Home Instead and Honor hosted a day of programming at SXSW in Austin, TX. SXSW celebrates the convergence of tech, film, and music industries and reconvened in person for the first time in two years in 2022 taking over Austin’s downtown and surrounding areas. With content focusing on Home Instead and Honor’s collective work to expand the world’s capacity to care ,they hosted three panels all sharing their unique expertise in innovation and passion for improving the aging experience. The panels attracted crowds of attendees hungry for conversation.
Home health tech is one of the fastest-growing and most accessible investment industries, often fulfilling the specialized niche of purpose-driven investing. While investing has often been viewed as an opportunity only for the privileged, this panel redefined that notion, exploring opportunities for both personal gain and to improve the health and wellbeing of our society. Purpose-Driven Investing Brings Healthcare Home, was moderated by Home Instead Vice President Healthcare Transformation, Chad Brough.
Also on the panel were Ester Dyson of Wellville, Renee King of FundBlackFounders, and Aaron Smith of Savi. The panel was a timely conversation about investment needs, opportunities, and equity challenges. Renee King shared that, “we have to start thinking about solutions, and whatever solutions we are thinking of we have to think about scale and access.”
The world is rapidly aging, the ‘age wave’ or ‘silver tsunami’ are no longer catchphrases, but a demographic certainty. Caregiving, while a growth sector, is labor-intensive and thought of by many, including caregivers themselves, as a ‘job of last resort.’ Professional caregivers have been undervalued for too long. “Quite often the care profession is compared to the gig economy, but that’s inaccurate as [caregiver] work is not transactional. Families need someone or a set of people who become part of [their] family ecosystem,” stated Honor Co-Founder Sandy Jen.
Home Instead’s CAREGiver of the Year, William Glover, also made impassioned points as to why the caregiving profession is more important today than ever on the panel Transforming Caregiving: A Profession for All Ages, moderated by Jen. Willam and Sandy were joined by Patrice Martin of The Holding Co. and Helen Adeosun of CareAcademy.
“Our aging population is full of beautiful people. We need to change the perception of aging and value them and those who care for them,” stated Glover.
As the Baby Boomer generation enters their 70s, there is an urgent need for solutions to empower that aging journey and scalable solutions that support aging well at home. While discussing strategies, innovations, and opportunities that meet the needs of our older adults, Hon Pak of Samsung made it clear that technology is the key to keeping our loved ones at home.
“What if we used technology for good? What if we had a technology that helps to support the blind spots?” said Pak. “At the end of the day, this is about how you want to love others. We have to help individuals to be better than we are today.” Pak shared the stage with Deborah Di Sanzo of Best Buy Health in the panel: There’s No Place Like Home: Scaling for the Future moderated by Jisella Dolan, Chief Advocacy Officer for Home Instead.
Dolan ended the day with the call to keep the conversation going, “I’d encourage each of you, as you leave here, to think more about aging,” stated Dolan. “There is a need for disruption, we have to empower the workforce and bring tech to the home.”
