At most (good) conferences, if they’re any good, there are moments the travel and expense required to be there all seem worth it. Within the crazy crowd of 140,000 people (at least it felt like that many people) at this year’s CES Show there was a quieter (but still crowded) conference focused on Boomers and aging consumers: the Silvers Summit.
Although even this smaller conference was occasionally standing-room-only, it offered not just a welcome respite from the throngs on the trade show floor; it also offered important insights into Boomers and technology, a topic that has gone from completely misunderstood a few year’s ago (“Are Boomers really online?” was a common question then) to the early stages of segmentation and analysis. Here were a few highlights from my own Silvers Summit:
- What Boomers Buy and Why. I moderated this one, so am partial, but I was genuinely excited with the relevance and insights offered by my four fantastic panelists:
- Kurt Hulander from Best Buy reminded us that Boomers embrace technology and spend a lot more money on it than younger shoppers. Kurt also contradicted the stereotype that Boomers buy different products, and confirmed that they buy the same entertainment and computer products as the rest of Best Buy’s shoppers.
- Lori Bitter, the Founder of Continuum Crew and a long-time thought leader about Boomers, offered some new insights into the way that couples buy technology. Her main insight: Companies can no longer market to a couple together. Instead, they need to market to them as two individuals who buy for very different reasons (hint: men seek features, but women seek benefits and need to know how a new product will benefit their lives).
- Mark Gordon, the CEO of First Street a big success story in marketing consumer electronics to Boomers and Seniors, explained his company’s success in offering Boomers products they might want, but selling a lot more of the more basic tech products they actually need (for example, the lower-priced balanced spectrum light for reading rather than the more expensive brass model.)
- Ken Baron, editor of NBCU’s family of Boomer sites under the Life Goes Strong name shared some great insights about how Boomers consumer technology.
- Finally, I shared some results from our new tech survey, which shows how quickly Boomer women are adopting new technologies. While Vibrant Boomer women may not be the earliest adopters of tech gadgets, they are what I call “quick adopters,” especially if the gadget or service makes their life more convenient.
- There were lots of products aimed at Boomers and Seniors, but many seem infected with the function creep that so many tech engineers can’t resist. I kept wanting to ask “Why will a Boomer woman really want to buy this product for herself or her parents?” One welcome exception was the Telikin computer, a simple touch-screen computer that offers a genuine benefit for aging consumers and their families.
- It’s not a new product, but I always love seeing the folks from TV Ears, whose product is made for Boomer women with increasingly deaf husbands. It’s a headset that allows a man to listen to television at a higher volume than anyone else in the room. I’m sure it has saved Boomer marriages.
- Dr. Gary Small from UCLA’s Center on Aging and author of many books including The Memory Bible, started the day with a keynote that was funny and memorable: technology is changing the way our brain works, and he encouraged Boomers both to accept that fact and to recognize that they can continue strengthening and refreshing their brains with non-techy memory games.
Congratulations to Susan Ayers Walker and Robin Raskin (of Living in Digital Times) for a conference-within-a-convention that would offer great value even if you had to pay for it (it’s free if you’re at CES). If you have any interest in the multi-billion dollar intersection between Boomers and technology, consider joining this group next year. The only thing they’ll need: a bigger room.
SOURCE: http://community.vibrantnation.com/stephen-reily-flash-forward/2011/01/11/the-gold-plated-moments-from-silvers-summit-2011-at-ces/
