AARP Event Videolog – Day 1

The AARP social media moguls turned me loose at Orlando@50+ with a new video camera. That may have been a mistake. My eye and camera were drawn to the stranger aspects of attending my first AARP member event.

I’m going to subject you to a few video clips that may give you a flavor of the atmosphere, beyond the educational sessions.

I spent most of the morning on the exhibitor floor which has a carnival-like atmosphere. Lots of brightly colored booths, many competing with each other to attract attendees with trinkets and prizes. (More about trinkets below.)

To give you an idea of the magnitude of the exhibitor floor, I have embedded below a video panorama of just a portion of the hall. A few alerts. First, there are random screams heard. I never did determine their cause or origin. Second and third, at the 0:45 sec mark, check out the guy walking around with a box on his head. He walks near the “spinning wheel” where a line of conventioneers has appeared. I think they were trying to win more random stuff to put in their official green AARP junk bags.

Speaking of junk bags, the amount of stuff being toted around the convention center by these older folks amazed me. What are they planning to do with all of it? From what I could tell, the stuff they were collecting falls into the category of stuff I’m trying to purge from my house. Check out the video below of some typical AARP junk collectors:

I guess that video makes me a junk collector stalker.

This next video may be cruel. If so, I apologize in advance. I call it scooter drag racing. I’ll just leave it at that.

I think this couple was married. I wish I could say they were trash-talking each other as they scooted through the convention center but it was a silent competition. I give this nice couple credit for that. I can tell you that if Mrs. P and I end up in scooters some day, I’ll definitely be jawing at her during race time.

This final clip is the strangest of the bunch. Toward the end of day 1, I heard what I thought was a marching band off in the distance. I was curious so I followed the sound. Instead of a marching band, I found this (please excuse the poor audio quality):

I suppose this collection of senior percussionists qualifies as a band because the guy in the ponytail appears to be a band director. There were no signs or apparent explanation for how or why this group assembled when they did. But they seemed to be having fun and I had fun watching and listening.

A 50+ drum corps breaking out spontaneously? Can day 2 in Orlando top this?

Stay tuned and find out.

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