What to Expect at CES 2025: AgeTech Startup Opportunities with Steve Ewell | The AgeTech Podcast S4E8

Hello and welcome to another episode of the AgeTech podcast. I’m Keren Etkin and my guest today is Steve Ewell the executive director of the CTA foundation. Which is one of these organizations that just does so much for AgeTech and the visibility. Of AgeTech startups. Globally. Steve welcome to the show.

Steve Ewell: Thanks for having me, Keren. I’m really pleased to be here and excited to talk to you about everything going on related to AgeTech.

Keren Etkin: which is a lot right now, especially this time of year with CES coming up. Just around the corner. Can you maybe start by telling people a little bit about the CTA, how it started and where it’s going in terms of AgeTech?

Steve Ewell: Yeah, absolutely. So C. T. A. Is the Consumer Technology Association. So it is a trade association based in the United States. That is represents over 1300 technology companies. And that’s everything from the big global brands that everyone recognizes to about 80 percent of the membership are actually small businesses or medium sized businesses.

So that could be, startup companies, but that could also be, installers that are coming and putting in, it could be a high end home theater system, but it could also be making an age friendly home and putting some smart home technology into someone’s house. The, that is the association piece.

And then the piece that I head up is the CTA foundation, which is the charitable arm of the organization. And that is really focused on using technology to benefit older adults and people with disabilities. So CTA as an association, I actually just celebrated our hundredth anniversary. So we were launched as the radio manufacturers association back in 1924. The CTA foundation is a little bit newer. We just had our 12th anniversary. So we were launched in 2012. But over that course of time, we’ve been dedicated, as I said, just towards how technology could benefit both older adults and people with disabilities. And we do a variety of different activities throughout the year which I’ll be happy to dive into a little bit But probably what we’re best known for as an association is CES, which is the trade show.

It happens every January in Las Vegas, where we bring together the entire technology world to, highlight what, what is happening in the industry. And it is everything from your You know, phones and tablets and TVs to, health tech is one of the fastest growing areas at the show. Smart home is obviously an incredibly an important area, but also vehicle tech and, you name an area of the industry and it is at CES.

And it is the largest consumer electronics show on the planet. Is it not?

yes, absolutely. And, we are a show that is actually closed to the general public. So it is only open to people that are part of the industry or media that are covering the industry and people essentially related, but we do expect to have over 130, 000 attendees at the show coming up next week.

This January January, 2025. And we’ll have, over 4, 000 exhibitors there at the show over 1400 startups at the show. So people come from all over the world to attend and participate. And it’s great because essentially, rather than having to fly all over the world to do your meetings. Everyone’s together there in Las Vegas, and you can meet and greet and build those partnerships to move forward.

Keren Etkin: And over the past few years, AgeTech has been gaining larger and larger presence at CES. Can you maybe share what are some of the avenues through which startups can get. To showcase their products at CES.

Steve Ewell: Yeah, absolutely. So yes, I’ve been really excited to see that AgeTech has continued to grow and get more and more attention at the show each year. And it’s interesting to see the types of companies that have really recognized the importance of this market segment and gotten involved in this space. There’s a variety of different events. Certainly I’ll recognize on the show floor there are a number of everything from the startup companies to, our friends at AARP with the AgeTech collaborative have a gigantic space that they’ve built out on the show for they bring a number of the startups that they invest in and showcase there. But they also have a stage where they’ll put on content throughout the week. And they usually bring in all kinds of really interesting guests. They also sponsor as part of the official content and conference sessions at CES, a number of AgeTech related sessions that those are still in the middle of coming together.

So I don’t have anything to share quite yet, but I will encourage people to keep an eye on CES dot tech and we should have those sessions pulled together and announced here very soon. But on top of that, we have a number of programs that we run through the CTA Foundation. For instance, we have what we call our Eureka Park Accessibility Contest. And while it is an accessibility contest, it is designed for both aging and accessibility. Every year for this, I believe, is our Eighth year running this contest. We have startups compete basically, they have to showcase how their technology could benefit either older adults or people with disabilities.

And then we pick five of them. We give them a free booth at CES. We give them $2,500 a piece because we know it costs money to be in Las Vegas for the week. And we give them lots of attention throughout the week. And I’m happy to share that, our winners for the CES 2025 contest is a great mix of companies.

One is a company called a blueberry technology, which is making a autonomous wheelchair that can help with navigation, particularly in. Airport and other public accommodation environments. We have a company called Lotus, which is making essentially a ring to help control smart home devices company called Makesense, which is creating a device.

for the blind and low vision community to, to navigate. SignSpeak is a company that’s doing ASL interpretation for the deaf and hard of hearing. And then a company called Soliddd, which is essentially making glasses that can help people with macular degeneration and vision loss essentially fill in those gaps in their vision. So while it’s very accessibility focused, a lot of these companies also can make a massive difference in the needs of older adults.

Keren Etkin: Absolutely. And this competition is one that I look forward to each and every year because you always pick such amazing startups. And it’s always wonderful to see the innovative ways that they use technology to tackle common accessibility issues that impact billions of people in the world. So amazing.

Steve Ewell: Absolutely. And yeah, I love seeing how they continue to grow and build year after year. We try to keep track of all of our previous winners and see the work that they’re doing. In fact, your former company, ElliQ was one of our winners several years back and seeing them continue to grow and build their businesses is one of the things we’re very very proud of. But also, looking at, It’s not just those five companies each year, but we see more and more companies, both startups and, larger businesses coming and showcasing the work that they’re doing in this space and the ability to meet the needs of older adults at the show. That’s always one of the things I scour that. Show directory to try to find who are those companies that I want to make sure I’m meeting at the show and then getting them involved in our activities throughout the year.

Keren Etkin: So if I want to summarize some of the ways that Startups can get eyeballs on their products at CES. They can either set up a booth. They can either apply for the accessibility awards and hope that they are among the winners. They can apply for the innovation awards and they can also apply to become members of the AgeTech collaborative and be present at the AARP booth, what are some other ways?

Did we miss anything?

Steve Ewell: There’s lots of different ways to get involved. So yes, you hit a lot of the main ones. I’ll also mention we have a pitch competition that we do every year at CES. This year, our focus is going to be on AI and its impact on the aging community. We’re thrilled to have the Next50 foundation as our lead sponsor on that event this year.

We’re in the middle of. But I have no doubt we’re going to have, we usually pick around eight companies to showcase their product. It’s a chance to be on stage at CES and highlight the work that they’re doing. And we’ll have, we usually have a group of judges that will help evaluate and choose a grand prize winner.

And then we also. Also poll the audience and have an audience choice winner for that. So I’m excited to do that. Also highlight our friends over at age AARP also do one of their AgeTech after dark events where they’ll do a pitch event as well. So once again, it just showcases that there’s more and more attention being paid to these issues and, more and more opportunities for these companies to, to get involved and showcase the work that they’re doing. In addition to those pieces, the content sessions that we’ll be doing. We also have activities like we bring out a number of advocates to the show and there’s opportunities for these companies to meet. with these advocates and talk about, what’s working well for their products, where there’s some challenges, opportunities to continue to improve.

So we encourage companies will always be reaching out to all the exhibitors to let them know where there’s opportunities for them to get engaged with some of these groups that are attending and showcasing both from an accessibility and an aging perspective, the opportunities to continue to improve products and continue to.

Identify new markets that they may not be thinking about going into it. So those are great opportunities to get involved in the space leading up to the show.

Keren Etkin: Speaking of opportunities as a foundation, I feel like you have one leg in each world.

One would be the tech world, and another would be the non profit world. And I know the CTA Foundation works with lots of organizations who work with older adults in the community. And I wonder what do you see as open opportunities for innovation in this space? What do people ask you?

People must assume that you just know all of the tech startups and know everything about everything. And when they’re asking you, Hey, Steve, do you know a tech solution for X? Do you know a tech solution for Y? What are they looking for?

Steve Ewell: Yeah, absolutely. And that’s actually one of the things I love about my job is it’s an opportunity to work with an industry that, I’m a geek, I love the technology. I love diving into this space. But also being able to do it in such a way that we’re really giving back and making a difference working with these nonprofit organizations.

So we’re able to bridge between those two worlds and help those nonprofits that, may not be aware of what is happening in the technology space, but can become more effective and more efficient in the work that they’re doing by engaging with a variety of different technology startups and some of the big global brands as well.

I wish I could say I knew every single startup out there. I, I try, but honestly, I would probably say, go look at Keren’s map because that actually is a listing everything that’s going on in this this space. And it’s a great resource that I always make sure I’m checking out pretty regularly as well. But I think there’s so many opportunities. As you said, we do work with nonprofits. Primarily we work or we fund nonprofits in the United States. So while I know this is a very global audience that you have in a global issue, as far as working on AgeTech our grants right now are Focused on the domestic United States, but it is working with a large group of different nonprofit organizations that are using technologies in different ways. Some of it is, tech education. So working with organizations like, older adults, technology services, oats, or Oasis, or other groups along those lines that do. The education for the older adults of how they can use devices. But we also will do support for organizations like, some of the senior living communities.

So we do a lot with Lutheran services in America or, front porch services and other organizations along those lines, often piloting different types of technologies. And it’s been everything from, Voice assistants and lighting and devices along those lines too. There’s currently one of the groups is doing a pilot on some of the social engagement robotics and looking at, what the reaction is and what the opportunities are to use some of these robotic devices. Devices in some of their homes and communities. We also work with a number of organizations around smart homes. So this is not necessarily people moving into senior communities, but looking to age in place and stay at home and looking at some of the different types of products that can be showcased. So right now we have a group in Michigan. We have a group in the D. C. Area, and we have a group in Arkansas that are all building kind of smart homes for their communities. And the goal is for each of them to do it independently. Certainly, if they want to share best practices, we want to make sure that we’re capturing that and sharing that at the end of the project.

But I also want them to each kind of take their own unique attempt at what products they think will work well for their communities. And, so we can get those results at the end and say what did work well, what didn’t work as well as we thought it might work and be able to then go out to the larger community and say, here’s a couple examples of, the types of products that really can help people remain independent at home for as long as they would like to do

Keren Etkin: wow. It sounds like you have so much on your plate. And I wonder how do you view the role of nonprofits in this space? How could they or are they currently working to push forward innovation in aging? Because we know there are. Many issues you touched upon some of them. One is a tech education which oats and several other organizations are doing and the other side is adoption of technologies and piloting technologies, but there’s also If we have to be completely honest with ourselves also the issue of affordability because technology is expensive

Steve Ewell: Yep. And that is where I think as a charitable foundation, there’s an opportunity for us to play a role. Certainly when we look at technologies, especially the cutting edge just released technologies, they do tend to be, They’re higher costs really at the early adopters that tend to adopt those.

And then the product life cycle kind of works its way through and makes it more affordable for more people. But that’s where we also have an opportunity as a foundation to step in and help people get access to some of these devices. We’ll do programs like we do a lot of work with there’s a foster grandparent program in Los Angeles through Pepperdine University that we’ve supported, actually, it’s not the most cutting edge.

It’s kind of tablets and devices along those lines, but giving people who don’t necessarily have the resources. Access to those types of devices so that they can participate in those programs in ways that otherwise they were not able to do I think as a charitable foundation, that’s a real opportunity for us to serve those roles.

We also do similar work with organizations all over the country as far as Adopting different types of products. We also have a program. We were lucky enough to get some support from the Cohen foundation here in the U S to support what’s called the great American elder verse, and we’re partnered with a mind immersive who is a VR company creating solutions for older adults and working with the support of a number of other companies as well. We are bringing these devices to low income senior housing in the greater New York City area. And we’re really excited to see what kind of results we’ll get from engagement and involvement from people in those communities. So that’s something that just recently launched and we’re excited to see continue to grow across the next couple of years as we’re rolling that out in more communities.

Keren Etkin: Wow, that is amazing and important work. And I wonder if there are any organizations globally that do similar work in other countries.

Steve Ewell: I’m sure there probably are other organizations that are doing work like this and other countries. I do know for instance we engage with a number of other foundations that work in the aging space and there’s groups like Bader Philanthropies, which is based in Wisconsin, but actually funds both in Wisconsin, but also in Israel around primarily around aging. Alzheimer’s and dementia care. There’s other organizations, the Weinberg Foundations based in Baltimore, and I believe they fund in a in several places around the world and other organizations along those lines. But that has been, traditionally, philanthropy has not been the most Early adopters of technology.

So a lot of my time is also engaging with the philanthropic sector to say, in fact, we actually bring quite a few foundations to CES every year. And I always have to assure them, I’ve. I understand they’re not VCs. They’re not investing in the products themselves, but I think by being aware of the trends that are happening in the technology industry, it will enable them to be better funders in the philanthropic space.

Because if you’re funding, food and housing and other areas along those lines, it may seem like technology is a Is something separate from what you’re interested in, but it’s really not because if you know some of the trends and it may be that, by using a blockchain technology, you can now track the food that you’re trying to distribute to more communities around the world or, putting in wells and communities that don’t have access to clean water or other solutions along those lines. Knowing the trends that are happening within the technology industry can help you be a better funder. So we do try to engage with other foundations to help showcase what’s going on in this space. And We’re a fairly small funder in the grand scheme of things, but we see our role as being that tie to the technology industry. So other funders that want to get involved, we can help step in and talk about, what technologies we think might fit well with different types of projects that they’re doing and help point their way or make the connections that can help ultimately have these programs be more successful.

Keren Etkin: Absolutely. And I feel like In this day and age, if we were having this conversation 20 years ago, then having access to technology and owning at least one primary device that has an internet connection was a luxury item, but in this day and age, it’s a necessity. It’s like having a landline phone 20 years ago and so I understand why foundations that are primarily funding food and basic needs to people might see that as something that is out of scope for them. But I would argue that in this day and age, we can’t just leave people who can’t afford technology behind the digital divide.

Steve Ewell: Yep. And that is, we recognize that not everyone has technology devices and there are challenges with affordability and others along those lines. But I really do feel that there’s an opportunity for us as philanthropy to help step in. And even, one of the organizations we work with here in the DC area is an organization called Mary’s Center, and they do a lot of healthcare for a wide variety of different communities, but one of which is the homeless community and what we’ve helped them do is provide telehealth to the homeless community.

So these are people who wouldn’t necessarily have the devices to be able to do telehealth, but also wouldn’t necessarily be comfortable going to a hospital or going to a clinic when they need services. So what they’re able to do is send a technician out who has all the devices that they need. To meet them wherever they are, get them set up, connect them in with a medical professional, and do that triage of, okay, if it’s something very simple, it could be that the technician can actually deliver the service there. If it’s not, then they can hopefully. Talk to the person and have them be more comfortable coming in and make them just understand the need to come in and not have them feel like, oh, I’m just going to go there and sit and wait. And it’s going to end up being nothing by providing some of those healthy.

benefits. We see some real incredible opportunities.

Keren Etkin: Amazing. Yeah, it truly is. I would like at this point to ask you, Steve, to take out your crystal ball and try to look into the future and try to predict the best case scenario, what the AgeTech ecosystem could look like five, 10, or 20 years from now.

Steve Ewell: Yeah, that’s a good question. And if I was better at making these predictions, I’d be on the VC side instead of the philanthropy side of these discussions. But I do think we’re going to see More and more of the industry focused on the aging population. They recognize the growing demographics around the world and the opportunity that exists there. As we’ve said, poverty is absolutely an issue when talking about the aging population, but there is also an incredible amount of wealth and buying power within this population as well. So I think the industry is recognizing that and building products that will work well for aging populations. I think we’re going to see You know, certainly things that focus on social connection.

We see that with our phones. We see that we’re able to do this interview from a halfway across the world connecting in through, various technologies, but I also see advances in things like transportation solutions. So I’m excited for, Autonomous vehicles and what opportunity that provides to aging adults, because. Losing access to your keys is one of probably the more traumatic things that can happen to you as you’re aging, because you’ll find that all of a sudden the freedom that you had, now you’re reliant on friends, family, loved ones, or other services to get you where you’re going. And often that ends up resulting in. Okay. You go to your medical appointments, but you’re not just running out because you want to grab a meal or see a movie or do things along those lines. I really see an opportunity for these vehicles. One with some of the assistive driving that currently exists to help people drive safer, longer, but also looking longer term at.

Some of the opportunities for these vehicles to provide that independence. Provide it’s interesting. We had done a focus group at a couple of senior communities around these types of vehicles a few years back. And everyone kept telling us, older adults are going to be afraid of these vehicles.

They’re not going to want to. Even explore this area and the minute we did it, basically they turned to the people running the community and we’re like, when can we have one of these here? I want this cause you know, yeah, it gives that freedom and independence. So I’m excited for solutions along those lines, but we’ll also see that in public transportation and other solutions along those lines that can, Enable people to get where they want to go easier more accessibly.

And that’s where I do think that while the aging population and the disability population are two different demographics, there is absolutely some overlap and by building products that work well for people in general, it will help the aging population, whether you are someone who is Blind or deaf if you’re someone who’s aging and likely your vision might be diminishing a little bit or your hearing might be Diminishing a little bit having some of those features built in and I think we’re gonna see more and more focus We’ve already seen you know here in the u.

s. We have over the counter hearing aids now, which is an incredible Product opportunity, certainly, Apple got a lot of attention recently with their building that into their air prod pros the air prod pro two but also looking at a number of other companies, Sony and others have been doing work in that space as well. I’m just excited for the new innovations. And actually what I’m most excited for is the things that I would never dream of. And that’s one reason I love going to CES is because we have those 1400 startups from all over the world and you walk down these hallways and things that you’re just like, Wow.

I would have never thought of a product like that. And either that’s going to be the next big thing, or maybe I’ll never hear that product again, but people have a dream, they have an opportunity and they have a chance to put that in front of the media and investors and people who really care about the technologies in this space.

Yeah, it, what I’m most excited for is those products that I have no idea that I needed before thinking about this.

Keren Etkin: Exactly. And I was just watching Star Trek yesterday and it’s amazing to see that so much of the technology that was science fiction, not so long ago, we have it within reach at Best Buy and Amazon these days, so you never know what you’ll see in CES, not just 10 years from now, but next year.

Steve Ewell: Absolutely. And I am still waiting on my teleporter that would really help my travels a little bit, but yeah, we’ve had all kinds of, everything. We just think about the devices we carry around with us on a daily basis now, but also, looking at some of the health tech and other things that, those tricorders that were just a dream of, can you imagine something that can help diagnose you in the palm of your hand? And now there’s incredible technologies that people are caring about or wearing that can do a lot of that work.

Keren Etkin: Yes, it is truly amazing how fast everything progresses. So my final question to you, Steve, is is there anything that we didn’t discuss that you want to share today? Is there anything super important that everyone watching and listening needs to know?

Steve Ewell: Absolutely. There’s a couple of things I’ll share. So first and foremost, I’ll say in addition to the work that we’re doing, As the CTA foundation to get technology into the hands of older adults and people with disabilities through our work with nonprofits and with industry, we’re actually just in the about to launch in the next week or so, a new working group on the association side of the world.

That is the accessibility and AgeTech working group. So whereas the foundation is focused on getting that technology into the hands of the consumers, this will be. How do we build up the industry to make the products? How do we share best practices? How do we do, the market research and the standards and the other things that CTA really has the expertise in. So I’m excited. We’re. Just based on the response we’re seeing from the industry, signing up to be a part of this group they’re excited as well. So I think that’s going to lead to some incredible, continued focus and advancement in the technology in this space, continued work, and that leads to opportunities for us to partner with some of the, the organizations like the AARPs and the other groups that are doing work in the aging space.

I’m excited to see what comes out of that. We also have a new contest that we’re launching this year. So I mentioned our Eureka Park contest. I mentioned our pitch competition. We now have a new one. It’s a little bit more on the disability side of our world, but we’re working with the with foundation and the Mitsubishi electric America foundation to create what we’re calling our health innovation challenge.

And. In this, we’ve done focus groups with a number of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities around the use of health tech, where it works, where it doesn’t. And we’ve been given through the support of those foundations some prize money. So we’re going to have a competition this year for health tech companies that Basically can take into account what they hear from those focus groups and help adapt their products to meet the needs of the intellectual and developmental disability community. Will the first prize winner will win $25,000. The runner up will win a 15. So it’s a great opportunity to call attention to some of the companies that are working in this space. And I’m excited. We’ll be able to announce those winners at CES this year. And while it is focused on, more of the disability side, certainly when you’re talking intellectual disabilities, as you think about dementia and other aspects that impact aging, I think this will also have a big impact on the aging space.

And I’m probably forgetting a dozen other things, but that’s, the opportunity to work with you and so many others that are real leaders in the AgeTech space. I’m a big believer in, bringing people together, having these types of conversations. I just want to thank you for running this show, doing all the research that you do and calling attention to this really important space.

Keren Etkin: Thank you. Thank you so much, Steve. I want to thank you so much for joining the show today and wish everyone to have a booth at CES and present your startup and win one of the competitions, because it is truly one of the greatest platforms that any startup could have, and especially in AgeTech.

Steve Ewell: Thank you for saying that. And yeah, I hope to see you at CES and see many of your audience there as well.

Keren Etkin: Thank you so much, Steve.