The 100 Year Life

succ17 path2UOn the last weekend in April, the winners for the sixth Start-Up Camp Canberra were announced. Winning first place was team Path2U, with their idea for an application that encourages self-awareness among busy, professional women and offers advice and support from professionals related to anxiety and stress relief.

Thirteen teams pitched to a panel of judges on Sunday afternoon, with ideas that included solutions to promote social inclusion among older people through virtual reality technologies; platforms that link older and younger people together to share unused assets; to online management systems that help match people of any age looking to reskill with potential employment opportunities.

teamwork school 834138 1920Canberra Wise Women will be placing an all female team of local Canberra business owners in to this weekend’s ‘Start-Up Camp Canberra’. Start-Up Camp Canberra is once again being organised by Lighthouse Business Innovation Centre, who have offered these events since 2008.

Start-Up Camp is first and foremost an ideas competition and is open to problem-solvers, creative thinkers and ideas people from across Canberra. It takes participants from idea generation, business concept formation to pitching to a panel of judges. The theme for the 2017 event is ‘The 100 Year Life’; exploring the global challenges and innovations being faced in the Age of Longevity.

FAI sunrise smlIn wealthier countries such as Australia, 50% of our current Year 11's who were born in 2000 will get to celebrate their 100th birthday. This has implications for everything from healthcare to urban design, education and economics.

Now in its sixth year, Start-Up Camp Canberra will encourage Canberra’s entrepreneurially-minded to tackle the challenges and innovation opportunities faced by society as we live increasingly longer.

map 455769 1280Imagine being in your fifties, not far off retirement and working in a successful corporate job and then deciding to give it all up to start a business – I did that! Or imagine finishing school not really sure what you want to do and spending the next year travelling to find out what you’re really passionate about.

That’s become so popular it even has a name – ‘gap year’. A mid-career break, previously considered career suicide, is now quite accepted and even encouraged. These are all some of the subtle changes that reflect the fact that we are all living longer.

In wealthy countries like Australia, children born today are most likely going to live to be over 100. That means so much more time to start a new career, take up new hobbies and spend time with the people we love. It also means that the 3-phase approach to life - education, work and retirement is no longer accurate.

pialligo estate2With the number of Australians living beyond the age of 100 higher than ever before, one of the opportunities that living longer provides us is the opportunity to re-invent ourselves and re-create our careers as we explore new passions and interests. Working into your seventies means you could conceivably have 2 or 3 successful careers over your working life.

One organisation that is offering unique and innovative lifestyle, educational and vocational training programs is Pialligo Estate.