How to achieve commercial success on AAL projects?

Just a few weeks ago, the Ideable-Kwido team traveled to Aarhus (Denmark) to attend the 2019 edition of AAL Forum. We really enjoyed a motivating and innovative encounter, with hundreds  activities in which to participate, and also great doses of inspiration. And, as every year does, thanks to the organization of the AAL Program team. We also organized a workshop to discuss about how to achieve commercial success on AAL projects.

Stand & workshop in the AAL Forum

During the three days the meeting took place, we were able to show our projects in our own stand. We showed to many visitors all the new features in Kwido around virtual reality and cognitive training.  

But our greatest success was the organization of a workshop, included in the official program of AAL Forum 2019. Together with Ana Luísa Jegundo (Cáritas Coimbra) and Simone Stückler (exthex GmbH), we discussed in a crowded auditorium on how to achieve commercial success on AAL projects. And, now, we want to share with you some of the conclusions we obtained.

Workshop conclusions

We wanted to compile some of the most interesting conclusions that emerged between speakers and audience at the meeting. Then:

• The AAL projects should finish with a product closer to production to avoid the gap between the end of the project and the commercialization. 

• Startups should be involved but the financial burden of these important projects is too heavy for them sometimes. They need more access to the investment or even they need to engage larger companies. 

• There’s also a big gap between software development and product creation. So maybe business companies should also be involved in AAL consortiums. 

• It would be interesting to create a database to look for older projects, case studies, technologies involved, etc. to offer access to all the generated knowledge in former projects. 

• It would be useful to identify the real-world challenges so the AAL community could work on it and deliver higher maturity solutions that work in the market. An interesting advance could be to integrate some stakeholders’ voices, like insurance companies, health and social care providers, big companies in the eldercare sector, municipalities, etc. 

If you want to know more specific information about the workshop, or simply comment any of the conclusions, send us an email to: info@kwido.com we will be glad to hear your opinions!