Creating opportunities for engagement and dialogue.
In an effort to inspire community members to imagine the role of technology and independence, the Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing hosted an open house during our Front Porch Home Office grand opening to residents, featuring some of the innovation pilots the Center has been working on. Inspired by this exhibition event, the City of West Hollywood invited FPCIW to organize an “Innovations Café” as a component of the City’s Aging in Place Forum. The event drew more than 100 people, and introduced the community to several FPCIW project technologies such as PARO’s caregiving robot, the Stitch companionship website, the Music and Memory℠ engagement program, Lively’s monitoring kit, and the Samsung Gear VR virtual reality headset. The community reaction and feedback were enthusiastic, which led FPCIW to additional opportunities to share our technology initiatives with more communities.
Since the City of West Hollywood’s event, FPCIW has organized and curated Innovations Café booths at the San Diego OASIS Get Connected Fair, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s “Health + Wellness” summit, and the West Hollywood Senior Fair. The Innovations Café enables people to see and experience first-hand some of the emerging and groundbreaking technologies that are making an impact today, and how they are shaping our future.
