­form and monthly calls.

The Orga­ni­za­tional Mem­ber­ship allows up to five indi­vid­u­als to par­tic­i­pate, and rec­og­nizes the orga­ni­za­tion as a Sil­ver Spon­sor to the 2011 Sharp­Brains Sum­mit (dates TBD, last year it gath­ered over 40 speak­ers and 250 par­tic­i­pants in 16 coun­tries). Up to 5 indi­vid­u­als (4 of them employ­ees, 1 can be non-employee) can access the same ben­e­fits as exec­u­tive mem­bers. Addi­tion­ally, the Sil­ver Spon­sor­ship Pack­age (same 2010 ben­e­fits detailed here) brings the fol­low­ing benefits:

Finally, we also offer a lim­ited num­ber of com­pli­men­tary Aca­d­e­mic Mem­ber­ships to sci­en­tists with a dis­tin­guished and rel­e­vant pub­li­ca­tion track record who engage in our research exchange program.

Ques­tion: How does the process work?

Answer: Once you receive your invi­ta­tion and we process your annual mem­ber­ship fees, you will get imme­di­ate access to the members-only online com­mu­nity where you can access resources such as our 2010 mar­ket and inno­va­tion report, learn about upcom­ing calls (which start in Octo­ber), and inter­act with other members.

Ques­tion: Does becom­ing a Coun­cil mem­ber bring with it much work?

Answer: Not at all. We have designed the Coun­cil so that it becomes a resource, not a bur­den, to mem­bers. You can mostly absorb infor­ma­tion, or actively gen­er­ate and con­tribute to the con­ver­sa­tion. Hav­ing said that, the more you put in, the more you’ll prob­a­bly get out.

To learn more and Request an Invi­ta­tion:  Sharp­Brains Coun­cil for Brain Fit­ness Inno­va­tion.

To access Coun­cil (member-only com­mu­nity): Here.

Be Socia­ble, Share!

•