Last month we completed the final swing of Dr. Bill Thomas’ 30-city Age of Disruption Tour, an audacious enterprise designed to challenge ageist stereotypes and bolster the concept of disruptive change at both the community AND personal levels. The Tour brought 101 live events to 30 cities in 20 states, with more than 5,000 participants and reached an additional 12 million people via news coverage and social media.
We are excited to announce that Dr. Thomas and the Center for Growing and Becoming, the 501(c)3 non-profit that funds the tour, has committed to continuing the Age of Disruption Tour in 2016 and 2017 thanks to generous underwriting provided by AARP.
Over the past couple weeks I’ve been overseeing a small advance outreach team working to identify the next 40 cities we will visit in 2016, including 10 cities outside the U.S.
The U.S. tour will be organized in six one-week swings and we are ready to announce the regions and dates we will visit. We are now honing in on our target cities and we would like to get your input on the cities and organizations we should partner with. Don’t see your region in the lineup? Invite us to visit you in 2017! Email suggestions to [email protected] or use the comments section below.
Age of Disruption 2016 Tour regions:
- Southwest Swing (March 28 to April 1): New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California
- Mid-Atlantic Swing (April 18-23): Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina
- Northeast (May 16-20): Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine
- Cornbelt Swing (September 19-23): Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado
- Midwest/Rustbelt (Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin)
- Texas (October 17 to October 21): Texas!
International Cities
- Canada (June 2016): Eastern provinces
- United Kingdom (November/December 2016): Cities TBD!
Sign up for Age of Disruption email updates here to be the first to know what cities make the lineup and to receive exclusive updates on 2016 tour events, including Bill’s signature “non-fiction” theater experience Life’s Most Dangerous Game and an exciting movement to “Disrupt Dementia” featuring a new film by Alive Inside director Michael Rossato-Bennett.
Please come to Oregon – Corvallis would be ideal, but Eugene or Portland would be good too!
Thanks for commenting! We are equally dismayed that we can’t visit every corner of the country with the tour! We stopped in Seattle in 2014 and 2015 and will certainly be back in 2017 (as it happens I live in Seattle 🙂
I’m stoked about you coming to Phoenix! I’m eagerly waiting to hear when and where we’ll meet. I’m willing to help, too, and have sent an email to the “tours” address.
Hi Mary — I’m really said to tell you that the Tour is visiting Flagstaff in 2016, not Phoenix. We put out feelers and folks in Flagstaff seized the opportunity before our friends in Phoenix. But don’t worry, we will return!
I live in the Pacific Northwest, and I know that many great ideas and solutions start here, so I was dismayed that you are not having an event anywhere near here. However, I live in Canada (Victoria), and would have difficulties getting there in any event, but it would be great to know we in this corner are being considered!
Perhaps you have already been to FL, but I would love to hear you speak especially about the Green Houses. We are in the Sarasota area.
Hi Alice — thanks for commenting! We actually spent a week in Florida this November, so sorry we missed you! I will give you a heads up that you would have been disappointed if you attended the performance to learn about the Green House Project. Dr. Thomas does not talk about long term care reform in his performance. It is focused on ageism and the cultural experience of aging in our society.
How about the Philadelphia, PA area?
Hi Peggy — We’re taking a break after two consecutive visits to Philadelphia. We will stop in Pittsburgh!
What? Nothing in the Pacific Northwest?
I know Marcie, and I live in Seattle! 🙁 Truth is that Portland and Seattle are two of the most progressive cities in the U.S. when it comes to embracing aging. We’re trying to challenge ourselves and bring the tour message to new regions where it is even more needed. But don’t worry, we are definitely coming back in 2017!
Thank you Maryann Cline and Kavan for addressing the Eden Alternative & Changing Aging Tour coming to the Buffalo/WNY area. I only became aware of the whole initiative some time in 2014 & I somehow missed the 2014 tour as well. I tell everyone I know about it too. I learned the initiative started in Rochester as well, and have researched what has been established there. I have worked in agencies and in home privately for elders for the past 15 years in Buffalo. It has also been a heartbreaking & helpless feeling to me, to see what happens to them when they must endure their setbacks &/or substandard end of life care, in the hands of the current standards of care in rehab facilities, nursing homes and hospitals. Last December my partner’s 90 yr old aunt died in a nursing home after having endured abuse.
Since finding Dr Bill Thomas and the initiative he established, I have been inspired with many ideas of spreading this knowledge to my baby boomer peers. I will continue to hold that vision until it manifests into something more concrete. I would certainly support any efforts to promote and advertise a visit to Buffalo in any way I could.
Maryann ~ I would love to meet with you sometime to talk.
Cheryl Dorrenbacher
I hope your California tour includes the San Francisco Bay area. There is considerable interest here
Definitely include visiting down under (Australia)
Why no event in New York State? For the 20 years I have been in eldercare and aware of Dr. Thomas,I have desperately been trying to enlighten anyone who will stand still in the western New York area! As is true in most former hubs of manufacturing, the Buffalo/ Niagara region has seen two generations leave the area in search of jobs. Their parents and grandparents have had to suffer the reality of not having family close by to advocate and care for them, forcing even the most financially stable to live out their days in disgracefully substandard of conditions. My heart has been breaking daily as more “well elderly” facilities and senior apartments are built and the skilled nursing population is ignored. To hold up the example of relatively healthy, independent seniors in a modern, active lifestyle, unfortunately, does not reflect reality for most local Baby Boomers and their parents. Decades of toxic chemical pollution has given us the distinction of being in the top five for most cancers, MS and other neurological disorders. Reputable home care agencies and workers are overwhelmed with families trying to help their loved ones live out their years with the dignity and honor they deserve. The demand has caused a surge in disreputable, unreliable caregivers taking advantage of our most vulnerable. Families reporting nightmare conditions in privately owned facilities to the state are told they are “not in violation of state standards” after being investigated. Is there nothing we can do to get western New York building Greenhouses? Sorry for the length of this–my heart just poured out unexpectedly.
With hope and admiration, Maryann Cline
HI Maryann — The Tour stopped in Buffalo in 2014 and we would love to return! Did you know The Eden Alternative is based in Rochester, and there are a number of wonderful Green House Project homes there as well? We’d be happy to explore another Buffalo or Rochester tour stop in 2017. In order to do that we must connect with a local sponsor organization. If you can help make an introduction please do so.
Yes, I was aware of Rochester but somehow missed the 2014 Buffalo event! I will absolutely put every effort into making that connection with a sponsor. Thank you!
Where will you be in Connecticut?
Hi Audrey — We are in the process of selecting a venue and will announce the location as soon as we secure one.
Don’t forget us in Flagstaff, Arizona – Flagstaff Creative Aging!
While it is exciting to know that the Age of Disruption Tour is continuing in 2016-2017, I am sorry that it is not returning to Tennessee. Also, I believe it is a bit disingenuous to label your tour in Pennsylvania as part of the “Midwest/Rustbelt.” Pennsylvania is neither “midwest” nor “rustbelt,” it is mid-Atlantic (or Northeast) and the rustbelt concept is quite outdated.
Thanks for commenting. The Midwest/Rustbelt swing will span Pittsburgh, PA to Madison, WI. Let us know if you can think of a less “disingenuous” term to describe this region of America.
Thanks, Kavan No problem if you keep the region as is. I suppose as a former Pennsylvanian living in Tennessee, I understand Pennsylvania to be part of the Mid-Atlantic Region, while Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina are in the Southeast Region (and not normally considered part of the Mid-Atlantic). But, I don’t want to over dramatize this issue. I was simply raising a rather minor concern. Keep on making a significant impact with the Age of Disruption Tour.
I hope Canada’s eastern provinces includes Ottawa!
Hello. Newfoundland is Canada’s fastest aging province so St John’s should be included in any tour.
Nothing in Kansas City? Hopefully, the Kansas location will be in Eastern KS!!
COME TO THE LOW COUNTRY IN SC!
R U coming down under??