Tag Archive for: Presto

Your Invitation to Thursday’s AGETEK informational webinar

Do you want to learn more about the new Aging and Technology Alliance: AGETEK???
Consider this your invitation to a conference call & online meeting where we will discuss Aging Technology Alliance membership:
Day:        Thursday
Date:       April 22, 2010
Time:       11:00 A.M. Pacific (2:00 P.M. Eastern)
Duration: 1 hour
_____
Phone (to listen and speak):
dial-in &  password will be listed on the top of the webinar  *(to mute/unmute:  *6)
Online (to view slides, access to public chat and to listen through computer speakers only): http://my.dimdim.com/grandcare
_____
Agenda:
The Aging Technology Alliance ad hoc board of directors has been busy getting the organization started: i.e. listening to feedback on membership structure, fielding membership requests from over 100 organizations, incorporating AgeTek, writing by-laws, etc. At this meeting, we will discuss…
– The benefits of membership in the Aging Technology Alliance
– Requirements of Members and Associate Members
– Cost to become a Member or Associate Member
– Creation of an AgeTek Advisory Board
*****HERE’S WHERE WE NEED YOUR RESPONSE!!!!
– Introductions – we would like to provide an opportunity for members to introduce themselves and their companies. Anyone who wishes to be allotted one minute to state who they are, what their company does, and what they hope to accomplish through the AgeTek membership may sign-up for a one-minute speaking slot by sending an email to agetek@me.com. Slots are limited and available on a first come-first served basis. Please put “AgeTek” in your email subject line.
Bring your questions, bring your comments, and bring your checkbook because we will be telling you where to send your first year dues, and the next steps for participation and committee formation to start the work of the alliance.

Thank you!

The AgeTek Board of Directors

EHX Home Health Tech Pavilion – GREAT SUCCESS!!

Just returned from 5 days in Sunny Orlando (at least they tell us it was sunny) – wouldn’t know, we spent the entire time at the Electronic House Expo at the Orange County Convention Center! And wow – what a great show for the home health technology industry!

Overall, the show attendance was down. We had heard this and wondered what the show would have in store for us! We really couldn’t have been busier, so it really said a LOT about the shift towards home health for the dealers in this industry.

We arrived on Tuesday morning and spent the entire day in the Peabody, revamping GrandCare dealer training for the next day.

Wednesday, we arrived at 8am for GrandCare Authorized dealer training! The room was abuzz as 30 NEW GrandCare dealers loaded in ready to SPEED train as we powered through about 15 hours of material in 7.5….

Great session, the session went great and the dealers were very interactive and seemed to gain a lot of information!!

ON Thursday at 10am, the EHX show floor opened. It appeared to be about less than half of what it was about 2 years ago. A sign of a bad economy, that’s clear. The silver lining is that the people that DO come are the decision makers AND the ones TRULY interested. We had many dealers that came up and said home health tech is the ONLY reason they attended EHX. A truly positive sign for this industry!

GrandCare was pounded ALL day Thursday by interested dealers – we had an extra large booth with 5 GC reps(represented by a few GC staff and Home Controls (Strategic Dist Partner) and Elder-Watch (Master dealer)).

The first panel session moderated by Laurie Orlov was a huge success. It was standing room only as the 4 panelists from GrandCare Systems, Celery, LogicMark and Halo Monitoring explained their products as Laurie Orlov moderated (recap here: http://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/aarp-and-those-boomers-recareerers-and-home-related-professionals)

Later Thursday afternoon, GrandCare hosted the weekly agetech call LIVE FROM THE EHX FLOOR!!! Using a mic and webcam, GrandCare’s Laura Mitchell (host of the agetech call and VP Chair of the AgeTek Alliance board) hosted the weekly call from the GrandCare booth and interviewed other aging and technology vendors as well as some of the interested dealers.
Recording (including video) http://my.dimdim.com/view2/all/grandcare/default/138cae63-c640-42c4-9748-2888bdf11e5e

End of Day One – GREAT SUCCESS & Many Many Leads to show from it. 17 of us from the Aging and technology pavilion went out to celebrate with dinner and drinks at a local watering hole!!

Friday – Day Two…to be continued…

ASA/ Boomer Summit wrap-up

Got back late Friday night from the ASA and Boomer Summit In Chicago! It was an exciting, exhausting and fun-filled, action-packed 3 days.

Thursday morning was an AgeTek board meeting – getting ready for the big launch later that day. Thursday afternoon was when the boomer summit boot camp sessions began.

I spoke on a panel about social media and how to best use it for business. It was a 3 hour panel. After that, I rushed to the AgeTek launch down the hall.

It was our official AgeTek Industry Alliance meeting! Standing room only – it was an enormous success! Everyone was enthusiastic and ready to work together – a truly historic step for our industry! We all left with tshirts and directly after this had to head to the speaker reception put on by Mary Furlong & Associates.

After a full day and evening of networking, great conversations and new friends, we turned in.

Friday was the Boomer Summit – GrandCare had an exhibit table, but we also had to work the speaker rooms, helping moderators get started and set up in the beginning of each session.
Lunch with the experts was wonderful & after the last sessions ended at 5p, we all headed to the summit wrap and networking session.

All in all, very glad to have gone! We caught up with industry folks like, Laurie Orlov, Donna Cusano, Susan Ayers Walker, Karen Klein – fellow tech colleagues & agetek members: halo, mygait, presto, wellcore, verizon, jnl technologies, home instead…

and of course my fellow AgeTek board members: Peter Radsliffe, Michele Ahlman, Jill Gilbert, Bud Myers

A great ending to a great week! Now on to this week – we will be reporting live from Orlando – the Electronic House Expo will be going on and GrandCare will play a significant role in the home health tech pavilion.

Wednesday, we are hosting 25 new GC dealers for GC dealer training. Authorized dealers may attend as a refresher for a small fee, learn all about our new multi-resident features.
Still have a few seats available, email gcsales@homecontrols.com to sign up.

Many educational presentations by GrandCare, please check ehxweb.com for schedules.

Thanks,
Laura Mitchell
Dir of Business Relations
GrandCare Systems

“AGING TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE” FORMED BY CONSORTIUM OF HOME HEALTH TECH COMPANIES

Group aims to become the world’s leading aging-focused technology consortium

CHICAGO, IL – March 15, 2008 – Today, the formation of a consortium named the Aging Technology Alliance was announced by a group of companies and organizations from the home health technology industry. The announcement was made at the What’s Next Boomer Business Summit which is running alongside the Aging in America Conference sponsored by the National Council on Aging and American Society on Aging.

The Alliance was formalized at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show when leaders from companies participating in the CES Silvers Summit met and agreed to form the group. Subsequent meetings formed an ad hoc board of directors with representatives from ClearSounds Communications, Digital Health @ CES, firstSTREET, GrandCare Systems, Jitterbug, and Presto Services.

“The need for some sort of consortium became obvious when I originally proposed our companies somehow work together while on a webinar in November of 2009.” said Peter Radsliff, CEO of Presto Services and chairman of the Aging Technology Alliance’s ad hoc board of directors. “The reaction was strong and swift to create a group that focused on helping its members gain awareness and promote their products and services to our aging society. No other organization currently does this.”

“Other organizations focus their missions on acting as brokers between companies, organizations and academia to guide development of solutions to aid aging-in-place.” said
Jill Gilbert of Digital Health @ CES and Alliance board member & treasurer, “The Aging Technology Alliance mission is to promote the awareness, benefits and value of member products and services and assist in the advancement of member companies and individual members.”

The Aging Technology Alliance mission—which can be found at www.agetek.org—also states its intention to facilitate innovation through professional development, education and standardization of products and services, and by creating a vital and expanding aging technology community.

“We believe that the aging technology industry will advance as a whole if we encourage cooperation between members.” said Bud Myers, Sr. Director of Merchandising for firstSTREET and Alliance board member. “And that by developing ‘best practices’ our membership will be more successful.”

The Alliance is currently soliciting voting and non-voting members from across the market spectrum; manufacturers, developers, resellers, educators, organizations, et al. An open meeting will be held at the What’s Next Boomer Business Summit, 4:30 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. at the Hyatt Regency Chicago in the Hong Kong room. All potential members are welcome. Press and bloggers are invited as well, space permitting. People wishing to attend should R.S.V.P. by sending an email to agetek@me.com. Companies wishing to join the Aging Technology Alliance or to find out more information should visit http://www.agetek.org or email the address above.

###

About the Aging Technology Alliance
The Aging Technology Alliance (AgeTek.org) was established in 2010 to promote the awareness, benefits and value of products and services for an aging society while directly benefiting its members by evolving into the world’s leading aging-focused technology consortium. For more information, visit: http://www.agetek.org

Contact:
Peter Radsliff, chairman ad hoc board of directors, Aging Technology Alliance
email: agetek@me.com phone: 415.850.1971

© 2010 Alliance Technology Alliance. “Aging Technology Alliance” and “AgeTek” are unregistered trademarks of the Aging Technology Alliance.
No endorsement or affiliation is implied between the Aging Technology Alliance and the National Council on Aging or American Society on Aging.

OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF (AgeTek) Aging & Technology Industry Alliance

If you’ve been on our weekly calls, you’ve heard all about the long awaited launch of Agetek!

Next Thursday, we launch the Aging Technology Alliance (aka AgeTek.org) and we want you to join us!

The purpose in building this important and necessary group is to promote awareness, benefits and value of products and services for our aging society while directly benefiting our members by evolving into the world’s leading aging-focused technology consortium.

An Ad Hoc Board of Directors has been hard at work and are anxious to build a strong membership to really shape our future and most importantly shape the future channels for aging technology products and services.

We will share our mission and vision statement at the meeting, but if you are just a little bit curious, an interim website has been created. We obviously aren’t in a place to take memberships yet via the site, but you can see where the idea of the consortium came from and the team that has been working on it along with the mission: http://www.agetek.org

Meeting details
Date: Thursday, March 18th, 2010
Time: 4:30-6:00pm CST
Location: Hong Kong Room, Hyatt Regency Chicago (ASA/NCOA/What’s Next Conferences are there)
151 E. Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois

Please RSVP: agetek@me.com if you will be attending. We need to know if a larger room is needed.

If you can’t attend – That’s ok! You can still be a part of the Aging Technology Alliance! Please visit www.agetek.org or email: agetek@me.com to join! We will be giving updates!!!!
Follow us on Twitter @AgeTek
Connect with us on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2848603&trk=anet_ug_hm

INTRODUCING NEW AGETEK ALLIANCE!!

Introduction
The following page outlines the vision, mission and name
that was developed by the Ad Hoc Board of Directors for
the special industry group that formed at CES 2010.
Although this vision, mission and name have been voted into
place by the board, we wanted to publish this to the broader
group of companies that would ostensibly fall into the category
of voting members for a comment period.
The ad hoc board will take any comments under advisement
and consider them for inclusion or revision. The board will
then vote again for final adoption.
The final vision, mission and name will be unveiled at a
group meeting in Chicago at the What’s Next Boomer
Summit on March 18.
So, without further ado, please turn the page…
— Peter Radsliff, ad hoc board chairman
March 3, 2010
A note about the ad hoc board of directors:
The ad hoc board of directors were nominated and elected by 13 participants
representing 10 companies on a conference call 1/27/10 (meeting minutes
available at http://bit.ly/dmNctq). The elected ad hoc board of directors are:
Peter Radsliff, ad hoc board chairman (Presto Services) peter.radsliff@presto.com
Jill Gilbert, treasurer
Michele Ahlman, secretary (ClearSounds)
Bud Myers, director (firstSTREET)
Madeline Pantalone, director (Jitterbug)
Laura Mitchell, director (GrandCare Systems)

Page2
Our Vision:
We promote the awareness, benefits and value of products and services for our
aging society while directly benefiting our members by evolving into the
world’s leading aging-focused technology consortium.
Our Mission:
Purpose:
1. To promote the awareness, benefits and value of member products and services
2. To assist in the advancement of member companies and individual members
Methods:
3. By facilitating innovation through professional development, education and standardization
of products and services
4. By creating a vital and expanding aging technology community
Beliefs:
5. That by encouraging cooperation between members the aging technology industry will
advance as a whole
6. That by pursuing development of “best practices” and a program of continual improvement,
members will be more successful
Our Name:
Aging Technology Alliance
www.agetek.org
Aging “Aging” because this term is unambiguous in its meaning and somewhat neutral in its
identification. “Silver” is somewhat ambiguous in its reference when used outside of our
industry. “Elder” is seen as a pejorative term and one that resists self-identification. Like it
or not, we are all aging, and this group believes that the aging experience can be improved
through the application of technology.
Technology “Technology” because the products and services we develop, sell, install and operate have
to do with different applications of technology.
Alliance “Alliance” because it means “a merging of efforts or interests by persons, families, states,
or organizations.” For our products and services to have a positive effect on society and
our businesses, many disparate groups need to be involved; such as developers, installers,
marketers, caregivers, family members and users. Without an alliance of these different
groups, the technology will not reach the user

For more information, please contact Peter Radsliffe from Presto: peter.radsliff@presto.com
AgeTek.org is not live yet, in the meantime, visit: http://smartsilvers.com/sig/

THANKS!

Laura Mitchell
ViceChair
AgeTek Alliance
www.agetek.org (live soon!!)

1st meeting: Thursday March 18th, 2010 430 – 6pm Hong Kong Room, Hyatt – Chicago. During ASA Conference

What you Can’t Afford to Miss at EHX 2010

Where is EHX Spring 2010 http://ehxweb.com/
March 25th – 27th, 2010
Orange County Convention Center
West Building – Halls A1-2
9800 International Drive
Orlando, FL 32819
800-345-9845
www.occc.net

Home Health Tech Participants include:
GrandCare Systems
Celery
Halo
LogicMark
MyGait
Presto Services, Inc
Sponsored by: GrandCare Systems

The Schedule of AgeTech Events!!! Did I miss something (please post a comment on the bottom for me to add to the list)

Wed March 24th
9a – 5p (ROOM 304H) GRANDCARE DEALER TRAINING MEETING – open to ALL Authorized GC DEALERS
Thurs March 25th
10:00AM – 6:00PM Exhibits Open
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM ROOM New Opportunities Pavilion
CE Pro – Home Health: Technology Hot Seat Panel Discussion
Learn the different types of technology that are currently being used and integrated into independent living for our aging population.
Moderated by Laurie Orlov, Aging in Place Technology Watch
Speakers: Gaytha Traynor (GrandCare Systems), Neil Grabowski (Celery), George Kanelos (LogicMark), Pam Martin (Halo)
http://ehxweb.com/schedule/detail/D2D-Enabling-Technology-Manufacturers-Hot-Seat-Panel-Session
2:00PM – 3:00PM ROOM – EHX PRESS ROOM
LIVE FROM EHX Weekly AgeTech Conference Call Hosted AT EHX!! Please contact: Laura@grandcare.com to sign up to speak as an EHX attendee/exhibitor. We are looking for speakers to talk for 5 minutes during the LIVE FROM EHX conference and discuss what they are seeing, their impressions of the EHX show, and of course, discuss their personal interests in home health technology! PLEASE CONTACT LAURA to sign up for a speaking slot!
Friday March 26th
9am – 1030am ROOM 203B
When Grandpa wants the Cadillac! GrandCare Systems
This training session led by GrandCare Systems, discusses the latest home health technology: GrandCare Systems. A holistic combination of 4 “Smart Home” technologies: Activity Monitoring, Telehealth Assessment, Connectivity/Social Networking and Cognition into one easy-to-use system to help a loved one “Age Responsibly” at home! Using a series of wireless protocol-driven (Zwave/Bluetooth) sensors, GrandCare generates automated alerts to care-partners if anything seems amiss (vitals abnormal, medication noncompliance, someone does not get out of bed, etc.). Meanwhile, family can electronically send pictures, youtube videos, messages, music, emails and more to a dedicated SIMPLE-to-USE TOUCHSCREEN in the loved one’s home. Learn how you can do WELL by doing some Good!
10:00AM – 6:00PM Exhibits Open
1p – 2pm Room: New Opportunities Pavilion
CE Pro D2D – Healthcare Reform: Opportunities in Home Health Technology
Moderated by Julie Jacobson, CE Pro
Speakers: Paul Ebaugh (Elder-Watch), Jason Ray (Simply Home)
430 PM – 530 PM Room: CE PRO Stage
Developing Your Sales and Marketing Plan to DIVE into the $20 billion aging & tech market!
Speakers: Laura Mitchell (GrandCare Systems), Peter Radsliff (Presto Services, Inc.)
Saturday March 27th
10:00AM – 3:00PM Exhibits Open

Consider joining us at EHX 2010 as an attendee or home health tech exhibitor

The Aging Tsunami will Float All Boats – NEW Aging/Tech Consortium

Ever wonder why the Burger Kings always move across the street from McDonalds? Or the hair salons comprise one whole corner of town? It’s the concept of co-ompetition. The reason we have malls. Because once the Burger King moves across the street from McDonalds, both restaurants do better.

Here’s a prime example of two competitors working together from a logistics standpoint: Nestle and Mars have been sharing trucks to deliver combined loads of chocolate. In just 11 weeks, over 60 loads were combined with approximately 7,500 miles of duplicate truck journeys eliminated.

This same concept can be used across the industry, including in the aging and technology industry.
In fact, I feel like even more-so in this industry, where SO much education is required. Consumers don’t not only not know what the product is, they also need to understand why they need it. The trick is, we’re not replacing anything concrete, it’s something new. Like when the Internet first came about to consumers in the ’90s and business people needed to be convinced that the Internet was probably a good idea and conceive of how they were going to use it to better their businesses and make life easier for their employees.

We have decided to start up our own aging & technology industry consortium. No official name yet, but it’s going to be an organization where we all join (it’ll be extremely cost-effective to join) and combine efforts. Together we can target big goals (large marketing/advertising campaigns, lobbying for remibursement, educating the market as a whole on the use of technology for our aging population, research & focus groups, business plan implementation for LTC communities, etc.

This idea was born a few months back on one of our weekly aging & technology conference calls. The topic that week was co-ompetition and was being led by Presto! CEO, Peter Radsliff. He spoke about the concept of all of us working together and something clicked with everyone on that call. Everyone got very excited and enthusiastic. A real concept had been born! After that call, we continued to think through this idea. I started mulling the idea with Michael Sarfatti from Smart Silvers (who had also been on the call). He told Susan Ayers Walker (founder of Smart Silvers) and it’s history from there. Susan set up a time and place for all of us to meet within the exhibit floor at CES. About 15 of us met, spoke, shared our visions & passions and started running from there.

Please consider joining our effort & reaping the benefits!!! For more information, please contact me: info@grandcare.com

In support of co-ompetition, we are hosting a technology and aging pavilion at EHX (Electronic House Expo) in March This is open to any and every vendor (and dealer to attend) in the aging and tech industry!!! We are still looking to find other vendors to fill the pavilion so we can make a big splash. Included in each kiosk within the pavilion will be a presentation area along with presentation time and some educational tracks/panels for dealers.

Thanks and remember, The Aging Tsunami Will Float All Boats!!!!

CES 2010 Summary!!

Wow – what a weekend! Well, CES 2010 has come and gone and left us all a little worse for the wear, but excited and full of possibilities and new ideas! GrandCare was honored to be one of the technologies displayed in the digital health techzone.

I did mean to provide more updates along the way, but it was so crazy busy that I never got the chance! So here goes:

We got there and besides a bit of a mix-up about where our booth was (they moved us at the last minute, sorry to all those that went out of their way to find us) 🙂 Everything was swell.

The first thing we did was sign on to the aging and technology conference call – LIVE FROM CES! It was fantastic. Over 30 participants joined us as we interviewed different vendors and a few show participants!
So, I am still needing to convert the recording to an mp3, because the webinar recording didn’t turn out! It was too loud and we kept losing Internet Connection.

There were many different home health technologies presented in the digital Health zone, including GrandCare Systems (Communication, Cognition, ADL Monitoring, Wellness Assessment), Dakim (Socialization/Brain Fitness), Presto (Socialization – Emails printed out automatically for a senior), Wellcore (wearable fall device/PERS), zeo (sleep sensor that can help you to sleep better), myine (takes the commercials out of Internet radio), mygait (computers made easy for seniors) and so much more!!!

The problem was that our digital summit was moved before the show started, so we weren’t as enclosed as we were last year. Last year, it was apparent where all of the home health technologies were, because we were all together! We were kind of far away from some of them (Wellcore was on the other side around the corner from us). We had a sewing system across the aisle from us and as cool as the technology was, it hardly had anything to do with Digital Home Health Technology.

The traffic was wonderful, but the press coming around was pretty light. I know we probably could have done more to get press to do interviews with us (well, for one, we could have paid to have our press kit and such given out to press), but it would be nice to see the press take a more active interest in aging technology.

It’s the big elephant in the room, unfortunately – not quite as glamorous as the HD TVs and surround sound systems in CES. This is an exciting show!! I feel like my 3 year old would be in kiddie-heaven, as were many of the attendees!

One GREAT thing that came out of CES this year? We have formed a new consortium for all of the companies just like GrandCare Systems that want to get together, join forces, use the momentum and combine it to EDUCATE and make the market aware of what we are doing! It’s exciting and it’s BRILLIANT! This is an idea that came from one of our aging and technology industry calls. Remember, these calls are every Thursday at 2pm EST and OPEN TO ALL! Join us at www.dimdim.com meeting room: grandcare.
The hosts are GrandCare, but the topics are EVERYTHING related to aging, wellness and technology! This week, it’s Jack York speaking from It’s Never Too Late. It’s always a great conversation with wonderful people from all around the industry. This call spurred an idea about 2 months ago from Presto founder, Pete Radsliff on the idea of co-ompetition. Why can’t we all just find a way to work together?
The idea of a mall or a burger king moving across the street from mcdonald’s and both do better. The idea that the aging tsunami will certainly float ALL boats!

So, there you have it! We have formed a consortium and we WILL grow into a power! We will grow into a force where we can advertise nationally, educate the market, educate doctors, educate policy makers & slowly gain access TOGETHER into an industry that no one of us can do easily alone!

Contact info@grandcare.com for more information on this consortium and how to join! OR join us any week on our aging/technology conference calls!!!! To sign up for notifications for these weekly calls, register here: http://dealerwww.grandcare.com

Great show – great people – great innovation! 2010 is going to be a great year!!!
The GC TEAM

Thurs 11-19-09 Peter Radsliff from Presto speaks

THIS THURSDAY ON OUR WEEKLY AGING & TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE CALL

Topic: Multi- Company Collaboration to INCREASE awareness in the Aging & Technology Industry

Time: EVERY THURSDAY 2pm EST/1pm CST/12n MST/11am PST
Meeting Room: www.dimdim.com Join Meeting Room: grandcare

1. Announcements
2. Highlighted Caller
3. TOPIC: The senior market is exploding, and changing. One of the biggest challenges senior-focused businesses face is gaining awareness for their products and services. Beyond traditional advertising and public relations campaigns, and even past online and social media initiatives, how might these companies collaborate to drive awareness and mutually-beneficial results?
4. Next week: Happy Thanksgiving!! Thursday December 3rd, Barbara Friesner from AgeWise Living speaks.