To address the needs of the retiring baby boomer generation and to examine how businesses need to adapt themselves to this growing and affluent market, The Bryan School and the Gerontology Program at UNCG co-sponsored Aging is Good Business: The Silver Industries Model on April 3rd. 

Dean James Weeks and MBA Program Director, Sheldon Balbirer, of the Bryan School and Janice Wassel, Director of the Gerontology Program, were speakers at the summit from UNCG.  Other leading experts included Neal Cutler, a financial gerontologist from Widener University, Charles Longino, Director of the Reynolda Gerontology Program at Wake Forest University, Steve Mason, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at AARP, Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue, and Harry R. Moody, Director of the Office of Academic Affairs at AARP. 

Topics discussed at the one-day summit included retirement migration, marketing to older adults, financial gerontology, elder care issues in the workplace, corporate gerontology, economic opportunities in an aging society, small business innovation research, and future trends for businesses in an aging society. 

“North Carolina is the third most desirable retirement state in the country and UNCG is tackling the needs of this emerging industry”, said keynote speaker, Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue. 

The summit is the latest innovation of the Bryan School and the Gerontology Program.  In 2005, the Bryan School and the Gerontology Program launched a dual MBA/MS in Gerontology.  The dual degree is unlike any other in the state and one of the few in the country that merges business education with gerontology.