Designing for your future self: Let’s talk about sex

Adam is the co-founder and CEO of Hot Octopuss, a brand revolutionising sexual pleasure for men. He began experimenting with making sex toys at an early age, but as an adult was surprised by the lack of choice available for men and the stigma surrounding male sex toy use. Adam and his childhood friend Jules set up Hot Octopuss and five years after launching, PULSE I, the world’s first ‘guybrator’, hit the market and sold out of its first 10,000 units in six months. The company now has seven products on the market.

Colum is a senior design leader with a significant track record of developing inclusive products and services in the private, public and charitable sectors.  In 2020 Colum joined the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art as Director for Design Age Institute. He has been Head of Design at the Ministry of Justice, Sainsbury’s, Homebase and the NHS National Patient Safety Agency, and has run design firms Crabtree Hall, CaulderMoore as well as his own consultancy.

In her role as Community Lead for the Design Age Institute, George launched This Age Thing in 2021 to build a diverse community of age activists, storytellers, creatives, designers and change-makers. A respected disrupter, innovator, and leader with 25+ years of experience, George is Director of the design studio This is Real Art, co-founder of The Age of No Retirement and specialist consultancy The Common Land, championing cross-generational thinking as a key for social and economic impact.

Mervyn is a qualified social worker and formerly a Director of Social Services and the Better Government for Older People Programme (Cabinet Office). An author, TedX speaker and contributor to numerous health and care publications, Mervyn is a Founder member of ChangeAGEnts Co-operative Collective and Co-Founder Member of the Later Life Audio and Radio Co-operative (LLARC). He's also a member of the Sexual Intimacy in Later Life UK Forum (SILFF).

Jackie is Director of Jackie Marshall-Cyrus & Associates Ltd, a consultancy specialising in innovation for later lifestyles, and Founder of Jackie’s Revolution, a campaign for new models of long-term care. Formerly Lead Specialist on Innovate UK’s Assisted Living Platform, she was a chief architect of DALLAS, the world’s largest assisted living demonstrator. Her renown is linked to ‘The Long-Term Care Revolution SBRI National Challenge’, aimed to disrupt the institutional model of long-term care in the UK.

Suzanne is the co-founder of Advantages of Age, an organisation that challenges the media narrative around ageing. A community of writers, thinkers, and creative people of age, AofA celebrates alternative age narratives through creativity, querying, and rebelliousness. Members lead by example and come together to create social connections and inspire the general public on what it means to be older. Suzanne started and hosts the Facebook page 'Sex Advice for Seniors' and has featured in many publications.

The Design Age Institute is the UK’s national strategic unit for design and the healthy ageing economy. The Institute works with designers, businesses, researchers and communities to help address the challenges and opportunities of an ageing society through the transformative power of design.