Tell us about your event?

This was a partnership event with Legal & General in Cardiff who kindly opened up their computer training suite to older people. There were 14 Legal & General employee volunteers aged between 25-45 years on hand to help older people get online in a 1-to-1 situation. Age Concern Cardiff recruited the older people and on the day there was a great buzz as the older people were encouraged to try things out on the internet. Some older people had never used a mouse before, so they had fun doing the exercises on the Silver Surfers website. Others tried Google, or gave online shopping a go – and one lady almost booked her very first theatre tickets online.

What went well?

The social interaction between the older people and their computer “buddies” created a real buzz. The older people enjoyed discovering how much the Internet had to offer, comments were made such as “Ah, that’s how you do it”, “This has really opened my eyes”, “There’s so much to learn but practice makes perfect”.

What stories did you hear?

One gentleman had just bought a laptop because his friends in the US had suggested he use Skype. He had never used it before and found the taster session a great way to start to learn about the Internet.

Another lady looked for a recipe for apple pie. She thought there might be a dozen recipes on the internet and was amazed when Google showed over 60 million results.

The Legal & General employee volunteers were so enthusiastic about the sessions that Legal & General Cardiff has decided to offer a free 10-week computer course for older people. All of the 13 older people have already signed up for this course and there is even a waiting list of older people who weren’t able to come to the taster sessions but who would like to do the course.

What advice would you give other potential event holders?

Give it a go – even if it’s only a small event, it’s lovely to see what older people – and their computer buddies – get out of it. There’s definitely a lot of laughter involved!

What would you do with the £1,000 prize money if you won?

Age Concern Cardiff would use the money to promote the concept of 1-to-1 computer taster sessions or short courses. We would look to replicate the idea of involving volunteer employees and recruiting more older people. The money would be used to fund a co-ordinator’s time to organise the project (contacting companies, sending a press release, recruiting older people), as well as covering out of pocket costs such as taxi costs to enable older people to get to the event.