Blog

Don’t panic – you haven’t missed out on early bird tickets for the AAL Forum 2018, but your time is running out. There’s just two weeks left for delegates and exhibitors to receive tickets at reduced prices to one of the largest exhibitions of its kind. This year’s forum is taking place in Bilbao in the heart of the Biscay region and with days packed full of interesting workshops, plenary sessions and an exhibition of products and posters planned, there is ample chance for you to network, debate and actively participate in advancing ICT technology that helps older people live longer, healthier lives. This year’s discussion will focus on how we can all age well in the digital world and...Read More

We are proud to announce that the winner of the second edition of the esteemed Smart Ageing Prize 2018 will be announced at the AAL Forum this year – and it promises to be a very exciting finish to the competition. The Smart Ageing Prize was established by the AAL Programme in collaboration with Nesta’s Challenge Prize Centre to find technological products and services that help older people actively participate in a social life. This year, the AAL Forum will announce the winners of the Smart Ageing Prize during the forum’s closing ceremony, where the overall winner will be awarded a top prize of €35,000. There will also be a second-place prize and a judge’s choice prize. With the theme...Read More

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...Read More

Jeremy Myerson is in his early 60s, knocking at the door of the ‘ripe-old age’ of 65. Is he old? Is his time for living life to the fullest coming to an end? In some cultures, it would be, but in Myerson’s eyes and in AAL’s, it’s far from it. Jeremy Myerson is an established author, an academic and above all, an activist in design. More importantly, he is a designer who encourages design that improves quality of life. An Honorary Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing and the first-ever holder of the Helen Hamlyn Chair of Design, Myerson’s work has become an inspiration for those looking to elicit advances from the ageing demographic shift. From being a...Read More

We’ve revealed the first and second themes of the AAL Forum 2018, Life after AAL – Ensuring solutions are getting to the market, and, Business to consumer market – The silver economy dimensions. Today it’s the turn of the third and final theme. Theme 3: AAL-related eco-system This theme will investigate how to bring together relevant stakeholders across Europe in mobility, transport, education, training, care giving and ageing, who are interested in using their expertise to help implement technology for the older population. Doing so will help to create a much stronger AAL community that is able to create and implement more market-ready solutions itself. Some of the propose workshop topics look at: Co-creating the IoT ecosystems for active and...Read More

Yesterday we revealed the first theme of the AAL Forum 2018, Life after AAL – Ensuring solutions are getting to the market. Today it’s the turn of theme 2. Theme 2: Business to consumer market – The silver economy dimensions This theme aims to bridge the gap between the silver economy and active and assisted living technology by seeking to form an understanding of how to market this technology successfully. By being aware of what is attractive to emerging silver agers, it is possible to get AAL products and services closer to making a real social impact. Europe has already started implementing new ideas and taking exciting action in answer to the challenges it faces with its changing demographic. The...Read More

As well as showcasing some amazing technology, the AAL Forum will address its main thematic focus of Ageing Well in the Digital Age through lively debate, interactive workshops, ground-breaking talks and the sharing of some brilliant ideas.   Through this exciting programme, we are looking to engage with our growing community of change makers who are helping to deliver technology that will improve quality of life for older people in the digital age.   Out of 53 European-wide workshop applications, 26 sessions were eventually selected for the programme. Forum delegates will be able to take part in these workshops actively and help address the main forum topic through three themes that run across the programme acting as the main areas...Read More

AAL Forum workshop coordinators recently attended a webinar hosted by AAL and Insight Publishers, the forum’s communication experts, on the best strategies to help them promote their AAL Forum 2018 workshops. The webinar detailed to the coordinators how their active involvement in planned communication activities will positively help promote each of their workshops in the build-up to the forum and get potential participants excited. Coordinators were then led through a detailed presentation on how to make their workshop appealing through the organisation of interactive and motivational sessions. Invaluable help and top tips were given on how to encourage the active involvement of workshop participants. Lastly, the webinar offered advice for coordinators about the promotion of their workshops after the forum...Read More

AAL Forum will hold its next edition in Bilbao, the capital of the province of Bizkaia, a region with high economic development and a high quality of life. The whole Basque Country (Bizkaia is part of this Autonomous Community) is very aware of ageing policies. The Basque Country has one of the highest life expectancies in the world (85.4 years for women and 78.9 for men) and one third of the population is now over 55 years old (and about 7.5% of the population is over 80). Public administrations are very aware of active ageing policies. In fact, Bizkaia ranks third in Europe, after Denmark and Sweden, in terms of the capacity of appropriate environments for active ageing.  The main...Read More

The AAL Forum is an unmissable opportunity for exhibitors to showcase new technological advances and innovations in the field of active ageing to potential investors, other SMEs, industry and the research community. The forum guarantees all exhibitors two full days of exposure to industry stakeholders who are looking to get their hands on the next big thing and invest in solutions designed for active ageing. Your stand at the forum is your stage. It is an excellent way to attract these potential buyers and investors with interactive demonstrations. This face-to-face approach is the perfect platform for you to explain, present and answer questions in detail, in a relaxed environment. As well as giving you this opportunity with investors, an exhibition...Read More