In the post-COVID pandemic era, we all tend to look at what it means to be and stay connected from a whole new lens. Today we're proud to announce that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) has recognized Artifcts with an award for "helping promote social engagement to improve individual's health and sense of well-being."

"We are honored by this recognition from HHSC and delighted to see other friends from the AgeTech space among the award recipients. We're grateful, too, to learn of other award recipients who we have not yet crossed paths with. Time to cross paths!" said Austin-based co-founder of Artifcts Ellen Goodwin. 

The {Name}Tech space that intersects with the desires and needs of the oldest among us is expanding at an astonishing clip. News coverage, accelerators, and even investors covering AgeTech and LongeviTech are becoming much more common. And what's still more interesting are the crossovers of those areas into InsurTech, FinTech, and PropTech, to name a few. Hubs of innovation are being spurred and supported from AARP AgeTech Collaborative (based in DC), Fintech for Longevity (based in Israel), Aging 2.0 (globally), AgeTech Atlanta, and more. Harmonizing it all are the entrepreneurs and their collective interest in building something better than what we're facing now as seniors, as caregivers, and even the youngest among us.

"While we did not launch Artifcts when we did because of the pandemic, it certainly shifted how we launched Artifcts. It sharpened our focus and our realism - we knew that to build a product that would truly change our relationships with stuff and the joys, value, and burden stuff can carry with it, we had to do it with people of all age in mind, but especially the oldest among us. Time is never our friend. How do we make it easier to connect and share with peers and across generations, while keeping privacy at the forefront? That's at the heart of Artifcts." said Artifcts co-founder Heather Nickerson.

And should you be tempted to dismiss the power of connection, don't do it. As highlighted by Dr. Vivek Murthy, US Surgeon General, in his advisory report issued earlier this month, loneliness and isolation put us at greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death. Dr. Murthy calls on everyone to tackle this epidemic of loneliness and isolation: "Start now, in our own lives, strengthening our connections and relationships."

Look for Artifcts to continue efforts to expand its footprint in Texas communities as well as other local ecosystems, including through its participation in the MeHI Healthy Aging Challenge.

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© 2023 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Atlanta is the place to be this week if your work overlaps with the incredibly dynamic and growing industry serving the wildly variant 50+ population. This year the American Society on Aging teamed up for its annual conference with Age Tech Atlanta to, among other things, shine a light on the startups supporting the oldest among us. Conference fees can be prohibitively expensive for startups and often place startups in lesser visited corners of the conference space in favor of establish, big-name players.

In Atlanta, there is a "startup alley" to give prominence to these companies. In addition, today there is a special live pitch competition through which one of the finalists will be awarded a $10,000 grant. Artifcts is honored to be among the 12 companies chosen to participate. Hear from co-founder Heather Nickerson:

Fun Fact! Did you know that Atlanta ranks third in the US for Fortune 500 headquarters, including the likes of UPS, Home Depot, Delta Airlines. Learn more on What's Next Longevity Deal Talk - Episode 17. We'll update this story later with our insights from our first ASA conference. Stay tuned!

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© 2023 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

AgeWise Colorado brings together resources to help people to age well in Colorado. Unsurprising, political state boundaries have little bearing on the relevance of the thoughtful guidance and advice the partners of AgeWise Colorado share in the organization's regular webinar series. From solo aging to nutrition at every age to the latest in tech, AgeWise Colorado helps you stay abreast of the latest so you can make transformative, knowledgeable, and informed choices as you live your best life.

Cue story-sharing, in its many forms and purposes. Enjoy the show!

If you skip the video, here's what you missed!

Leading off the discussion was Lisa Culhane, a guided autobiography instructor and life coach. It can be intimidating and frustrating for some just to get started with their stories. What's my objective? Where to begin? How much detail? Lisa is herself an author and believes writing your stories is the key to discovering the lessons and wisdom you want to carry forward into your third act. It’s why she is passionate about supporting people in finding, writing, and sharing their unique stories. 

Artifcts co-founder Ellen Goodwin offered insights into how the simplest and most ordinary of objects are powerful inspirational sources for story-telling and story-sharing. Artifcts is the means through which you can ensure those stories are actually captured along with the photos, video, and audio to help bring them to life and give them fuller context. "You'd be surprised how the most reluctant storytellers or interviewees will open up when you grab an object and ask the simple question, 'What is this?'" Of course, Ellen pointed out, you then have the huge benefits Artifcts offers to share that story or use your Artifcts for other purposes, such as estate and financial planning, insurance support, and more.

Closing the discussion was Maggie Gannon, an advanced practice nurse and founder and CEO of Haven—keeper of life stories and magic moments of the heart. Haven is an all-in-one, under one roof space for legacy preservation. Haven aims to make it easy to preserve your story and grow closer together with loved ones now, while helping everyone stay connected to your memory after death.

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© 2023 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Massachusetts Digital Health (MeHI) has chosen Artifcts and seven other companies to participate in a two-month sandbox program this spring to support innovation related to healthy aging, including physical, mental, and/or social health. Two of the other finalists are also AARP AgeTech Collaborative companies. Read the full announcement from MeHI here.

Artifcts will meet with leading researchers, MassDigital Ecosystem organizations including state agencies, venture capitalists, and other innovators creating digital health solutions that improve the lives of older adults to help scope a brain health research project. At the conclusion of the Sandbox program, Artifcts will pitch its product and Sandbox research project for the opportunity to win $50,000 to complete the project.

"We're excited! MeHI is trying to help accelerate the innovation lifecycle by making the introductions, sharing the lessons learned, and helping companies develop research theses with fewer brick walls. We're here and ready to continue supporting and playing a role in the health aging ecosystem," said Heather Nickerson, Co-founder and CEO of Artifcts.

Research has already established that social engagement and sense of purpose are critical at all ages, especially those with diagnoses that affect brain health. Together with MassDigital our research could yield data to support our existing anecdotal observations that Artifcts helps with social connection, bolsters sense of purpose, and combats loneliness. We could also explore the memory recall aspect of Artifcting and its clinical effects. Any Artifct can rely on a combination of short- and long-term memory recall, e.g., mementos and photos from their youth as well as those that are more recent photos, mementos, and artistic creations. How does this recall-based experience affect the quality of life for those living with dementia, potentially including: mood, resiliency to day-to-day frustrations, interest in other social engagements, and cooperative care behaviors?

"Artifcts is not your run of the mill book or app asking you to record stories and memories from general questions. Artifcts are inherently autobiographical and start with an object or photo. Only you know and can write or orate the story/description for your own Artifct," said Ellen Goodwin, Co-founder and CSO of Artifcts. "This means that you could, in theory, use the structured and unstructured data inherent to the Artifct as input for machine learning to observe changes in vocabulary, sentence structure, detail level, sentiment, and even voice. Could detecting these changes reveal changes in brain health or alert people to potential cognitive impairment? Could the model become predictive, too? We'd love to find out!"

Stay tuned as we proceed through the MassDigital program to select a research partner from the Massachusetts Digital Health Ecosystem to pitch MeHI at MIT on June 28 for funding to support our future research into brain health! Local? RSVP to come watch!

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© 2023 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Lori La Bey, founder of Alzheimer's Speaks, brings people to her "radio show" who are in the trenches, working to make a difference for those who have dementia as well as the caregivers to those with dementia. Lori is also the co-founder of sister site Dementia Map, which supports you and your family and/or business with free educational resources, a guide to service providers across 150 categories, and a growing collection of local memory cafes, searchable by state. (You can read more about Artifcts and how to get started in the Dementia Map blog, too!)

The cofounders of Artifcts, along with the executive director of the National Aging in Place Council, joined Lori to talk very directly about all our stuff and how Artifcts helps you to transform the stuff we collect and accumulate in life from a burden today—dust it, store it, move it!—and on future generations, who must wrestle with what to do with it all when it outlives us! Artifcts is here for your entire "village," no matter age or life stage. 

Enjoy the replay!

And before you go, check out Lori Le Bay's new book, Betty the Bald Chicken: Lessons on How to Care. Inspired by Lori’s journey caring for her mother, who lived 30 years with Alzheimer's disease, this endearing book explores hard topics and the tough feelings that go with them. 

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© 2023 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

“If you want an engaging conversation, ask people about the ‘stuff’ in their homes!” said Steve Gurney, Founder and Director of The Positive Aging Community, after a delightful and high energy conversation with the founders of Artifcts yesterday. 

The Positive Aging Community seeks to foster the connections to the right solutions and the connections to help make aging choices easier and more accessible for all. Within that framework, Artifcts has created a brand new domain for ‘stuff,' so that all the objects we collect and accumulate as we live our lives are transformed from a burden on future generations – and even as we move and downsize today—to the source of personal connection, story and legacy, and financial security.

“It’s not enough to capture memories with journals and interviews and ignore all the ‘stuff,’ and today we learned that The Positive Aging Community agrees,” said Artifcts co-founder Heather Nickerson.  “There’s a lot of frustration and exhaustion out there because of the burden stuff has become to store, sort through, and find future homes for. If we can alleviate that burden and capture the meaning, memories, histories behind our belongings as well, we’ve made the world better.”

The entire discussion with The Positive Aging Community is available on instant replay here. The discussion ranged far and wide. A few themes we touched on included:

• The simplicity of creating Artifcts – As Steve said, if you can join a Zoom call, you can create an Artifct. 
• No need to be a storyteller or have that kind of time in order to create Artifcts. Just write five words, e.g. “My mother gave me it.”
• Collaborating through Artifcts' invite-only circles and shared editing privileges to capture stories you do not personally know at all or only in light detail
• How to Artifct large photo, document, and other collections
• Making Artifcts more accessible to those who are less comfortable on computers and smart phones through Artifcting with a child or grandchild
• Finding the right solution for your needs and making sure you know how you can download your digital assets and assign legacy contacts so your digital assets are not lost in cyberspace in the event you or a loved one passes away.

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© 2023 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.