Sydney, Australia was this morning announced as the host city for the 24th International Association of Gerontology and Geriatric (IAGG) World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics in 2029, with a pre-Congress Leadership Summit in Queenstown, New Zealand. 

A significant multi-year bidding effort by the Australian Association of Gerontology (AAG), the New Zealand Association of Gerontology (NZAG) and the Australian & New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine (ANZSGM), and the business events bidding specialists at BESydney has been rewarded with the announcement at the 2022 World Congress delivered virtually from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The decision was made by vote of the more than 80 IAGG member countries who gathered virtually for the IAGG Council and General Assembly this week. The 2029 Congress is expected to attract around 4,500 delegates to Sydney over five days and BESydney estimates it will inject $21.6 million into the local economy.

The quadrennial World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics is the largest, most significant worldwide conference on ageing, sharing the latest science, research, training, technology, and policy development presented by experts from around the world. Delegates include representatives from medicine, nursing, allied health, aged care, policy and practice fields, and other disciplines brought together to address the latest approaches to improving the experience of ageing for ageing and older people across the globe.

Speaking immediately after the win announcement, Co-Bid Leaders and AAG Life Members, Professor Julie Byles AO, Global Innovation Chair in Responsive Transitions in Health and Ageing, Newcastle University, and Professor Keith Hill, Director of the Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living (RAIL) research centre, Monash University, jointly stated,

“This bid win is a wonderful outcome for our gerontological and geriatrician communities across Australia and New Zealand.  We are honoured to have been selected by our global colleagues to lead this critical conversation about ageing together and ageing well. Importantly, the IAGG World Congress in Sydney in 2029 represents an opportunity for students and early career participants to come together and to form lasting global relationships that will help shape their professional activities into the future.”

Professor Vasi Naganathan, Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Sydney and Consultant Geriatrician at Concord Hospital who is the President of the ANZSGM said,

“Working together with Australian (AAG) and New Zealand (NZAG) Associations of Gerontology for the past six years has brought our organisations closer together and will enable our congress to present a truly multi-disciplinary perspective on how the health and quality of life of older people around the world can be improved.”

Professor Debra Waters, University of Otago, Pre-Congress Bid Leadership Summit Lead and Vice President NZAG said,

“The pre-congress leadership summit in Queenstown, in particular, will honour Indigenous leadership in ageing, highlighting the value of holistic, sustainable and culturally relevant approaches used by First Nations and Indigenous Peoples. We will welcome leaders, established and emerging, from across the globe, to join a conversation about ageing well.”

James Beckford Saunders, CEO of AAG said,

“Hosting the congress in 2029 represents the start of Australia’s four-year custodianship of the IAGG secretariat.  The Australian Association of Gerontology will be honoured, in a global leadership role, to take forward important legacies generated by the congress, supporting IAGG membership around the world to continue to develop ways to enhance the quality of life and well-being of people as they experience ageing.”

BESydney CEO Lyn Lewis-Smith said,

“The rapid ageing of populations around the world presents an unprecedented set of opportunities.  The Australia and New Zealand vision for the World Congress in Sydney to embrace all cultures to improve the experience of ageing around the world effectively and sustainably captured everyone’s imagination and was the right strategy for now as the world begins to re-open and communities are seeking to build back better than before, with people and planet at the centre.”

IAGG World Congress was last held in Australia in Adelaide, in 1997 and this will be the first time that Sydney has hosted the Congress.

The Australian Association of Gerontology led the bid, working together with collaborative partners the New Zealand Association of Gerontology and the Australian & New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine, the peak bodies linking professionals working across the multidisciplinary fields of ageing in Australia and New Zealand.

The 23rd IAGG World Congress will be held at the International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) from 28 July – 3 August 2029 with a pre-Congress Leadership Summit in Queenstown, New Zealand.

For more information visit https://www.iagg2029.org/