Starting with People, Not Problems 

For Beatrice Ferrarini, Lead of Voice Italia, this work has never been about ageing in isolation. “My interest has always really been in people,” she says. “Understanding how people think, how they see the world, and what truly matters to them is at the core of everything I do.” 

That interest first led her to study psychology, then into user research, work which focused on listening carefully to people and translating their experiences into better products and services. Over time, her professional perspective began to intersect with her personal life. As her grandparents grew older, she became more aware of how ageing changes what people can do, and how often those changes are overlooked. 

Looking back at her own work, she noticed something that made her feel uncomfortable, and that was that the people she was designing for were rarely older adults. Not because they didn’t exist, but because they hadn’t been considered. Gradually, it became clear that a large part of the population was missing from design processes altogether, not just from products, but from conversations about innovation and the future.  

Moving Beyond Age to What Truly Matters 

One of the clearest learnings from Voice Italia this year is one that resonates across the wider Voice network that people engage most deeply when conversations move away from age and towards values. Friendship. Love. Belonging. Connection. “When we talk about friendship and love, the things that sit at the very essence of being human, that’s what people really care about,” Beatrice explains. 

This insight matters because much of today’s longevity work still separates practical needs from emotional life. Homes are discussed in terms of “bricks and mortar”. Services are framed as “functional”. But this is not how people experience them. Lives are shaped by memory, safety, pride, loss, and joy.  Voice Italia’s work is a reminder that longevity is never only practical. It is always emotional too.  

Trust Changes Everything 

Across workshops, focus groups, and informal gatherings in Italy this year, one pattern has repeated itself. “You can bring together ten people who don’t know each other,” Beatrice says, “and after an hour they’re sharing things they’ve never even told their families.” That depth doesn’t happen by accident. It comes from intentionally creating spaces where people feel safe, respected, and free from judgement. Trust opens the door to honesty and honesty is where insight begins. 

This is something many Voice chapters recognise. What happens once people are together is rarely the hardest part. The real challenge lies in everything that comes before, building understanding, setting expectations, and creating enough trust for people to walk through the door in the first place.  

From Enjoyment to Belief

One of the most honest insights to emerge from Voice Italia this year is also one many of us recognise. People consistently enjoy taking part, yet they don’t always return. This isn’t because the experience lacks value, but because many aren’t yet convinced that participation leads to real change. As Beatrice puts it,“We need to show real actions with real impact, so people can see that what they wrote on a Post-it didn’t just stay on a wall.”

In response, Voice Italia has been experimenting with ways to make impact more visible. In the Infuriating Objects workshop, first trialed in the UK,  Voice members were invited to redesign everyday items that cause frustration or distress. The project was developed in collaboration with the Accessibility Discovery Centre at Google Italia, who brought additional expertise through AI agents trained to surface the perspectives of people with disabilities, whether temporary or permanent. Ideas from the workshop are now being developed into 3D-printed prototypes, with plans for public exhibitions that create a clear and tangible line between lived experience and real-world outcomes.

A similar approach has been taken in local cafés, where “open workshops” invited people to share ideas about social connection and community life. Café owners then committed to implementing one suggestion, allowing participants to see their contribution take shape, a bookshelf appearing, a book-crossing idea becoming real. “These changes may be small,” Beatrice reflects, “but they’re tangible and that’s powerful.”

Intergenerational, Not Age-Segmented 

Voice Italia’s community includes people from their early twenties to their mid-nineties. Younger members often arrive through curiosity about innovation such as AI, new technologies, or the chance to influence products and systems that will shape their futures. 

At the same time, spending time working in longevity has changed how many people, including Beatrice herself, notice everyday moments. Small comments that once passed unnoticed now help prompt a real pause. “When someone says, ‘I’m too old for this,’ I stop and ask what they mean,” she says. That question doesn’t challenge the person. Often, it reveals how quickly we all reach for age as an explanation, or a limit, without really thinking about it. 

Seen this way, longevity isn’t just about later life. It’s about paying attention to how age shapes the way we talk, the choices we make, and what we assume is possible, long before we reach old age. 

Longevity Starts Earlier Than We Think 

One of the most interesting projects to come out of Italy this year doesn’t focus on later life at all, but on the very beginning. In a small town in northern Italy, Voice Italia is working alongside a local community on the design of a new nursery, using longevity as a way of thinking rather than a target age group. 

The project looks at how early environments shape health and wellbeing over time and how decisions made in the first years of life can echo decades later. “What you do when someone is one year old can have a huge impact on how they grow and age,” Beatrice says. 

While the work began in 2025, the project will start in earnest in 2026. We’ll be checking back in as it develops, and looking forward to sharing what emerges along the way. 

A Global Conversation, Many Local Truths 

For Beatrice, being part of the global Voice network has strengthened the work rather than diluted it. “You start to see differences,” she says, “but also similarities that are greater than you expect.” 

Listening across chapters, the same questions keep coming up. How do we help people believe their voice really matters? How do we make impact visible, rather than abstract? How do we respect local culture without losing a shared sense of purpose? And how do we sustain curiosity across generations, places, and systems? 

If Voice Italia offers one clear lesson after two years, it’s this, that longevity work doesn’t begin with fixing people. It begins with listening to them and then showing, again and again, that listening leads to something real.