Nicola Palmarini is the Director of UK's National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA) – a world leading organisation supported by an initial investment from UK Government and Newcastle University – to help co-develop and bring to market products and services which enhance and improve all aspects of life for our ageing societies. The Centre aims to bring together cross-competence professionals and researchers, commercialization experts, scientists, innovators and technologists working closely together with the public in a seamless way, exchanging their intelligence and backgrounds. Before, he was research manager at the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, a $250 million academic-industry partnership for the responsible advancement of artificial intelligence. Trained in social studies and business communication, he developed a deep expertise in leading heterogeneous teams and connecting dots across disciplines to bridge academic and industrial research with real-world applications to deliver return-on-community and return-on-business with a specific focus on longevity and the coming effects and opportunities of the demographic revolution. He holds a decade of experience in research on supporting older adults’ autonomy and independence, leading a global team to develop Human Activity Recognition techniques dedicated to older adults based on AI applied to IoT data. He is an author, teacher, applied research scientist and his main areas of research are: Loneliness as accelerator of physical and cognitive diseases, Ageism, Aging & economic factors, Aging women and workplace, Ethics and AI. The work of his teams has twice been awarded the Computer Honors Award, at the United Nations for Aging Initiative and received the Disability Matters - Market Place Award.

With 19 years of Real Estate research, strategy and insights experience across all sectors including Commercial, Residential and Rural, Stephanie McMahon is a Senior Director and Head of Research for BNP Paribas Real Estate. Her team undertake strategic insight and markets analysis for all UK real estate markets. Prior to BNP Paribas Real Estate she set up and led the research team at Strutt & Parker, and before that was the strategic research lead for the JLL UK business. In addition to her role at BNP Paribas Real Estate, she sits on the residential council for the ULI UK, and is a Trustee for the Fremantle Trust. She provides guidance to the IPF research programme, the BPF compact-living committee and supports the SPR. She speaks regularly across all sectors at industry events with keynote, moderator and panel roles.