AARP Innovation Labs’ Rick Robinson, VP of Product Development, and Sasha Spellman, Startup Collaboration Director, discuss their 9-month journey since launching The AgeTech Collaborative™. Connecting industry leaders, investors, test beds, business services and startups, the platform generates big new ideas and sends thriving products into the $8 trillion age-tech economy.

About Rick

Rick Robinson is VP of Product development at AARP Innovation Labs. He has been VP of Startup Engagement at Innovation Labs since 2018, where he leads a team working with disruptive startup companies to develop impactful age-tech solutions. The Lab was recognized by Fast Company magazine in 2020 as one of 10 most innovative teams.

Rick has been a digital media executive, successful startup founder, and product leader creating customer experiences for the world's largest media companies and nimblest startups including Urgent.ly (co-founder), Digital City, AOL, AOL Time Warner, Webs.com, Sprint/XOHM, National Geographic Digital and Politico. He has spoken in the mobile, local, and social spaces at the United Nations, CES, SXSW, CTIA and has been cited by a variety of publications including The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.

About Sasha

Sasha Spellman is the Startup Collaboration Director at AARP Innovation Labs. In this role, Sasha is leading the efforts for the AgeTech Collaborative™ - a B2B community platform designed to support the age-tech ecosystem to connect innovative early-stage startups with investors, testbeds, corporations and more.

Prior to AARP, Sasha was at Consumer Technology Association where she fostered entrepreneurship and growth of small business by managing the startup program at CES called Eureka Park. She helped grow investment of early-stage startups from 100 startups at CES 2012 to over 1200 startups at CES 2020.

Key Takeaways

The president of Home Ideations and Chair of the National Aging in Place Council® talks about the renewed focus on "healthspan" and the impact of place on aging well.

About Scott

Scott Fulton is a longevity authority and healthy aging advocate. An evidence-based researcher, innovator, entrepreneur and pragmatic engineer, Scott is recognized for outside-the-box, direct approaches to solve big challenges. He brings an uncommon systems mindset to public health and aging and believes most of us could easily add ten healthy years to life just by pausing, switching off the noise of life, and internalizing the healthspan opportunity within our reach today.

Scott is founder and president of Home Ideations, an education and consulting company focused on healthspan solutions. He teaches at the University of Delaware, chairs the National Aging in Place Council, and is a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, National Health Association, and True Health Initiative Council.

Key Takeaways

The founding president of the National Association of Senior and Specialty Move Managers (NASMM) talks about her new book, life on the “other side of the fence” as a senior living resident, and ways the industry can improve the experience.

About Margit

Margit Novack is an entrepreneur, thought leader in aging and pioneer in Senior Move Management. Margit founded Moving Solutions in 1996, and is widely recognized as a leader the senior move management industry. She is the founding president of the National Association of Senior and Specialty Move Managers (NASMM), chaired the NASMM Ethics Commission, and developed industry training. NASMM recognized Margit’s commitment and service by creating the Margit Novack Award for Excellence.

In 2020, Margit left the formal work world and began a new role as author, speaker, and champion of a re-visioned picture of aging. Her new book, Squint: Re-visioning the Second Half of Life, consists of memorable stories that illustrate larger themes, such as caregiving, forgiveness, family relationships, downsizing and more. Squint demonstrates that with the right perspective and "re-visioning," the future is rich with possibility.

Margit grew up in Philadelphia and has graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives with her husband and three dogs and divides her time between suburban Philadelphia and a home by the water in Maryland, where Margit often kayaks upwind.

Key Takeaways

Senior living has an urgent caregiver crisis, with Covid creating even more challenges. Cathy Richard’s Power Up Program capitalizes on the relationships that exist between caregivers and residents. Small changes can have significant benefits.

About Cathy

Cathy Richards, M.A. is an exercise physiologist, wellness coach, and bestselling author of BOOM: Six Steps to a Longer, Healthier Life. After working in both corporate and senior living settings, Cathy developed her signature programs which focus on maximizing physical health, brain function, and energy levels for all ages. The unique message is “never too early, never too late.” As a professional speaker, Cathy unlocks key mindset shifts and strategies for lasting motivation and lifestyle change. She has been featured on numerous TV news stations and print publications including the Washington Post; you can find out more about her at www.CathyRichards.net.

Key Takeaways

In the past 10 years, Granger Cobb Institute for Senior Living at Washington State University has grown from humble beginnings to a full-fledged interdisciplinary major in senior living management. Housed in the hospitality school in the business college, the Institute runs the gamut of non-credit offerings up through PhD options.

About Nancy

Dr. Nancy Swanger is the Associate Dean and Founding Director of the Granger Cobb Institute for Senior Living, housed in the School of Hospitality Business Management, and the Associate Dean for Inter-College Partnerships in the Carson College of Business at Washington State University. In addition to her administrative duties, she teaches various courses in the curriculum—professional development, senior living operations, and special topics focusing on current trends or industry issues.

Nancy has extensive restaurant experience as a co-worker, manager, district manager, and owner. She and her husband, Larry, owned and operated up to eight Subway restaurants from 1988-2017, and they own two independent concepts in Moscow, Idaho—Gambino’s and the Varsity Diner. Her research interests lie in the areas of senior living, quick-serve restaurant operations, food safety/sanitation, and hospitality curriculum. Prior to coming to WSU, Nancy taught at the University of Idaho and Lewis-Clark State College.

Key Takeaways

The CEO and Executive Director of Thrive Center talks about the world’s first and only non-profit devoted to promoting healthy aging with technological innovations and specialized educational programs, and the technologies changing the lives of older adults. 

About Sheri

Sheri Rose is the CEO and Executive Director of the Thrive Center, a nonprofit innovation center focused on wellness and aging. She is also a partner at Commonwealth Leverage LLC, a healthcare professional consulting firm. Sheri previously held positions with AT&T, as Director of Sales & Regulatory. She serves on the Executive Board of the Women’s Political Council of Louisville and on the board of New Directions Housing Authority.

Sheri was named by Louisville Business First as “Top 20 People to Know in Aging” and was recognized by HealthTech Magazine as a woman to know in health IT. Sheri holds a B.A and M.Ed. in Psychology from the University of Louisville.

Key Takeaways

This long-term senior living veteran calls out the industry for being a one-trick pony. Find out why three quarters of the older adult market goes largely unaddressed, and the bigger market opportunity is farther up the pyramid of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs—helping people satisfy their need for growth and self-actualization.

About Dan

Dan Hutson is chief marketing officer for Claiborne Senior Living, a privately held owner-operator of senior living communities throughout the Southeastern United States. He has more than 30 years of experience in helping organizations meet their marketing, communications, and strategic planning needs.

Before joining Claiborne, he served as chief strategy officer for HumanGood, the seventh-largest U.S. nonprofit provider of senior housing serving 10,000 older adults. As CSO, he was responsible for strategic planning, sales and marketing, corporate communications, and innovation and experience design.

Dan has spoken on senior living trends, marketing, innovation, and other topics at the NIC Fall Conference, SMASH Conference, the Argentum Chief Executive Summit, LeadingAge national and state conferences, and other gatherings of senior living leaders. He also has served on the advisory board of SMASH and the conference education planning committees for the NIC Fall Conference and LeadingAge Annual Meeting & EXPO. His marketing and communication programs have been honored by the National Mature Media Awards, Content Marketing Awards, EXCEL Awards and Healthcare Marketing IMPACT Awards.

Key Takeaways

The go-to analyst of age-tech shares her take on solutions for connection, health, and safety, how wearables will influence senior living, and why voice is the “killer app.”

About Laurie

Laurie M. Orlov is a tech industry veteran, writer, speaker, and elder care advocate. Her popular report Aging and Health Technology Watch provides thought leadership, analysis and guidance about health and aging-related technologies and services that enable boomers and seniors to sustain and improve their quality of life. In her previous career, Laurie spent many years in the technology industry, including nine years at analyst firm Forrester Research. She has spoken regularly and delivered keynote speeches at forums, industry consortia, conferences, and symposia, most recently on the business of technology for boomers and seniors. She advises large organizations as well as non-profits and entrepreneurs about trends and opportunities in the age-related technology market.

Laurie’s segmentation of this emerging technology market and trends commentary have been presented in the Journal of Geriatric Care Management. Her perspectives have been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Senior Housing News, CNN Health, and Consumer Reports. She has a graduate certification in Geriatric Care Management from the University of Florida and a BA in Music from the University of Rochester. Laurie has provided testimony about technology at a Senate Aging Committee hearing and consulted to AARP. Advisory clients have included AARP, Argentum, Bose, CDW, Microsoft, Novartis, Philips, and many others.

Key Takeaways

The Founder & CEO of SmartLiving 360 and Nexus Insights Fellow shares his thoughts on why “place” is so important and how senior living operators need to position to satisfy a new generation of older adults.

About Ryan

Ryan Frederick focuses on the intersection of place and healthy aging. His first book, Right Place, Right Time: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Home for the Second Half of Life, was released October 12 by Johns Hopkins University Press.

SmartLiving 360 helps institutions and individuals thrive in the Age of Longevity by providing strategy consulting services, real estate development services and consumer content. Clients range from leading health systems and billion-dollar institutional investment firms to national real estate developers to senior living providers. SmartLiving 360’s joint development with Federal Realty Investment Trust, The Stories at Congressional Plaza, is an age friendly apartment community in greater Washington, D.C. that has attracted national attention. Ryan publishes a consumer blog and other content at www.smartliving360.com.

Ryan serves on the national advisory board of the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and is a Fellow for Nexus Insights, a think tank focused on new models of care and community for older adults. He is a graduate of Princeton and Stanford Business School and lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and three teenagers.

Key Takeaways

The consumer products designer holding numerous patents, Knopow spent his career applying user-centered design to purposeful projects. His company Motivo focuses on new generation mobility aids for older adults. His motto? “There's got to be a better way…” 

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About Jeremy

Jeremy Knopow is c-founder of Motivo: Independence by Design. A Product Designer and Mechanical Engineer with over 25 years of Fortune 100 new product development experience, he has led innovation efforts at Kohler, SC Johnson, Fiskars, and Procter and Gamble. In 2012 following his late father’s battle with ALS, Knopow co-founded Motivo, Inc. to reinvent the world of mobility aids. Along the way, he has also been applied his design skills to broader problems ranging from hot showers for 9/11 rescue workers, improving sanitation in the slums of Nairobi, to fighting malaria in Ghana.

Knopow has been a frequent guest lecturer on user-centered design and social entrepreneurship at numerous universities around the world and is currently an Adjunct Prof. of Design at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s of Fine Arts in Industrial Design, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as being named on over 170 patents.

Key Takeaways

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