Be part of the AAL conversation and make a difference
Last year’s forum, held in the beautiful Portuguese city of Coimbra was alight with new faces, new optimism and the emergence of the new old.
The AAL Forum is not just a platform for business-driven networking, it is a place for you to ask questions and share your ideas and opinions openly amongst AAL friends. Nurturing these thoughts can play a key role in achieving greater market success for AAL solutions, and the 2017 forum revitalised and strengthened the importance of communication in the AAL ecosystem.
A small team of AAL correspondents meandered and mingled, spoke to stakeholders, delegates, exhibitors and investors throughout the 2017 forum to hear stories, share thoughts and catch-up with the AAL community because after all – your opinion’s matter. Here is just a snippet of what you shared with us last year:
For 2017, talks took a different direction focusing on the social aspects of AAL rather than the technological. For Stefan Loacker from Helvetia Insurance, education is a vital, underutilised service that is needed, “to address the professionals and young people in society and campaign against ageism to develop a new picture about older people,” he said.
Iñaki Batolomé from ZocAALo, on the other hand, was keen to see, “organisations brought into the heart of innovative products” as a means to deal with the fragmentation and lack of trust currently hindering the passage of AAL solutions to market.
As always, it was great see new faces at the 2017 forum, especially getting stuck in and sharing fresh, first-timers’ views on AAL, such as Matthew Bellis from the University of Wales Trinity St David. Bellis was impressed with the visit of the group of older visitors at the forum but said, “there could be more users present so we can understand what they want”. He also added that, “the networking opportunities are brilliant, meeting lots of people who could be beneficial to the project.”
Users will be visiting the AAL Forum 2018, making it the perfect platform to test out ideas and demonstrate products and services.
So, from first-timers like Bellis and Vincent Richard, a software engineer from the University of Geneva who questioned that, “my boss told me AAL is ending in 2020 – but why should it? The problems will still exist and the people will still be there”, we also spoke to experienced AALers like Maggie Ellis, EKTG Coordinator and Managing Director at West Square Associates. She feels that, “we are here because we are all trying to collaborate and make AAL work better”. This certainly applies to the forum this year as it remains open to anyone looking to make a change in the field of active and healthy ageing.
2018 will be even better
This year in Bilbao, Spain we want to hear more of your discussions, opinions and perspectives as they really help foster interesting and valuable dialogues in the AAL ecosystem. Without your involvement, the AAL community would not be able to advance year after year and innovative solutions for independent, healthier lives for older people would be not progressing.
The forum gives you the opportunity to network, and in the words of Ad van Berlo from Smart Homes, “everyone leaves having learned something invaluable that they can take away with them and apply to their own work”.
Be a part of the new conversations, understand the challenges facing older people in the digital age, learn how technology can meet these challenges and immerse yourself in the new state-of-the-art solutions that will be on show
Register for the AAL Forum 2018 NOW, and help make an active change in how we live our lives as we get older.