Call for Conference Submissions

Exploring Positive Aging:

Designing Practice and Advancing Knowledge

December 7-10, 2010

This conference is hosted by the Institute for Social Innovation at Fielding Graduate University (About Fielding Graduate University). This year's plenary speakers are Ardie Bryant (professional dancer speaking on creativity), George Vaillant (psychiatrist speaking on community), W. June Simmons (health care professional speaking on wellness), and Nancy Anderson (life consultant speaking on life transitions). Past speakers include Richard Leider (The Inventure Group), Gregg Levoy (author), Rick Moody (AARP), Meg Newhouse (Founder, The Life Planning Network), Susan Perlstein (Founder, National Center for Creative Aging), and Bill Thomas (The Eden Alternative and The Green House Project).

This year's conference will commence with activities presented by Life Planning Network. Plenary sessions are offered in creativity, wellness, community, and life transitions. The conference will end with a half-day session sponsored by Civic Ventures and ENCORE careers. This conference also offers Active Arts throughout the duration of the conference. Designed to facilitate dialogue about creative expression and aging, examples of Active Arts activities include music, dance, art, and poetry.

The submissions committee invites offerings associated with aging and ageism, caregiving, civic engagement, community, creativity, dialogue, diversity, entrepreneurship, global & transcultural contexts, housing, intergenerational issues, lifelong learning, life transitions, public policy, services, spirituality, sustainability, wellness, workplace issues, and work in the second half of life.

This conference welcomes contributions that are innovative, experiential, and involve active engagement in supporting greater understanding of what it means to age well.

The committee encourages submissions that relate to the conference title about designing practice and advancing knowledge, and also experiment with ways of presenting that are collaborative, innovative, and exciting to new and diverse audiences. Submissions are also accepted for Active Arts and as poster presentations.

Presentation submissions must be formatted in the following manner (12 point font, 1" margins, using the numbering format below):

Title of submission in bold and underlined.
Designation for which theme or themes this submission should be considered. Also please note if this is a submission for Active Arts or a poster presentation.
Names, affliliations, contact information and one paragraph bio for all presenters with a designated contact person.
No more than 500 word description of presentation, which includes intended format, such as paper presentations, panel, dialogue, poster, and/or experiential activities.
The learning outcomes expected from your presentation.
The intended audience for your presentation; and
One paragraph outlining next steps for this work, which will be given at the end of your presentation.

The committee particularly encourages submissions that: 1) includes multiple presenters and affiliations, 2) links research to ongoing work in the field in a practical way, 3) explores creative methods of presentation (such as World Cafe, Future search, dialogue), 4) advances knowledge in a particular aspect of positive aging, or 5) connects to designing new practices. Sessions are expected to be approximately 60-90 minutes in length, preferably with short presentations followed by discussion.

Submissions should be emailed to: positiveagingconference@fielding.edu.

Subject header should read, "last name of contact, title of submission."

DEADLINE FOR CONFERENCE SUBMISSIONS: CLOSED
All accepted presenters must be registered to secure a space in the conference.