As America's 78 million baby boomers age, they will make critical choices about where and how they will spend their silver years.

The opportunities for businesses to make money from boomers as they age is the focus of "Residential Choices and the Boomers Coming of Age," the second annual "Aging is Good Business" conference at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

The event, which will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 11, in the Cone Ballroom of Elliott University Center, is hosted by the UNCG Gerontology Program and the Bryan School of Business and Economics.

Boomers are the most diverse, active, educated, and financially secure generation in American history. With spending power of more than $2.1 trillion, boomers are the nation's largest and most influential consumer group.

The conference will be opened by Dr. Neal E. Cutler, associate director of the UNCG Gerontology Program. The keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Lois A. Vitt, director of the Institute for Socio-Financial Studies and editor-in-chief of the "Encyclopedia of Retirement and Finance."

To explore residential choices and business opportunities for real estate and senior housing specialists, Dr. Rick Moody, director of the AARP Office of Academic Affairs, will moderate a "Public Conversation" with Steven D. Bell, CEO of Steven D. Bell & Company, and Nathan Jameson, Senior Investment Office of Traditions Capital.

Matt Thornhill, director of the Boomer Project, a Virginia-based company that develops strategies for marketers and advertisers, will address how to market to boomers. Tom Rose, director of the Smart House at Duke University, will discuss the Smart House, a 6,000-square foot experimental building that tests the advances in integrated residential technology.

The conference will unveil the UNCG Gerontology Program's first biennial Senior Housing Design Student Competition. The statewide juried competition focuses on designs that respond to the needs of aging boomers who wish to age in their own homes.

To register for the "Aging is Good Business" conference or for information about sponsorship or exhibitions, contact Dr. Neal E. Cutler in the Gerontology Program at 336-256-4376, or visit www.uncg.edu/ gro.