Thursday May 16
9am to 5pm
and Friday May 17
9am to 5pmAll B/OLD events took place on the ground floor of the the J.W. McConnell Building (LB), at the downtown campus of Concordia University.
From ‘age friendly cities’ to ‘smart cities’ and ‘sustainable cities’, how we live together in urban spaces is on the public agenda here in Montreal and around the world. But who are the citizens that are imagined and implied by these terms? How can we work together to make the city a better and more inclusive place to grow old?
B/OLD: Aging In Our City was a free and trilingual (English, French and LSQ) event, that took place at Concordia University on May 16 and 17, 2019.
For two days B/OLD welcomed researchers, city representatives, artists, and community activists at the De Seve Theatre, for an exciting line-up of keynote presentations and panel discussions which centered on salient issues affecting older adults in Montreal, such as housing, social inclusion, creative aging, elder mistreatment, and more.
With extended programming between May 14 and 24, B/OLD featured a variety of workshops, exhibits and community activities in Concordia’s 4th Space.
B/OLD examined the experiences of aging in Montreal from a multidisciplinary, multisectoral, and intergenerational perspective. With this special event, the university’s doors were open widely to welcome community activists, students, policymakers, the media and, most importantly, older adults themselves – inviting all participants to “be bold” and to embrace “old”.
Panels and keynotes
© Concordia University, photo by Lisa Graves
Speakers from the city, the media, local community organizations, and universities were invited to discuss diverse topics that matter to older adults. Our panelists and keynote speakers answered many questions including: What is an age-friendly city, and how is it being implemented in Montreal? What concerns do older adults have about housing, and how can we devise innovative solutions? How do older adults use digital technologies to explore their city?
Workshops and activities
© Concordia University, photo by Lisa Graves
We have collaborated with local community organizations and researchers to put together a roster of engaging and thought-provoking activities that will take place on May 16 and 17, and beyond! Between May 14 and 24, B/OLD guests were invited to explore “4th Space” of Concordia University and take an active role in discovering exciting research projects. B/OLD featured a variety of engaging activities for our visitors to take part in, including a podcast on an age-friendly city, an “escape room” on elder abuse, and an intergenerational graffiti workshop.
Interactive Kiosks
© Concordia University, photo by Lisa Graves
Community groups and other organizations hosted kiosks showcasing their services, ideas, and projects. Our guests were able to meet and speak with them to find out about the projects that are happening in the Montreal community and discover some of the wonderful services that are available to older adults.
Watch our live stream recording of B/OLD panels and keynotes
B/OLD: Aging in our city received a great amount of media coverage!
- The Aaron Rand show on CJAD: “How to make Montreal more accommodating for seniors and teens”
- CBC News at 6 covered the B/OLD Escape Room on elder abuse (segment starts at 16.25 min.)
- The Suburban: “Concordia’s B/OLD event examined what makes an age-friendly city”
- Le Devoir: “La ville de demain est-elle pensée pour les aînés? ”
- ACT and engAGE researchers also co-authored an Op-Ed, which was published in The Gazette, as: “The age-friendly city is everyone’s responsibility” and in La Presse, under the title: “Accueillir la vieillesse avec audace”.
Organizers
Ageing + Communication + Technologies (ACT)
www.actproject.ca
ACT is a research project housed at Concordia University that brings together researchers and institutional and community partners to address the transformation of the experiences of ageing with the proliferation of new forms of mediated communications in networked societies. ACT is comprised of researchers, students, and community and institutional partners from around the world. Together, we are investigating how ‘digital ageism’ – the individual and systemic biases that create forms of inclusion and exclusion that are age-related – operates in subtle ways at this time. Through our collective and collaborative research, we provide an analysis that comes from our engagement with individuals and communities of elders and suggest strategies for change.
engAGE: Concordia University Centre for Research on Aging
engAGE aspires to change how we think about aging. Through innovative, collaborative, interdisciplinary research, engAGE researchers work with older people and their communities in order to address challenges and facilitate opportunities in all realms of life: social, physical, cognitive, emotional, and political. engAGE brings together researchers from a broad range of disciplines, from fine art to physics to explore creative ways to study age and explore opportunities to enhance health and well-being across the life course. We work together with older people, community groups, health care practitioners, and industry partners to provide thoughtful analysis of the strengths and challenges that we experience in relation to age and then to suggest strategies for change.
Concordia University
www.concordia.ca
Olympic gold medalists, Oscar winners, satellite designers, Concordia University has them all. Creative and diverse, Concordia pushes boundaries by crossing disciplines. Acclaimed fields include aerospace, nanotechnology, journalism, psychology, genomics, cinema, studio arts, finance and sustainable business. With 46,000 students in Montreal, North America’s most exciting city, leading research, top teaching, engaged community and transformative experiences through flexible, friendly service. Celebrating 40 years in 2014, Concordia defines the next-generation university.
Sponsors
