I was very pleased to be invited to represent our Association at this major international event, as an Expert Jury Member for the SilverEco Awards 2026 and on the jury for the Social Connection & Intergenerational Impact category. During the event, I also served as the Moderator for the Panel Workshop on “Smart Care, Better Ageing: Harnessing IoT and AI for More Personalised Care”, a very topical and current title for this important session within the whole Agenda for the event.
The Awards category featured compelling and succinct presentations, followed by Q&A, from all of the no fewer than eight shortlisted entries. Given the high standard overall, I was very fortunate to also have the wise counsel of fellow Jurors, Guido Fileppo of Farmoderm SrL , Marian Bača of Silvers, Richard Bailey of Mobius Networks and Moira Allan of The Pass It On Network. Healthy, informed, and amicable debate followed the presentations, and thankfully we were able to agree an outright winner. I am sure that my fellow Jurors will not mind me saying that, ideally, we would have liked to give Special Mentions to more than just one other contender, but we understand the limitations of how Awards work. A final extra mention to my Jury colleague Guido, who had the final task of opening the envelope to announce the winner at the evening ceremony.
Similarly, the Panel Workshop worked very well and attracted a good and engaged audience, not necessarily something that is guaranteed as we were the last session of the day before the Silver Night commenced. That level of interest was assured by my Panel Members, Batiste Pasquet of Altra, Guido Magrin of TeiaCare and Telesure, and Iñaki Bartolomé of Ideable Solutions and Kwido. Everyone handled the topic and the questions so well, including my own rather challenging one “will AI cure us or kill us!”
A special mention must be made of the Silver Night Awards Ceremony. Wow! Walking into the main auditorium of the Palais and to see it absolutely packed, and then followed by such a polished programme of Awards and entertainment, was quite something. Although all the entertainers were excellent and well received, it is fair to say that the couple presenting their dance routine quite literally stole the show. My French is far from good enough to keep up with the delivery from the presenters, but I don’t think I misheard “quatre-vingt-quinze” as the age of the gentleman, with his partner being just a little younger. When they started on a waltz we were happy that it would be a piece of gentle entertainment, but then they moved onto Jive and other faster dances afterwards! Lifts were involved! All the audience were rightly on their feet to applaud afterwards. Get them on Strictly!
Two final overall reflections. It was good to have the support of several other current Association members, and as always yours Pedro Ros, and I am sorry that I didn’t seem to catch you to talk to Floris Venneman. I think that by the time 2027 SilverEco comes around we will also have many more Members there, both current, and from new connections made. Then, several Exhibitors made the comment to me that, although people visiting and coming to their Stands were very welcome, the reality is that there was also a lot of opportunity for them to collaborate with other Exhibitors too. I think that thought resonates very closely with how our own Members seem to be working together more and more. Exactly as it should be!
Finally, huge events like SilverEco don’t just happen. The success is down to a tremendous amount of hard work and planning, so many thanks to Jérôme Pigniez , Ignacio Virguez, and the whole SilverEco team. We mustn’t forget the effort put in by everyone at the Palais too – getting the superyachts removed from the previous Festival and then ours set up overnight just shows what a professional and efficient job they do for every event.
On to SilverEco 2027!
By Steve Huxham, Policy & Public Affairs Director, Silver Marketing Association
