Last week the inaugural AGEIST supported CIRKEL intergenerational mentoring event took place at The Bowery Poetry Club in New York. 80 people from ages 22 to 75 came to the event in search of connecting with, and learning from someone of another age group. This is the future for us as a society. Not only are our people being aged out, and made to feel fearful of rapid changes in technology forever forcing them to the side, the younger people are also in need. In other more age diverse work societies, events like CIRKEL happen naturally, and have for millenia. Ours however, with its rampant age siloing needs mechanisms to germinate this simple concept: older people learn from younger people, and younger people learn from older people.
For all the media fixation on millennials, what most of those experts don’t know is that this generation is coming into their careers within a vacuum. They have no north stars, no role models, and they hunger for them. Created by Charlotte Japp, CIRKEL, is a new platform aiming to close the loop between generations. She had been living with her parents who had been aged out of their jobs in the creative industries and had been forced to started over, creating their own businesses. Her relationship with her parents became a kind of skill share and creative exchange, so she figured other people her age could benefit the same way.
As designed and hoped for, many of the mentor pairs have kept contact after the event. The CIRKEL concept is not to only be informed and entertained by an event, but to leave the event with new and useful connections that go on into the future. CIRKEL’s larger goal is to expand it’s event series across the U.S. (and the globe) – and then establish a true co-mentorship network of exchanging experience across generations. AGEIST will be here to support and promote every step of the way. We feel strongly that this is the future and we as thought leaders need to be there.
The second event is still in the works. You can contact hallo.cirkel@gmail.com and follow @cir.kel on Instagram to stay in the loop. Let’s do this thing, for us, and for the younger people.
