2026 OWN NSW State Conference

The AI of Ageing: The Future Is Being Coded. Who Is Being Left Behind?

The future of ageing is already being coded. The question is: who is in the room when the decisions are made, and who is missing from the data?

On the International Day of Older Persons, join the Older Women’s Network NSW for our 2026 State Conference exploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping the lives of older women.

AI is not some distant, futuristic concern. It is already influencing how people are assessed for care, how health risks are identified, how services are funded and staffed, who is offered work, who can secure housing and how people are monitored in their own homes.

These systems are often presented as neutral and efficient. But technology is only as fair as the data, assumptions and priorities built into it.

Older women are already poorly represented in much of the data used to shape public policy and services. When AI systems are trained on data that has never counted older women properly, that invisibility does not disappear. It becomes automated - and embedded in systems that can be far harder to question than a human decision-maker.

What happens when the algorithm gets it wrong?

Who benefits from these new technologies, and who carries the risk?

Whose knowledge is trusted when systems are being designed?

Can AI help older women live safer, healthier and more independent lives, or will it deepen the inequalities they already face?

And how do we make sure that human judgement, dignity and accountability are not coded out of the systems on which we increasingly depend?

This important conference will bring together older women, researchers, frontline professionals, advocates and policy thinkers to examine where bias enters AI systems, and what must be done before today’s inequalities become tomorrow’s infrastructure.

Keynote speaker

Aubrey Blanche
Director of Ethical Advisory and Strategic Partnerships at The Ethics Centre

Aubrey Blanche is an internationally recognised expert in equitable design and responsible AI. Her work examines the point at which bias becomes embedded in data, products and algorithms, and how technology can be designed to serve people more fairly.

Expert panel

Aubrey will be joined by:

Professor Kathy Eagar AM
One of Australia’s foremost authorities on aged care funding and casemix classification, the architecture that determines how care needs are measured and resourced.

Associate Professor Sophia Maalsen, University of Sydney
A leading researcher examining how digital and “smart” technologies are reshaping housing and the home, including for people ageing in place.

Beverly Baker
National President of the Older Women’s Network Australia and a longstanding national advocate for the rights, safety and economic security of older women.

Who should attend?

This conference is for:

• Older women and their advocates

• Nurses, aged care workers and other frontline professionals

• Community organisations and unions

• Government and policy professionals

• Researchers, designers and technology professionals

• Anyone concerned about ageing, gender, equity and the future of AI

You do not need to be an expert in artificial intelligence. This conference will make the issues understandable, relevant and impossible to ignore.

The future is being coded now. Older women cannot be an afterthought.

Date: Thursday 1 October 2026
Venue: Aerial Function Centre, UTS Building 10, Level 7, 235 Jones Street, Ultimo NSW 2007
Presented by: Older Women’s Network NSW

We thank the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association for being a Platinum Sponsor of the conference.

Draft Agenda (To be Finalised)

9:00am: Registration for OWN members only

9:15am: OWN NSW AGM

10:00am: Registration for Conference attendees & Morning Tea

10:30am: Welcome & Acknowledgment of Country

10:45am: Chair's Message

10:50am: Keynote Address: Aubrey Blanche

11:30am: OWN Theatre Group

11:45am: Panel Discussion

12:45pm: Q&A

1:00pm; Lunch

1:45pm: Christina Mimmocchi

2:00pm: Keynote 2

2:30pm: Setting Priorities

3:30pm: Closing Address

3:45pm: Afternoon Tea

4:30pm: End