Canada’s AGE-WELL Continues Lead to Educate in an Age Tech Future.

Since the start I’ve followed AGE-WELL, and in 2020 their mandate extended for a second time to end of fiscal year 2023 to support older adults & caregivers, achieving social and economic impact through technology innovations – in a market now commonly referred to globally as Age Tech.

Over these years AGE-WELL has continued their lead to educate in an Age Tech Future, with research, tech innovation pitch competitions, webinars, conferences, training and international collaborations with others organizations in the Age Tech space. Apart from what I would call the insider audience of researchers and entrepreneurs in Age Tech, public webinars for the everyday person are available and my aim is to help highlight these frequently by way of my blog posts.

For example the last public webinar I attended was in July, titled Unpacking the Latest Census Data from an Age Tech Perspective. Statistics Canada is releasing data on a number of topics based on analysis from the 2021 census, and the StatCan July release focused on Canada’s aging population and the way older Canadians are living their lives. This webinar (found in the title link above on YouTube), looked at what this means for the field of technology and aging.

Now that the 2022 fall season has arrived, more is on the way, and an example of another relevant public webinar kicked things off on Sept.20 with Age Tech and Arthritis: How Technology Can Help People Living with Arthritis (YouTube view in the title link). For a look at past webinars dating back to 2017 check this link AGE-WELL Public Webinar Series. No excuse now, not to get educated on topics that involve everyday people in their daily lives as older adults and caregivers.

As another example of partnering, this summer AGE-WELL and the Canadian College of Health Leaders produced a themed issue of the journal Healthcare Management Forum which focused on aging, technology and health in a post-COVID world. Not sure we’re there yet.

For those in the field of Age Tech, the AGE-WELL Annual Conference is back as an in-person event in Regina, Saskatchewan from Oct.18-20. The conference invites “researchers, industry leaders, care providers and organizations, older adults, caregivers and government representatives to discuss current issues and innovations in the field of technology and aging.”

After all this time since COVID it will be interesting to see the attendance numbers for this event. I do know someone who will be going and look forward to getting the feedback on his return with the hope of commenting in a future post in November. After all we’ve learned from event planning over the last few years, my only disappointment and surprise is that the AGE-WELL conference is not offered as a hybrid LIVE & Virtual event. Surely technology would increase participation?

However I will continue to follow and report on AGE-WELL and eagerly await news on how the organization will renew themselves after 2023 for theirs is a Canadian story to be proud of, one with global recognition as evidenced by the recent acknowledgement of Dr. Alex Mihailidis – AGE-WELL’s Scientific Director and CEO, as one of the Healthy Ageing 50 – 50 leaders working to transform the world to be a better place to grow older. The Healthy Ageing 50 is part of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing initiative that honours 50 global leaders who are working to foster healthy aging.