My colleague Jane Glenn Haas was at the Venture Summit, and writes about it in her column this week. Jane was impressed with the energy and creativity of the business plans in the $10,000 prize competition, but at least one other attendee didn’t agree: “Well, when we were their age, we were trying to save the world,” a woman huffed at me in the ladies room. “We weren’t trying to make money.”

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.”

How can a conference in the heart of the Silicon Valley proceed without wireless Internet access? I don’t know, but that was the only disappointing aspect of yesterday’s Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit. The technology gap kept me from blogging the event, but I took good notes. It will take me a few days to plow through it all, but I’ll be posting highlights over the next few days.

Mary Furlong & Associates put on a high-energy event. The highlight is the awarding of $10,000 checks for best business plans targeting Boomers–one in a general category and one healthcare-specific plan. Ten outstanding finalists pitched their plans to a panel of judges. In in the general category, a key theme seemed to be ideas that deliver  simplicity, save time or reduce the time in accessing technology. In healthcare, there were exciting entries from top univerisites including Stanford,  UC Berkeley and John Hopkins. The startups wanted to solve problems ranging from disability from stroke to presbyopia (the need for reading glasses).

The winners:

• Healthcare: SeroNostics, a UC Berkeley-based venture, is developing a hand-held diagnostic device that allows physicians to quickly analyze bodily fluids and diagnose diseases such as influenza.
• General: World Hearing Organization, a San Jose, CA-based venture, is developing mobile centers that come to hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare venues to test patients’ hearing and sell hearing aids at discounted prices.

Keynote speaker at the summit was Piper Jaffray Senior Internet Analyst Safa Rashtchy. Theme: the Internet has arrived as the dominant medium of our time. He discussed the explosive combination of communications and entertainment (“communitainment” sites such as MySpace and YouTube) and the dramatic fragmentation and decline of traditional media brands. One interesting stat: Piper forecasts that search-based advertising will grow from the current $15.8 billion to a $44.5 billion market over the next five years. Total global online advertising will hit $81 billion by 2011. Daily use of the Internet in American homes now is second only to television, and 40% of consumers told Piper they’d choose the Web over television if forced to choose one or the other.Where will Boomers fit into this overall picture? Rashtchy noted they’re already the largest single user group on the Internet, accounting for about 38 percent of total users.

As an online audience, he said, Boomers are:

• A sophisticated audience. They’re more in control of their consumption of information than the norm.
• Purposeful in their use of the Internet. Boomers expect to get something done, “gain a value.”
• Resistant to push ads, and intolerant of bad or busy interfaces (who isn’t?)
• More willing to give a single media channel time and attention. There’s less fragmentation than among younger people. If you have a clear message that is concise and not overcrowded, Boomers will pay attention.
• Putting a value on their time and willing to spend.

Here are Rashtchy’s rules for winning Boomers online:

• Focus on your value proposition and simplicity—solve everyday problems for users.
• Create strong brand by gaining Boomers’ trust.
• Include all Boomer demographic segments in online media and marketing. We’ll all need online information and services, not only the affluent.
• Remember that users are in control, so respect their knowledge.

I’ll be moderating a panel discussion on media and the 50+ market at next week’s Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit. My panelists include:

• Paul Kleyman, editor of the American Society on Aging’s Aging Today
• Kristen Gerencher health reporter for Marketwatch.com
• Sara Solovich, healthcare and biotech writer for the San Jose Business Journal
• Susan Ayers Walker, technology writer for AARP.org

We’ll be talking about how journalists select the stories they write about and trends in media covering the 50+ market and aging. The summit is produced annually by Mary Furlong and is highlighted by the $10,000 venture capital award for the best business plan targeting boomers. Venture capitalists will talk about overall investing trends in the 50+market, especially healthcare. Keynoter is Piper Jaffray & Co. senior internet analyst, who will talk about the “User Revolution trend and how the boomer generation is participating in it.”

The summit is a one-day event next Tuesday June 19th at Santa Clara University in San Jose. It’s not too late to register if you’re going to be in the neighborhood.

The Boomer Venture Summit is a great place to gain insights on entrepreneurial trends, and the types of start-up companies that appeal to Silicon Valley venture capitalists. The June 19 event is sponsored by the Executive Development Center at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business and Mary Furlong & Associates. A highlight of the event each year is the $10,000 Business Plan Competition, which is open to early-stage companies developing products and services for the 40+ market. Companies that make it to the final round are judged by a panel that includes Silicon Valley venture capitalists and other experts in the field, with one prize given for the best general business plan, and a second for the best health care-related plan. I’ll be serving as a screening judge this year.

You can find the entry form here. If you’re interested in attending, registration information is here.