AAL Forum 2010

The coming decade will see the number of elderly citizens increase significantly while the number of employees in elder care and in the health care sectors will decrease equally significantly. Europe already faces the challenges that this situation poses – and one of the measures that can serve to counter the rapid changes that we see, is the development of new technologies that can assist the elderly in their daily lives.

Transnational cooperation in relation to welfare technology is already ongoing and many new partnerships will be formed in the near future. As a part of the international activities, the next annual European conference on welfare technology will convene in Odense on 15-17th September 2010. The conference will include displays of products and facilitate discussions on the status and progress made in the field of welfare technologies.

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is a European programme whose main objective is to improve the quality of life for elderly citizens through the development of age-sensitive ICT solutions (ICT: Information and Communication Technologies).
AAL Forum 2010 will have a global scope and will have participants from all over the world. The conference is the result of close collaboration between the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, the Municipality of Odense and the Region of Southern Denmark.

The Danish Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Helge Sander explains: – “ICT solutions are a vital element in the transformation that the welfare society will undergo in the coming years. Furthermore, the development of welfare technologies is a potentially very important area for growth for Danish trade and industry. The Danish government has included the area of welfare technologies in its development strategies through initiatives such as the establishment of the Danish PWT Foundation – Investments in Public Welfare Technology, the Danish Council for Technology and Innovation and the Danish Council for Strategic Research. I see the fact that Odense and the Region of Southern Denmark are to host the ”AAL Forum 2010” as the best example of how municipal, regional, national and European efforts can be combined in collaboration on the issue of welfare technology.”

It is no coincidence that it is the Region of Southern Denmark that will host the conference. This region is a frontrunner in several areas in the field of innovative solutions for the social and health care sectors.

Mayor of the City of Odense, Jan Boye: ”The AAL-Forum 2010 will be a first-rate showcase for the many local, regional and national efforts and initiatives that have been initiated in the field of welfare technology. This event will provide even greater incentive and purpose to the process of implementing the high level of ambitions presented by the City Council of Odense concerning the collective regional vision of becoming a Centre of Excellence in the field of welfare technology”.

The implementation of ICT will continue to expand into new fields and this makes new demands on citizens to continue the development of their skills throughout life – and the most dramatic development often occurs in areas that are unfamiliar to many elderly citizens. Technology itself can be an insurmountable obstacle for free communication and access to information – an obstacle that places the elderly at risk of becoming excluded from the modern society.

Chairman of the Region of Southern Denmark, Carl Holst: “One of the major challenges relating to welfare technology is to ensure that the technological solutions are designed so that it is the end-user and not the technology itself that is in primary focus. This is the point of departure for the Region’s focused involvement in welfare technology.”

Carl Holst continues: “ – The future commercial potential in this field is very promising and we are in close collaboration with the private enterprises in the region in the various projects. In the public sector we strive to improve and rethink the services that we offer our citizens. The partnership with a public body offers a clear commercial potential for growth for private enterprises and nowhere more so than in the development of solutions and products in the field of welfare technologies”

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