Berriak

In the next few days, Bizkaia will bring together the specialists and experts at the local, European and world levels in demographic change and policies for active and healthy ageing in Bizkaia Silver Week. Bizkaia will be the great forum for debate for listening, learning, sharing, dialoguing and even participating in a global conversation on demographic change, active ageing and the silver economy.

The International Day of the Aged will be held on 1 October. As a prelude to this, the Bizkaia Provincial Council has organised a very wide catalogue of international events to show the latest forefronts in the field of active and healthy ageing and what is being done in the territory in this area. The group of events is included in an innovative and pioneering framework - called Bizkaia Silver Week - called to have continuity and to be held between 22 and 28 September.

All of Europe is undergoing an unprecedented demographic change due to the increased life expectancy of persons driven by scientific and technological advances of which Bizkaia is not excluded. In fact, the population over 65 in the History Territory of Bizkaia has doubled in the last 30 years to two out of every 10 members of the population. Added to this is the fact that Euskadi has one of the world’s longest life expectances (86.4 years for women and 80.3 years for men).

Main events in Bizkaia Silver Week

The main dish in this first Bizkaia Silver Week will be the European AAL Forum 2018 congress, the main European event dedicated to the field of active and assisted living among the aged, the purpose of which is to show examples and proposals for healthy ageing through new technologies. This year the congress is in its 10th edition.

This international congress, to be held from 24 to 26 September in the Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao, is organised by the AAL Association, the promoter and manager of the European R&D "AAL (Active and Assisted Living) Programme", co-financed by the European Commission and the Bizkaia Provincial Council in collaboration with TECNALIA.

This year the congress will attract more than 500 participants to the Palacio Euskalduna with the theme "Ageing well in the digital era: a community of agents of change in expansion."

AAL Forum is an eminently professional forum of companies, local and regional authorities, suppliers of social and healthcare services, etc, where as well as the plenary sessions (2), the opening an closing, it has 26 interactive workshops, 85 speakers, 40 posters or communications, 24 exhibitions by companies, projects and knowledge organisations linked to technologies for ageing. They come from very diverse origins - all of Europe but also Canada, the United States, Israel and Turkey.

The experts attending the forum will notably include the person responsible for the European Commission Technologies Unit, Marco Marsella - as an institutional agent - and Cristina Bescos, Health and Tele-health Business Director of Philips Europe as an economic agent.

The AAL Forum 2018 programme can be consulted on the event’s Web site, www.aalforum.eu.

Together with the AAL Forum 2018, Bizkaia Silver Week will include numerous activities including workshops, talks, conferences, plenary sessions and practical examples on information technology progress focused on improving the quality of life of the aged, including the following.

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• 22 to 23 September: AAL Hackaton (Hack4elder advantAGE). This is a competition organised by the University of Deusto with the collaboration of the Bizkaia Provincial Council, to be held in the Euskaduna Conference Centre in Bilbao. In this, half a hundred hackers and experts from the entire world will develop solutions (technological and non-technological) in the form of services, products and new business models aimed at improving the quality of life of the aged. This will be a creative, inter-generational and multidisciplinary event in which the young and the old work in collaboration for 30 hours without interruption.
• 26 September: Nagusi International Conference, to be held in the Bizkaia Aretoa of the UPV/EHU. This is an open seminar organised by the Institución Foral in collaboration with the University of the Basque Country - Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, in which the agents involved in local and European ageing policies will share their perspectives on the new demographic scenario. Taking part in this seminar will be international experts such as Sarah Harper, from Oxford University, and Asghar Zaidi, from the London School of Economics. Examples of best local practices in the matter will also be shown.
• 26 September: General Assembly of the European Pact for Demographic change, which will be held in the Bizkaia Aretoa of the UPV/EHU. The event will bring together various local, regional national authorities committed to the preparation and implementation of action plans for achieving responses for an ageing society. This Brussels-based European association will also attract other agents specialising in the demographic change, such as universities, research centres, civil society organisations and companies that wish to share knowledge and exchange experiences. This General Assembly will approve the new working plan and budget for the upcoming year.
• 27 and 28 September: 2nd International Seminar on the Active Ageing Index (AAI), also to be held in the Bizkaia Aretoa of the UPV/EHU. This International Seminar organised by the UNECE, the European Commission and the University of the Basque Country and the Oxford University Institute for Population Ageing, with the support of the Bizkaia Provincial Council, will bring together various agents from the academic world. civil society and public politics in a multidisciplinary context for reflection on the challenges of active ageing and the best public policies being undertaken currently in Europe.

This seminar seeks to analyse the situation of the active ageing of the elderly population in various national and regional geographical contexts and/or to determine this situation with an emphasis on the importance of monitoring it.

The intention is thus to generate knowledge that contributes to the forming of public policies that are favourable to improving the process of the ageing of populations and the capacity to continue to contribute to society.

Finally, the Bizkaia Silver Week programme includes other events that, through complementary activities, will allow the public of Bizkaia and those who visit us to know the practices of active and healthy ageing in the territory and in other parts of the world.

For further information: www.bizkaiasilverweek.eus