Want to distribute your product or service through AARP? Get in line. While you’re waiting, Emilio Pardo, AARP’s chief brand officer, had a few tips on how to work with the behemoth of aging for attendees at the Boomer Venture Summit. Here’s what he told the venture summit :

The companies we work with aren’t always large, but they must be able to bring trust to the table. Will the consumer trust this information, or this service? And can you deploy fast enough? We’ve had experience with smaller companies that can handle large volume, and some that cannot. We are looking for fast-moving, sharp, entrepreneurial companies that can give us innovative new products in the five most important categories that will be important to Boomers as they age:

• Health
• Financial security
• Giving
• Contribution-legacy
• Play

Speaking during another session, Jody Holtzman, AARP’s director of knowledge management, had a slightly different–and rather candid–take on partnering: “AARP hasn’t always played well in the sandbox in terms of partnering with entrepreneurs and small companies. We’ve had a not—invented-here syndrome. In terms of ego, we’ve been on a diet lately.”

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