The Longevity Week, taking place 9-13 November 2020 virtually, is an initiative of The Longevity Forum (the Forum). It brings together a diverse group of strategic partners of the Forum, supporters and participants whose goals are aligned with the mission of the Forum – to achieve longer, healthier and more fulfilled lives for as many people as possible.

The idea of Longevity Week was borne out of the success of our inaugural Forum which took place in November 2018 and already saw a few fringe events take place during the week of the Forum. It soon became apparent that the mission of the Forum, its convening power and the range of issues that we set out to address, had a multiplying effect and that one day was simply not sufficient to discuss all the major longevity challenges and opportunities at the intersection of science and society.

It is thus that we decided to develop Longevity Week as an extension of the mission of the Forum, to promote dialogue and test ideas on the future of longevity.

The last decade has seen a step change in many factors contributing to longevity and the Forum believes that how we address these challenges and opportunities over the next decade will determine whether humanity can make the most of these longevity gains over the next generation.

With this in mind, the theme of this year’s Forum, and therefore Longevity Week, is simply Longevity 2030. Our participants will be encouraged to contribute ideas that will impact human longevity over the next decade. We will be exploring the boundaries of science and technology; the economic impact of longevity – from how governments and individuals will organise their finances, to a new approach to lifelong learning and education; we will look at the policy agenda to ensure the effectiveness of our healthcare and social care systems; lastly, we will explore how humans and machines will learn to coexist and discuss ideas for an optimal governance and ethical framework to ensure these gains can help humanity reach its full potential. As ever, the Forum will endeavour to explore these issues through an interdisciplinary and intergenerational lens.

It is a challenging but an exciting and important mission. Thank you for joining us on this journey.

The Longevity Forum team