A film record of a three-day conference taking place in Newcastle in which two-hundred specially selected delegates discuss how to improve the quality of life for older people in the city. The conference took place between the 18th and 20th of September 1995. A Tyne and Wear Metro train pulls into a station and passengers disembark. Amongst them two older women and an older man who walk over to look at a poster glued to the wall. They take the escalator towards the exit. Title: Whole...

A film record of a three-day conference taking place in Newcastle in which two-hundred specially selected delegates discuss how to improve the quality of life for older people in the city. The conference took place between the 18th and 20th of September 1995. A Tyne and Wear Metro train pulls into a station and passengers disembark. Amongst them two older women and an older man who walk over to look at a poster glued to the wall. They take the escalator towards the exit. Title: Whole Systems Event The entrance to the Eldon Square shopping centre near Grey’s Monument changes to participants taking part in the Whole Systems Event arriving at the venue and being asked about their expectation. Three of them provide details. Title: Day One: Past In a large hall participants sitting around tables silently jotting down milestones they have achieved in the past three decades. Working in mixed groups details are written down on flipcharts and discussions are had. One member of each group reported back to the conference via a microphone. A group discussion taking place around one of the tables changes to one of the flipcharts seen previously with various notes written on it. Several participants are asked their thoughts on how this first day went. Title: End of Day One Title: Day Two: Future An older woman explains her concerns for today’s event and what she hopes will come out of it. Around the room new mixed groups working together to think beyond Newcastle at existing trends affecting the care of older people both now and in the future. One from each of the group produces a mind map on a large piece of paper which will be presented to the conference. For the next task participants from the same organisations or fields of interest sit around a table with one of their number writing on a flipchart the things they feel their organisation is doing right for older people and identify issues they felt sorry about. Next, these lists are stuck to the wall around the room with everyone give ten green and 10 red stickers to highlight those issues that most need a focus of attention. A microphone is passed around the room so that participants can clarify which of these issues need to be addressed in the future. Over lunch participants give their opportunity to give their thoughts on how the conference is going and where they hope to be at the end. Working in groups again, participants are asked to image it is the year 2005 and their ideas for older people had come true. Each group present in a focused way an aspect of the future they would like to see for older people with one group presenting as a version of ’12 Days of Christmas’. Working in mixed groups again participants work to identify themes common to all presentation. Details are written onto paper strips which are then cutup and rearranged around the room in an order that both makes more sense and to reach a common ground. With a focus for the conference reaches, participants use microphones to express their thoughts on how to turn an ideal into reality in Newcastle. At their tables participants compete a questionnaire. At the end of the day several people are asked for their reaction to the day's events. Title: End of Day Two Title: Day Three: Action Plans A woman is asked how she is feeling going into the third day and what she hopes to get out of today. Male participants are asked what the impact of the conference would be. Around tables discussion are had between participants on the central conditions that need to be in place to facilitate change and create an action plan. Again, a representative of each group is given a microphone and explain their action plans to the conference. People’s reactions were taken at the end of the event. On a large wallchart attached to the wall participants write down their thoughts on how the conference went. Title: A team of individuals from a cross section of local organisations has worked for several months to plan this event End title: The Whole Systems Event was planned and funded in association with the Baring Foundation and Kinds Fund