Aged care needs profit to reinvest in better care. But the sector is often demonised for making it.
THE EVENT
A morning on the psychology behind profit in the care sector — and the technology and innovators making it possible.
WHO IT'S FOR
Aged care leaders and innovators who know profit is what funds better care.
Ask that in public and the room tenses. Ask it in private and everyone has an answer.
In the nine months to March 2026, 62% of residential aged care homes ran at an operating loss. A year earlier it was 49%.
Occupancy hit a record. Homes have never been this full and they're losing more money than last year. That isn't a management failure. It's a design failure.
Home support margins average 5.3% against the 9.5% needed to attract investment. Providers under 250 packages are running negative.
You can't reinvest a deficit. Profit is what funds better rosters, better buildings and better care — and what keeps a provider here in ten years. Call it surplus if that's your constitution's language. The arithmetic doesn't change.
GenTech Archive · Plate 01
.png)
REF GT/NET-001
The Innovation Collective
GenTech is the innovation collective bringing Australian aged care providers and the technology companies shaping the future of care into one conversation.
Residential, home and community care leaders alongside the founders and product teams building for them — sharing real challenges, challenging old thinking and accelerating better solutions for the sector.
GT1 is where that conversation moves from the network into the room.
Explore the network →ON THE DAY
Friday 16 October 2026 · 10:00am – 1:00pm
MC · GT1
YOUR MC
Ian Poalses
Ageing Australia · State Manager, Queensland
State Manager for Queensland and National Opportunities Lead at Ageing Australia, the national peak body for aged care and seniors living providers. He leads engagement across around 180 provider organisations and represents the sector to ministers and senior departmental leaders.
A regular conference speaker and facilitator, Ian holds the morning together — introducing the keynote, running the panel and keeping the room moving.
Doors
10:00
Doors and coffee
A beautiful warehouse space in Hawthorn, with an on site café and room to network.
Arrive a little early for excellent breakfast options and a head start on the conversations.
Welcome · GT1
10:20
Welcome to the event
Jimmy Leishman · Devon Passmore · GenTech co-founders
Jimmy Leishman, Co founder of TeaTime, and Devon Passmore, Director of Product and Development at ethyx, welcome the room and set up the morning.
Keynote · GT1
10:30
Keynote — Dr Darren Coppin
ethyx · Behavioural science
On the psychology of how we talk about making and distributing profit, and why the language a sector uses shapes what it lets itself do.
Twenty-five years of behavioural research, validated across seven countries, pointed squarely at a sector that struggles to say the word out loud.
Panel · GT1
11:05
Panel — The value residents feel
Debra Baxter, Care Collaborator · Jimmy Leishman, TeaTime · Brad Sandilands, Quality INSITE
What technology actually changes for a resident, connection, routine, and the parts of a day that never show up in a report.
Three founders on three parts of the same journey, getting into care, getting set up, and staying connected once you are there. Not the roadmap or the rollout, but what a resident actually notices.
Panel · GT1
TBC
Panel — The profit conversation, right now
Speakers to be announced
Aged care leaders on the pressure they are under, and how the conversation about profit actually feels from inside the sector right now.
Open floor
11:35
The room
Hosted by Ian Poalses
Open conversation with residential and home support leaders, and the technology companies working on the same problem.
No panel, no slides. The floor is open, and the people who came with questions get to ask them.
Close · GT1
TBC
Close
Ian Poalses ·
Ian brings the morning together and sends the room out with what happens next.
How do I get an invitation?
GT1 is invite only. If you have been invited, your link is in the invitation. If you have not and you think you belong in the room, send us a few details and we'll come back to you.
Invitations are personal, but if you can't make it we can usually transfer your seat to someone else from your organisation. Let us know the name before the day.
Refunds are available up to 14 days before the event. After that, we can transfer your seat to a colleague instead.
Yes, a tax invoice is issued when you claim your seat.
What happens after I claim my seat?
You'll get a confirmation email straight away, and the full run sheet the week before.