Engaging and Teaching Boomers Well: AARP Presents Orlando@50+

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About Brent Green
This blog is about Baby Boomers and our impact on business, society, and culture, today and in the future. Here I explore many themes relevant to those of us on a thoughtful journey to reinvent the future of aging. I am a consultant and author of six books, including "Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers: Perceptions, Principles, Practices, Predictions." I present workshops and give keynote speeches about the intersection of the Boomer generation, business, aging, and societal transformations. My company, Brent Green & Associates, Inc., is an internationally award-winning firm specializing in building brands and forming successful commercial relationships with Boomers through the unique power of generational marketing. Marketing to Boomers I welcome your comments and questions here. This blog is a continuing conversation that began in June 2005, and I'll appreciate hearing from you.

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September 02, 2010

Engaging and Teaching Boomers Well: AARP Presents Orlando@50+

Who’s the leader of the club
That’s made for you and me?

Boomers sometimes become nostalgic when they hear the Mickey Mouse Club March, written by Jimmie Dodd, heart and soul of the renowned original TV show from the 1950s.

The leader of today's largest Boomer club is AARP, marching ahead of 25,000 Boomers and older adults who have decided to take a road trip to Orlando, September 30 through October 2. The celebration is called Orlando@50+.

This interesting use of the @sign is AARP’s way of branding. So they have conceived Life@50+ and Orlando@50+. I’m Brent@50+, but I’m not yet an AARP brand.

The second line of Mickey’s song points to three days of AARP-conceived demonstrations, diversions and drama, destined to make club members feel more fulfilled about Life@57 or Life@102.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Eleven musical letters are why, in fact, Orlando today is a lot more than a fruit stand surrounded by Florida swamp. Walt Disney World Resort transformed the area in 1971 beyond wildest imagination. Most AARP conference activities occur at the Orange County Convention Center, but the evening field trip will be at Universal Orlando, which is not Disney owned and operated, which won’t be a problem except perhaps for Disney executives. But Disney World assuredly can expect @50+ spillovers.

Hey, there! Hi, there! Ho,there!

Similar upbeat interjections will be repeated four-septillion times as 25,000 conference attendees encounter each other at exhibits, concerts, entertainment venues, speeches, and special lecture sessions.

You're as welcome as can be!

You’re welcome, with a couple of qualifiers: 1) if you can type your name and @50+ without hesitation; and, 2) if you’re a member of AARP, which costs the equivalent of three Mocha Lattes.

So, other than having AARP membership in common, what could make this three-day happening rich with psychic connections among so many strangers?

The joy of Life@50+ includes the road behind: the knowledge and insights Boomers’ journeys have taught. This generation shares history, and that makes Boomers more than an age cohort or merely far-flung members of a 50+ club.

This generation shared shining moments of John Kennedy’s Camelot. Screamed at The Beatles during their debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. Witnessed Neil Armstrong etch boot prints on the dusty moon surface. Wondered at the improbability of Woodstock. And considered The Berlin Wall crumbling under percussion from freedom’s ring.

Shared history is context. That’s what thousands bring to Orlando@50+. That makes attendees more than merely members, but also a tribe with its roots in time.

And the past is often prologue. AARP-qualifed generations have new opportunities to focus experiences and insights toward improving the future of aging. Of purpose. Of legacies. Of due diligence for future generations.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

More explorers and seekers are traveling to Orlando@50+ than all the Mouseketeers ever awarded mouse ear hats. This is the AARP convention, and Annette Funicello, the most popular member of the Mickey Mouse Club, is being replaced by contemporary celebrities such as Whoopi Goldberg; Larry King; his brother, B.B. King; Judy Collins; and Richie Havens.

Crosby, Stills and Nash, three melodious @classic rockers, headline music entertainment. Their lyrics for Teach Your Children propose a quixotic idea that those who travel should seek authentic moments of true spirit.

You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good bye

Today, the past is more than just a good-bye to those who have traveled together for six and more decades. Orlando@50+ is another chance to learn and teach, to feed dreams in a place where young and old become as one. The way Walt intended it.

Posted at 06:44 PM in Current Affairs, Music, Travel | Permalink

Tags: AARP, Berlin Wall, Crosby, Jimmie Dodd, John Kennedy, Life@50+, Mickey Mouse Club, Nash, Neil Armstrong, Orlando, Stills, The Beatles, Woodstock

Comments

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This sounds like a great event. Your post brought back memories of the Mickey Mouse Club and also the song by Crosby, Stills and Nash.

It's nice to know the past is still alive and well.

Posted by: Gift Baskets for Women | September 19, 2010 at 05:28 PM

Thanks for posting the link, Chuck. I had not seen that MMC show introduction in decades. I was amazed at how many of the vignettes from the cartoon intro I remembered -- such as Donald Duck covering his ears with cymbals. This underscores to me the indelible and persisting qualities of our youth culture.

Posted by: Brent Green | September 03, 2010 at 07:14 AM

Half the show each day WAS the intro:

MMC Intro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4C_lUy58Rw

Posted by: Chuck | September 02, 2010 at 09:24 PM

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