Want to join an earnest discussion on healthy longevity? Pitch your AgeTech product? Talk to fellow caregivers? Meet smart, interesting people without leaving home? If you do, then Clubhouse is the perfect place.
Most Boomer Tech Talk readers want to contribute to improving how we care for our loved ones as well as ourselves as we age.
What is Clubhouse
Clubhouse is an audio centric mobile device based app. Your experience is similar to being in a room with people who are very interested in the same topic, including people with deep experience in elements of the discussion. There’s no need to worry about your hair, no need to write anything. You can choose to talk or just listen. Identity is verified by your mobile number along with a bio. Links to your Twitter and/or Instagram are expected. You get to know people by hearing them talk spontaneously. Used to be that almost nothing is recorded, now many rooms have “replays available” that you can easily save to listen to later. It works. I have enjoyed bringing on friends I already know in real life and have met many new people.
If you read the origin article about Clubhouse in Wired, you’ll find one of the founders (Rohan Seth) has a child with a rare disease – one of the reasons why health care has been a core topic of discussion on Clubhouse from the beginning.
Many articles have been written about Clubhouse. When Clubhouse was opened to Android on May 21, 2021, it made television news. In April 2021, Twitter had entered discussions to purchase Clubhouse at a $4 billion valuation. (The talks ended with no acquisition). Although Clubhouse is a phenomenon, not everyone has heard about it.
I am writing this article about Clubhouse to provide people in the business of serving older adults a succinct explanation as to why I am inviting them to join Clubhouse and follow my Club within Clubhouse called the Rethinking Aging Club.
Several ‘Should you be on Clubhouse’ articles have been written for consumers 50+. These point out why Clubhouse has been attractive to this population segment – including those published on Next Avenue (Margie Zable Fisher), AARP (Ed Baig) and Tampa Bay Times (Hannah Critchfield, Seniors Reporter). My article is focused on health care, start-ups, age tech product development, healthy longevity, caregiving and care facilities – more specifically on the themes of my Club: Rethinking Aging.
Rethinking Aging Club Weekly Rooms and Membership
Rethinking Aging Club has two weekly rooms. Debbie Howard and I post these on our LinkedIn profiles every week along with resources and valuable information for the aging ecospace community. We have no interest in monetizing our rooms – we do this out of passion for our purpose.
Tuesdays 3 – 4pm PT News for the Ages Overview including links to all room archives with news articles
Thursdays, 10 – 11am PT Age-Friendly Product Alliance – Topic changes weekly. Topics include: Caregiving, Film Entertainment and Edutainment, Raising Awareness / Marketing, Onboarding / Tutorials, Smart Home, Fitness, Authors, Alzheimers / Dementia / Brain Health and more.
If you’d like to join the Rethinking Aging Club on Clubhouse, you can now just hit join here. It is important to fill out your bio and authenticate your identity by connecting Twitter and/or Instagram. If you don’t have one of those, please include the link to your LinkedIn. Especially, if you have been invited to speak in a Clubhouse room, it is important to upload a photo to your profile, preferably a head shot. There are lots of auto generated graphics that may use your profile pic, included Clubhouse Clip graphics of the last 30 seconds of what you said.
For the first six months or so, all Rethinking Aging members were carefully curated before they were admitted but when Clubhouse gave Club owners new choices about room types, this type made more sense, and we are still getting high quality members.
Creating a Bio on Clubhouse
Clubhouse is still new and one of the things they don’t provide is formatting for your bio. If you are using an Apple device, I recommend that you write your bio in Apple Notes and then copy-paste it into your profile. There is also an app that provides a few profile examples and a link to emojipedia.org at ClubhouseBio.xyz.
Here is an example of a profile (mine): Linda Sherman on Clubhouse.
Finding and Adding Clubhouse Room Events to Your Calendar
When you click on the room event, Clubhouse offers to add that event to your Apple or Google calendar. That works well and displays it on your calendar in your time zone. Please also hit the bell in the upper right corner that appears on the event within the app. That signals your interest to Clubhouse. You can also click “save the replay” in advance if you’re not sure you will be able to make it.
On Clubhouse individual profiles, you will find listed the next room in which the person will be officially speaking. On Club pages, there is a carousel of upcoming rooms. (As of November 2021, there are now Replays available on profiles and Club pages – if there are any).
As “content creators” on Clubhouse, one of our challenges is when to schedule rooms. It’s always inconvenient for someone in various locations across the globe and even across the United States. I joined Clubhouse on January 7th, 2021. That was before Clubhouse went international and scheduling was therefore much easier. Now you inevitably drop off Asia on one end of scheduling and Europe on the other.
Clubhouse Transparency, Tutorials, Invitations and Trust
Clubhouse Transparency
I find it very nice that the founders Rohan and Seth do a one hour (now 45 minute) TownHall every week. The first half features updates and the second half answers questions that have been submitted. Irene Koehler used to do a recap associated with that from her Women in Business 40+ Club that included Clubhouse tech expertise from Nawzil Najeeb and Cyndilu Miller and interaction on how to use Clubhouse’s latest features.
Townhall used to be every Sunday at 9am PT but since March 2022, they have switched to Tuesday at 5pm PT for TownHall so that their staff doesn’t HAVE to work on Sunday. You’ll find Townhall replays on the Clubhouse HQ Club page. Now Sundays 9am PT is a worldwide music event that leverages the high quality sound feature Clubhouse has incorporated.
Clubhouse Tutorials
Look for the New User Onboarding Club every Wednesday at 6pm PT, Paul Davison and some staff members are doing an introduction to Clubhouse for newcomers or anyone that would like to come. Housewarming Club has community hosts that do a welcome and introduction. Housewarming Club appears to have a regular one at Tuesday 9am PT. Note that both Clubs have Replays on so you could listen to a replay at any time. Features are constantly being updated so I recommend choosing a recent one.
In the Clubhouse HQ Club – there was a room called Clubhouse Office Hours: Lessons for Moderators; then Office Hours: Moderating Conversations on Thursdays led by Anu. There are still replays there. On June 2, 2022, Rethinking Aging Club got featured as everyone on stage agreed how important our topic was.
Clubhouse Invitations are No Longer Needed
As of July 21, 2021, Clubhouse is open to everyone. However, you can still join with an invitation. Having a nomination at the bottom of your profile from a trustworthy person is a worthwhile positive so I suggest you join from an invitation if you can.
Including a bio and validation links is even more important now that Clubhouse is open to everyone. Trust has always been one of the very attractive elements of Clubhouse.
Trust is important in gaining followers. Most rooms will not invite you on stage to speak if you have not filled out your bio.
Clubhouse Room Creation Tip – Get Permission Before Adding Speakers
I have moderated many panels for live in-person conferences. Clubhouse discussions are not nearly as tight but live panel experience is relevant. I am not going to list all of my moderating tips but I do have one strong opinion in creating rooms.
Only speakers that have confirmed they can attend a Clubhouse room – thereby also having their consent to be named on the upcoming event – should be listed and promoted for the calendared event. This takes more time but I believe it is the ethically correct thing to do. Many people do not regularly check their “my events” where rooms on which they have been listed can be found. The next room they will speak on is automatically listed on their profile, raising awareness for that hosting club.
If you have narratively listed regular rooms on your Club page, please keep these updated.
When a large airline changes the departure time of your flight, they notify you and even update the time within your personal calendar. Clubhouse does none of those things, so move start times and dates as infrequently as possible and try to notify your community.
Club and Room Selections
There are many clubs that I have joined that have great topics but don’t currently have anything scheduled.
Unless I note otherwise, any Club listed here is an Active Club.
If I’ve missed something you feel should be included, please feel free to leave a note in the comments or in a private message.
When you visit a Club to consider being a member, if Clubhouse has noted there is less than 1 meeting a week, there are no new meetings scheduled in their upcoming meeting carousel and there NO Replays on their page that means they haven’t been active since before November 11, 2021 when Replays started.
The same is applied to people on Clubhouse. If there are no Replays on their profile, they likely have not spoken on stage since before November 2021 OR they could only be doing rooms without replays.
Taste of Relevant Clubhouse Topics, Active Clubs and Rooms
Updated October 2022
StartUps
* “Age-Friendly Product Alliance” formerly “Products for 50+”
Thursdays (1pm – 2pm ET) hosted by Rethinking Aging Club. Founded by Michael Phillips, Rick Robinson from AARP and Steve Ewell CTA Foundation (CES). Organized by Linda Sherman and Debbie Howard.
Jan 20 2022 Replay Streaming Film Entertainment and Edutainment. Please click on image for replay:
* Startup Club
“Founder Office Hours”: 30 minutes with Soumeya Benghanem and Susan Sierota Mondays and Wednesdays at 7am PDT
Intro to Startup Club & Clubhouse
Many rooms of interest to start-up founders
* The Pitch Club
Daily rooms related to pitching and metrics
* Alphapreneurs Club
Shafaat Hasmi and Amna Razzaq are admin
** I moved inactive clubs in this category to the end of the room listing
News
* News for the Ages Every Tuesday 6 – 7pm ET in the Rethinking Aging Club
Links to articles discussed in accompanying LinkedIn post
Led by Linda Sherman and Debbie Howard.
Core News for the Ages contributors are Benjamin Surmi (Koelsch Communities), Gary Barg (Today’s Caregiver Magazine & Caregiver.com), Zalan Alam MD, Ellen Khalifa, Elizabeth Magallon Fleury (Life’s Encore Planning), Josef Katz (CoverRight), Ray Gordon (futurist and architect), Debbie Howard (Aging Matters International; Carter JMRN Market Research) and myself.
* Tech News Club – Med News Around the World rooms
Tyler Crowley and Kal Patel founders
* Biotech Clubhouse Club
Founded by Chris Garabedian VC, on Sundays at 1pm PDT
News News News Club
no longer have 3 Minute News Health Edition, rooms are divided to general and sports
Caregiving, Dementia and End of Life
* Rethinking Aging Club Alliance to Create Age-friendly Products Thursdays 10-11am PT often touches on caregiving. Replays On.
Shifting the Culture of Caregiving Rooms held led by Debbie Howard can be found in our replays.
I wrote this summary of our Nov 4th Caregiver Resources room
* Memories Are So Yesterday Club
Founded by Susie Singer Carter, Mondays 2pm PST. Replays On.
** I moved inactive clubs in this category to the end of the room listing
Genetics, Rare Diseases
The Gene Fixers Club led by Ethan Perlstein and formerly Clubhouse co-founder Rohan Seth
weekly rooms
Preventive Care and Integrative Medicine
* Many of the Rethinking Aging Club rooms both Tuesday News for the Ages and Thursday topics touch on this
* Integrative Medicine Club
Breathing Brunch, looks like it is on Sundays about 30 minutes. Breathing and meditation.
Dr. Atoosa Kourosh and Dr. Emi Kourosh Hosoda
* Reinventing Health/Care Club
Founded by Ron Gutman, in the earlier days of Clubhouse there were pitch rooms here
Currently there is one monthly room: Reduce Burnout through Functional Medicine Health Coaching
“Preventive Care Now for Older Adults! room WAS in the Medstartr Club led by Dave Dlesk, Marty Agather, often with Debbie Howard and myself. One replay Dec 2021.
Ageism
* Aging Shamelessly Club led by actress and advocate Mariann Aalda
Work and Money for 50+
Consumer Oriented Clubs for Women
Because there are many business clubs for women, I have filtered these choices by a focus on health care or science, or a founder that has been historically involved with aging or health care.
* Second Act Sisters
Founder, Ms. Jack Perez
* Biohacking Women 50+
Founder, Zora Benhamou (digital nomad) 30 minute weekly meetings
* Women Over 50 Lets Talk Menopause and Life After 50 Club
** ** I moved inactive clubs in this category to the end of the room listing
Marketing Tools and Business for Health Care Innovators
* Marketing Club
Founder, Mark Prasad
* Marketing Cafe
Founder, Michael Reynolds
* Social Media Marketing Trends
Founder, Josie Eacho
* Marketing and Product Adoption Rooms in the Rethinking Aging Club
I wrote this summary for our Creating Product Tutorials room.
* Health N Communication Club
Founder, DrDan (Olu)
* Follow Laura Frank Barnard for her replays anywhere.
Her Club LetsMuuv Together & Scale Club
* Negotiation and Persuasion Club
Rooms are led by co-founder Pam Lester
* Health & Social Care Club
UK based. Founder Paul Blane
* Social Media Exchange
Founder, Nina Cole
Large Healthcare Clubs with Multiple Leaders and Topics
* MedTech Club
Co-founded by Henry Peck
Includes Medtech 24/7 Lobby Club
* Human Behavior Club
Founder, Sohaib Imtiaz
* Medstartr Healthcare Innovations Club
Founded by Alex Fair
much less active in 2022 but still have weekly rooms
Nursing
* Nurses Connect Club
Clubhouse says there are four rooms/week so it should be active. There are only four replays. They may have stopped allowing replays.
Wellness Architecture and Interior Design
Wellness Wednesdays Club by Jamie Gold
Science
*Neurophysics Club
Founder Wisam Reid. Newly added. First replay is June 8, 2022.
* The Neuro Network Club – Neuroscience
admins: Nick Burgraff, PhD, Wisam Reid, Erum A. Replays go back to Jan 2022.
* Talk Nerdy to Me Club
Co-founders Jin Yu (WolfxLion) and Amanda Johnstone
* Small Steps & Giant Leaps – mostly about Space
**THE FOLLOWING CLUBS IN THE STARTUP CATEGORY ARE CURRENTLY INACTIVE
DNA Tie Club last room with replay April 2022 – there are replays available
New inventions and businesses in biotechnology, life sciences. Kathrin Kajderowicz hosts the SynBio Journal room on Wednesdays at 7pm PDT
A16Z
ONE Replay available. Official Club of Andreessen Horowitz.
“A16Z Bio” was one of the first Clubs on Clubhouse. Conversations with entrepreneurs engineering biology and reimagining healthcare.
NO REPLAYS AVAILABLE FOR THE FOLLOWING CLUBS
Wellness Club
Wellness Technology pop up shows with Jeremiah Owyang
Innovations in Aging Club
Co-founded and led by Stefano Selorio
Medicine Redefined
Femtech Focus Club
Led by Brittany Barreto PhD.
VC & Angel Investor Club
Founded by Ben Parr
Healthcare Startups Club
Weekly office hours Tuesday 8am PDT by Andrea Paul MD
**CURRENTLY INACTIVE IN CAREGIVING, DEMENTIA AND END OF LIFE
No Replays
End Well Club
Founded by Soshana Ungerleider MD
The Care Club
Founder, Marcus Lucas with co-hosts Dr. Rizwan and Alka Sahnan
NO LONGER ACTIVE IN NEWS CATEGORY
In the News Power Hour: Aging, Longevity and Ageism – Flip the Script After 50 Club – Wednesdays at 10:30am PDT. I was a moderator for this room. Terri Holley put this on hiatus to the end of December 2021 it’s not coming back.
ASPIRING MD’S AND GRAND ROUNDS ARE CURRENTLY INACTIVE BUT THERE ARE REPLAYS
* Virtual Grand Rounds Club
five replays through April 2022 available
* Aspiring MDS Club
Networking, mentoring, education and comforting space for anyone aspiring to be a medical professional
But there is one replay and that will be of value
CARDIOTECH NOT CURRENTLY ACTIVE
CardioTech Club
No replays, no scheduled rooms. Unless they don’t allow replays. They HAD a nightly room at 6pm PT. Huge number of admins
SKIN AND LIPS CURRENTLY INACTIVE BUT THERE ARE REPLAYS
*Skin Enthusiast Club
Replays through February 2022
SkinCare with Derms Club
No Replays
CONSUMER ORIENTED CLUBS FOR WOMEN NO LONGER ACTIVE
Women Over 50 You Can! Club
by Lenora Colarusso RN
Women in Stem
CLUBHOUSE FUNCTIONALITY UPDATES:
Clubhouse now has Pinned Links, optional Captions, 30 second Clips, Replays, Share, Web access for viewing, Chat.
Replays Can Be Used Like Podcasts
At first you needed the Clubhouse app to play replays. Now you don’t because you can play a replay that is shared with you through social media or on the web although the features are much more limited when you listen from the web. Of course, it is usually more fun to participate in a live room but sometimes you just can’t get there.
You can find Replays at the bottom of speaker profiles, on Club pages and in your hallway. Rethinking Aging Club almost always has Replays turned on now. The Replays feature began in the second half of November 2021. If you use event links to add rooms of interest to your Apple or Google calendar, those links will later become Replay links. Clubhouse also allows you to bookmark Replays of interest within the app to view later.
You can create shareable 30 second clips from a Replay.
Reshares / Share on Clubhouse
Reshares also called “Share on Clubhouse” are available while the room is live and allow you to share the room into the hallway with a comment. Clubhouse will group the shares for one room. You can also share the room link off of Clubhouse to social media etc.
Clubhouse Clips 30 Second Clips
I wrote a tutorial on how to save and share Clubhouse Clips and included examples.
Note that there is a QR code that would take you to the live room or a Replay but it may not be that easy to scan. So I recommend that when you post or share a clip, you include a link to the room event or the LinkedIn promo post that usually has more information about the room.
Web Access
Hopefully watching a room Replay through the web will entice non-members to join Clubhouse. It also allows content to be shared more widely which is a benefit to room creators. The founders have said they will continue to focus mainly on mobile for feature development.
Optional Captions
Captions improve the accessibility of Clubhouse.
Text Chat
There is a bubble in the bottom left of the room that takes you to a chat stream where members of the audience can leave comments and questions. Swipe left or click on the link to who is currently speaking at the top of the chat page to return to the room.
