STEAMlab Urban Hack: The Future of Retirement Care

What is a STEAMlab?

A STEAMlab is a hack-style event in which we bring together regional SMEs and creatives to work together, collaborating to build  solutions to real problems. Specific problems faced by ExtraCare Retirement Villages will be our focus in this STEAMlab.

You have the opportunity of working with peers from different industries, with different skillsets, and together we will be able to combine our collective knowledge and expertise to develop a solution to the problem – or as the old saying goes “two heads are better than one.”

STEAMlab is a high-energy, creative and collaborative event, with the opportunity for you to create new solutions to be fast-tracked and/or get funded for the next stage of development! 

The challenge set to innovators:

The next challenge area to be tackled by STEAMlab is around the ExtraCare village and facilities. We have identified two specific challenge areas that are clearly experienced by residents but have little existing innovation happening to help solve them. They are:

Mobility - There are general challenges relating to how people move in and out of and around extra care facilities and management of the equipment supporting that.

Social Connections - There are various analogue methods in place for advertising social events, but minimal structures for connecting people within the village around common interests or needs.

We propose that there are broadly two avenues to be explored in looking for solutions:

• Incremental solutions – build on the current situations to help them to work better (new tech, new processes, minor behavoural changes)

• Disruptive solutions - create a whole new way of approaching mobility (new business models, mobility as a service, fundamental behaviour shift)

Why attend our STEAMlab?

• Selected teams can gain access to support and funding to turn your ideas into solutions

• Discover new ways of thinking which can be applied to your business

• Make new connections with a variety of local professionals, creatives, SMEs and more

• Be inspired to innovate and take your business to the next level

If this sounds like your cup of tea, or you’d like more info then register for your free ticket and we'll see you there! Get ready to innovate! (Oh, and please bring your laptop along with you.)

Our last STEAMlab was sold out so book early to avoid disappontment.

We look forward to seeing you there, book your place now!

Event Agenda:

Day 1 Activity – Launch Event

16:00 Registration and coffee, networking, stands/exhibits

16:30 Welcome to STEAMlabs Urban Hack! Keynote talks; Introduction to the challenge themes

17:30 Food, networking, questions, building links

18:00 Team formation, problem definition and initial ideas

19:30 Wrapping up for the evening – close 20:00

Day 2 Activity – Hack Day

09:30 Registration and coffee; Teams reconnect

10:00 Ideas exploration and development

13:00 Lunch

13:45 Prototyping and project planning

16:00 Pitches & questions

17:30 Winners/prizes/feedback

18:00 Main event closes (networking continues to 19:00)

Timings are subject to change