In the past year, we have seen the emergence of many new companies offering technology-enabled products and services for older consumers. And it’s encouraging to note that increasing numbers of product developers are eager to explore and leverage best practice co-design, ensuring their concept, prototype or product is actually fit for purpose.
Developers, alongside governments, platform providers and distributors, are thinking more carefully about how they design and implement solutions that support healthy, positive ageing throughout all of life’s course. They increasingly recognise the crucial intersection between innovation, technology, and co-design with end users to validate market fit.
The GCMA’s integral role in largescale projects across Asia Pacific has us well placed to support nations and organisations eager to harness the transformative potential of AgeTech™. AgeTech™ is the application of a kaleidoscope of digital and other technologies to products and services that address the needs of people and communities as we age.
I have recently returned from Stanford University, where I had the opportunity share insights on modern ageing with global leaders as a participant in their executive business program. I also visited the Stanford Center on Longevity, where we exchanged an update on the ground-breaking research that Stanford are conducting and the GCMA’s translational research outcomes.
Older people represent the largest cohort of citizens, and therefore consumers, on the planet. Organisations defining their strategic direction and commercial offering cannot afford to neglect – or misunderstand - this diverse and dynamic segment. I strongly encourage established and emerging leaders to galvanise around the common purpose of ageing well.
People demand, and deserve, choice in where and how they live, beyond the limited choices of the past, or today’s mainstream offerings. This newsletter explores our recent engagement with Barossa Village, and offers a refreshing, modern vision of intergenerational living.
Our partnership with iLA, also showcased in this edition of Connect, highlights the importance of respecting older people’s individual identities, and accounting for diversity in all of its forms. GCMA’s tremendous respect and appreciation for diversity is embedded at the heart of our co-design process and is vital to ensuring we deliver genuine personalisation.
Common to both the Barossa and iLA engagements is a deep level of enquiry and pragmatism, intended to surface valuable insights, and ultimately shape solutions truly tailormade for their intended users.
We have a number of exciting initiatives taking place across Asia, and I look forward to sharing further insights in our next edition.
Closer to home, this issue highlights the perspective of new GCMA Board Director, Philippa Lewis. Philippa brings extensive expertise in aged care and experience in product development, commercialising assistive technologies, and disruptive digital platforms.
Our GCMA Team is buoyed by the many leaders across Government, enterprise, academia, and the non-profit sector already working to deliver new ways of living for our future. We extend our gratitude to these individuals, and most importantly, to our citizen co-designers, whose impactful contributions are paving the way to better lives for the many.
Julianne Parkinson
CEO
