CreAger workshop concludes: Interesting perspectives for elderly entrepreneurs

The CreAger workshop 18 October in Turku brought forward interesting perspectives for promoting elderly entrepreneurs and mentors, the CreAgers. The initiative has raised considerable interest in just a few months

On the picture: Peter Frank, CreAger project coordinator

Sachin Gaur, InnovatioCuris, expressed the potential in promoting CreAger concepts at resorts for elderly in India. In its widest consequence resorts may even be established around CreAgers so you have societies and living resorts composed of elderly entrepreneurs, who would like to stay active.

Additionally, he stressed the opportunities for SME’s in the Baltic Sea Region for contributing to the adaption of India’s health care system to the demographic changes. Finally he welcomed contributions from studies on creativity of elderly to the InnoHEALTH 2017 conference in India.

Juhan Bernadt, entrepreneur and head of a national Estonian business club for elderly entrepreneurs pointed out the important role CreAgers may have for the benefit of both society and the individual. CreAger can help to achieve this.

Jaanus Pikani, Tartu Biotechnology Park and Chairman of ScanBalt, was optimistic that CreAger could be a topic of interest for ScanBalt Forum 2017, which is likely to take place in connection with the EE EU Presidency, 2^nd half of 2017.

Johanna Reiman, Baltic Region Healthy Cities Association, stressed the importance of combining crystallized wisdom of the elderly with fresh knowledge and ideas of the young people. Cities and organizations should value the comprehensive perspective of the elderly.

Wolfgang Blank, CEO of WITENO GmbH and President of the Chamber of Commerce in East Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, gave the example of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern moving from being the demographic youngest länder in Germany to being the oldest. This calls for new ideas and concepts and CreAger might be one element in the puzzle.

Frank Graage, Steinbeis Team Northeast, pinpointed various EU funding opportunities for the Silver Economy for trans-national collaboration. This may be an interesting add on to the local and regional CreAger hubs currently being planned and assist to spread out the vision for elderly as an untapped creative class.

During the discussion several regions expressed their interest in promoting the CreAger concept locally.

Peter Frank, project coordinator of CreAger, informed that a national CreAger hub in Denmark is being discussed. The partners are identified, there is agreement on the basic project description and the key activities identified. Currently various funds are being approached in order to initiate a pilot project.

He was confident that the first pilot can begin in 2017.

The board of ScanBalt has agreed that the association should function as an incubator for CreAger and Peter Frank expressed his gratitude for this.

Read more