The American Council on Germany and the Global Coalition on Aging are launching a series of virtual events called “The Road to Silver Economy Forum,” which will take place in the run-up to the Forum itself on October 15 and 16 in Berlin. The series will focus on a range of issues building on the theme of this year’s Forum, which is titled “Leading the Future in an Aging World.”
During the Forum, we will investigate the challenges facing healthcare, finance, technology, transportation, and consumer businesses; what they can learn from one another; what countries must do to stay competitive in a rapidly aging and rapidly changing society; and how generations can work together to succeed as our workplace demographics shift. This virtual series will lay the foundation for the Forum by exploring what government, business, civil society, and academia can do to effectively respond to demographic trends; sustainably finance our healthcare and pension systems; prepare our workforce, optimize technology for the entire population, including older adults; and address other areas where we need innovative solutions to navigate the megatrend of aging.
The global population passed the milestone of eight billion people in November 2022 – with the jump from seven to eight billion taking only 12 years. However, this rapid population growth is not the greatest demographic challenge the world faces today. It is, rather, the aging of society. Globally, societies are aging at rapid and transformational rates and the number of older people is growing faster than the number of young people. Longer life expectancy and more old than young are twin pillars of this tectonic shift in demographics. Global aging reflects significant medical, social, and economic advancements over disease and illness, but it also presents societal challenges that require leadership from government and the private sector.
Join the American Council on Germany and the Global Coalition on Aging on May 1 at 11:00 AM ET / 5:00 PM CET for the first in a series of online webinars in the run up to Silver Economy Forum in Berlin. Dr. Nicholas Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute, and Prof. Dr. Andrea Maier, Professor of Medicine at the National University of Singapore, will discuss the trends, challenges, and opportunities of the demographic megatrend that is our aging population.
Dr. Nicholas Eberstadt holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he researches and writes extensively on demographics and economic development generally and, more specifically on international security in the Korean peninsula and Asia. Domestically, he focuses on poverty and social well-being. Dr. Eberstadt is also a senior adviser to the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR).
His many books and monographs include “Poverty in China” (IDI, 1979); “The Tyranny of Numbers” (AEI Press, 1995); “The End of North Korea” (AEI Press, 1999); “The Poverty of the Poverty Rate” (AEI Press, 2008); and “Russia’s Peacetime Demographic Crisis” (NBR, 2010). His latest book is “Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis” (Templeton Press, 2016).
Dr. Eberstadt has a Ph.D in political economy and government, an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government, and an AB from Harvard University. He also holds a Master of Science from the London School of Economics. In 2012, Dr. Eberstadt was awarded the prestigious Bradley Prize.
Prof. Dr. Andrea Maier is a Professor of Medicine at the National University of Singapore and a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP). She graduated in Medicine (MD) in 2003 from the University of Lübeck (Germany), was registered in 2009 in The Netherlands as a Specialist in Internal Medicine-Geriatrics, and was appointed Full Professor of Gerontology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (The Netherlands) in 2013. She was the head of Geriatrics at the Vrije Universiteit Medical Center from 2012 to 2016. From 2016 to early 2021, Professor Maier served as Divisional Director of Medicine and Community Care at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia, and Professor of Medicine and Aged Care at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Professor Maier’s research focuses on unraveling the mechanisms of aging and age-related diseases. During the last 10 years, she has conducted multiple international observational cohort studies and intervention trials and has published more than 350 peer-reviewed articles, achieving an H index of 63, spearheading the significant contributions of her highly acclaimed innovative, global, multidisciplinary @Age research group. She is a frequent guest on radio and television programs to disseminate aging research and an invited member of several international academic and health policy committees, including the WHO. She is the past president of The Australian and New Zealand Society for Sarcopenia and Frailty Research, the founding president of the Healthy Longevity Medicine Society, and serves as an elected Member of The Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities.
