Local Event: Thinking of doing free retiree seminars

[Dean Wh]

Hi All,
I'm from Adelaide, Australia, and for a while now I've wanted to contribute something to society, and one of the ideas I thought of was to teach retirees, or the elderly, a bit about the internet and making money.

My idea came when watching a current affairs program on the plight of the elderly who suffer from too many health issues along with having a lack of money to boot. I have always thought that the two issues occur together and feed off each other, and that boredom is a major cause. Anyway, whether or not I am right is irrelevant, I thought it would be nice to do free local seminars to teach people how to use the internet too, not just to make money, but more as a way to cure boredom by taking their interests and hobbies to the internet.

Ideas, include teaching them about the many free ways to get set up and contributing on the net through blogs etc, how to network with other like minded people (sharing the same interests etc), of course, the many ways to then make a part time income...and so on...

I have built plenty of web sites, and have made enough money that most retirees would not sneeze at, especially if they made that money around something that was dear to their heart.

So, my question is, how could I go about setting this up. I am only 37 and have little clue or idea of how the elderly community functions, how to reach them, how to organize such an event, and keep the costs down at the same time. Maybe someone has done this already somewhere else in the world and can offer some pointers.

All the best
Dean

[jim90677000]

Hi Dean

Great idea, good intention, but need to make profit as well. Are you thinking of doing something like part-time IM trainer if I can get a class of elderly people to pay for your IM course ? I will be interested to work with u if the biz idea is workable and can really produce results. U know elderly people, especially Chinese need a lot of patient to train in IM

Regards
Jimmy from Singapore

[Dean Wh]

Hi Jimmy,
Thanks for your reply. I'm actually quite clear with the fact that I don't want to charge for this. I want and need to do some volunteering type work and this is something I'd like to do. Of course there is always the possibility of recording the events and then maybe selling them later, but that is not my focus. Sorry.

I'm not sure what sort of structure I'd set up, whether it would be like a seminar, but I think it would be more like a Q&A. For example, the biggest fear the elderly have with the internet is 'security', the biggest challenge I'd see is 'how do i get started with little or no money' and so on. I'm thinking of holding something once a month or fortnight, that would go for an afternoon.

[tryinhere]

? have you looked at services like the adopt a pensioner service where business offer low cost or free services ?, there are the elderly org's such as senior citz, that you could contact as well.

It may be more you go to old folks homes even and provide an afternoon of entertainment, this way by going to the people you cut down on overhead costs.

but you also say old people are fearful of the net ? not sure but there are many silver surfers, the grey nomads the fith wheelers and the list goes on these days older web communities is not as rare as you may think.

another option is to set up and run some tafe type courses seniors on the web ? , and maybe a web site dedicated to your training may be the first start to your venture so oldies can book your seminar then market that site. ?

cheers with the idea

[Dean Wh]

Originally Posted by tryinhere

but you also say old people are fearful of the net ? not sure but there are many silver surfers, the grey nomads the fith wheelers and the list goes on these days older web communities is not as rare as you may think.

LOL I get your point. I do think they are coming out of their shells a lot more

Thanks for the ideas