A conference organized by Germanys Ministry of Education and Research with a main focus on Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) in Berlin, Jan, 2012. a term, invented to paraphrase technologies that target home settings, to better deal with the constraints of aging by e-care solutions, care-robots, sensor-devices, smart-houses, etc.
Everybody seemed to talk about »the user« and age-friendly »usability« but the focus on this conference was definitely not on design: only very few interesting and innovative examples of interface design and interaction design became visible. Most presented projects had an engineering, medical or business focus and mentioned design issue rather in side nodes. The poster session gained a lot of interest but the setting and duration didn´t meet the demands.
A good event for meeting the major german players within the AAL field, but not an excessive inspiring experience regarding presentations and keynotes. Recommendation to the organizers: cut the conference fee in half and make this event more accessible for the rest of us.