The Internet of Caring Things® team warmly welcomes businesses in the North East to our 5th Smart Stuff Workshop

If you have a business idea, product, service or solution that uses technology to improve lives, supporting people to live better for longer, then this workshop is for you.

Throughout the workshop, we look at how technology should not just be smart, it should care. From wearable wellbeing tech to responsive homes that know what you need, from caring for pets to protecting the planet, from financing our whole life to how we educate ourselves and others through life, from tourism & leisure and how we enjoy life we will explore how to turn powerful ideas into solutions that enhance real life.

We get attendees thinking about:

How can businesses create data-driven products and services that aid consumers’ most important needs and wants?

What are people’s unmet expectations and aspirations around hardware and software innovation?

And how can we create a more ‘caring’ future together?

In this workshop, we encourage participants to identify and explore the current challenges that businesses and other stakeholders in the region should address when developing new 'Stuff' using 'Smart Technologies'.

Together, Voice® members and businesses will be able to develop design insights about care and data-driven technologies that will help people live better lives, as well as solutions that will be beneficial to your end-users and stakeholders.

This is an opportunity for eligible businesses to ensure your products are designed ‘with’ your target market, not ‘for’ them, in order to create and build cross-collaborative relationships, enriching your product or service’s lifecycle development.

Eligbility Crieteria:

For our next cohort, we are looking forward to welcoming 20 new-to-programme businesses that are developing products or services that help us to live our lives the way we want to, that enable us to care about ourselves or others, be it a family member, our pets, our gardens, our communities or our planet.

To be eligible for this workshop, you must be a company registered within the North East Combined Authority region (County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside or Sunderland).

This event is brought to you by the Internet of Caring Things® programme

Your personal data will be stored securely in line with regulations set out under GDPR. Registration data may be shared with essential programme and event partners or the funder for the purpose of the IoCT™ programme and evaluation.

If you have any questions about the event or are interested in learning more about the Internet of Caring Things® programme, please contact: ioct@ncl.ac.uk

About the Internet of Caring Things® programme

The Internet of Caring Things® is a network of connected devices and services with a clear mission: to actively care for people – their physical and mental well-being – and what really matters to them – such as leisure, safety and security, pets, planet, sustainability and connecting with family and friends.

A £5.6 million pound project running through to 2027, the , programme is delivered by U.K. National Innovation Centre Ageing (NICA), Voice® and Centre of Process Innovation (CPI) to support economic growth and improve the health and wellbeing of those living and working in the North East. Together, we are developing the first network of connected objects and cognitive systems with a clear mission: to actively care for people and what matters to them.

This project is part-funded by the North East Combined Authority and Newcastle University, in partnership with the Centre of Process Innovation (CPI).

The North East Combined Authority is a partnership of seven local authority areas of County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland and the North East Elected Mayor. Find out more at: https://www.northeast-ca.gov.uk/

Smart Stuff: Creating the Future of Technology