Moses Znaimer to visit Moncton
Published Thursday September 17th, 2009
What best describes retired persons or seniors? A) They sit in rocking chairs or recliners? B) They watch game shows on TV? C) They fall asleep in mid-sentence? If you chose any of these responses, you're wrong, wrong, wrong!
You'll be hard-pressed to even find them at home as they're out golfing, curling, sailing and traveling overseas.
As volunteers they are tireless fundraisers and deliver meals to more senior seniors.
Many of them are enjoying second careers.
They're teaching in China, coaching professional level sports, selling real estate, writing books and exhibiting at art galleries.
Then there's rockers Sir Mick Jagger and Sir Paul McCartney, both in their late sixties and the Queen herself, now in her eighties, who knighted them.
They're all examples of people who don't have the words "slowing down" in their vocabularies. Closer to home, there's Jacqueline Robichaud, widow of Premier Louis J. Robichaud, who celebrated her 75th birthday on August 6 this year by jumping out of a plane.
Previously she had gone paragliding over Cuba but that wasn't enough excitement, so this year she went skydiving.
Moses Znaimer has a word for the new seniors. He calls them "Zoomers," which stands for "Baby Boomers with Zip," retaining his own "Z" initial.
Long recognized as a media savvy expert, Znaimer is now zooming in on the baby boom generation born in 1946 and the years following.
As the preceding generation shows, people are living longer, and expecting more out of life than a rocking chair on the front porch.
When this trend is combined with the large demographic born in the post-war years, the marketing possibilities are endless.
A few years older than the boomers, Znaimer personifies the "new" senior.
Born in Tajikistan in 1942, and now 67, he's lived in Canada since 1948 and is married to actress Marilyn Lightstone.
He joined CBC in the early 1960s, hosted CBC Radio's Cross Country Check-up and co-hosted CBC Television's Take 30 with Adrienne Clarkson.
In 1972 he launched CityTV aimed at young, hip audiences, then went on to develop a dozen or more cable stations including MuchMusic, BRAVO and the Canadian Learning Channel.
In 2003, he resigned as vice-president from CHUM which had purchased CityTV some years before.
He seemed to disappear for a time, but re-emerged with ZoomerMedia in 2008.
The new media empire includes a glossy lifestyle magazine, entitled Zoomer, Fifty-Plus Net International, a social network site similar to MySpace, AM 740 Zoomer Radio and S-VOX, operating several television channels.
In the process, he also became the president of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) with 35 chapters and began speaking about his New Vision of Aging for Canada.
He'll be bringing his vision to the Moncton Lions Seniors Centre at 473 St. George St., on Monday, September 21.
Sessions begin at 4:30 p.m. with Ross Mayot, national vice-president, conducting a Q&A on CARP.
This will be followed by light refreshments, when there'll be a chance to chat with local CARP chapter board members, Louise Gilbert and Wayne and Barbara Harrigan. Znaimer, who has been called "one of Canada's most influential thinkers," will be speaking at 6 p.m.
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