The Greater Manchester Ageing Hub recently held the Greater Manchester Ageing Conference 2017.

The landmark event, which took place on 16 February 2017, aimed to bring together influential Greater Manchester leaders, world leading academics, and community sector innovators to discuss prospects for building an age-friendly city-region.

Organised by the Greater Manchester Ageing Hub, which includes the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing (MICRA), the conference provided an important platform to connect research, policy and practice on ageing.

The event opened with inspiring presentations from Steven Pleasant (Chair, GM Ageing Hub, CE Tameside Council), Alana Officer (World Health Organisation), Lord Filkin (Centre for Ageing Better) and Prof Chris Phillipson (MICRA, University of Manchester) and continued in the afternoon with stimulating talks from Tony Lloyd (GM Mayor), Dr Anna Dixon (Centre for Ageing Better), Jon Rouse (GM Health and Care Partnership) and Elaine Unegbu (GM Older People’s Network).

The conference also allowed participants to inform the development of age-friendly policies and contribute to shaping Greater Manchester priorities by holding a series of twelve panel discussions. These panels covered a broad range of themes, including diversity and inequalities in ageing, economic growth, employment and wellbeing, healthy ageing, culture, age-friendly neighbourhoods, dementia-friendly places, and relationships and intimacy in later life.

The event finally marked the official launch of the Greater Manchester Ageing Hub and the publication of two key reports on ageing. New Economy and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority launched a report entitled ‘The Future of Ageing in Greater Manchester’ and Professor Chris Phillipson (MICRA) introduced his report ‘Developing a Strategy for Age-Friendly Greater Manchester’.

Developed in preparation for the conference, the two documents aim to lay the foundation for further work and help Greater Manchester become the first age-friendly city-region in the United Kingdom.

MICRA Director Debora Price and Professor Chris Phillipson discuss the Greater Manchester Ageing Conference