Healthcare, technology and aging leaders convene in Nashville to shape the future of health, safety and independence

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Connected Health & Safety Association (CHS) concluded its 2026 Annual Conference in Nashville, bringing together more than 250 leaders from across healthcare, technology, senior living, caregiving, remote monitoring and aging services to explore the future of connected care and independent living.

The conference capped a year of significant growth for CHS, with membership increasing 55% as the organization continues to expand and represent a broader Connected Health & Safety ecosystem.

New members include organizations such as Teladoc Health, Wellthy, Sensi.AI, Tenovi, Tunstall, Intuition Robotics, care.coach, CarePredict, Pontosense and MediBioSense, reflecting the growing convergence of healthcare, artificial intelligence, remote monitoring, caregiving and safety technology.

“This was an important year for CHS and for the industry we represent,” said Geoff Gross, President of the Connected Health & Safety Association. “We are bringing together companies that share a common mission of using technology, services and human connection to help people live safer, healthier and more independent lives.”

The conference featured healthcare strategist Paul Keckley, Managing Editor of The Keckley Report, as keynote speaker, addressing the forces reshaping healthcare and the growing role of technology and care in the home.

Other featured participants included Anna Keith of Centene; Dan Conroy of Teladoc Health; Sheila Krocak of Best Buy Health; Jason Childers of Merrill Gardens; Samson Magid of HealthSnap; Amelia Hay of AARP; and leaders from an assortment of similar organizations. Discussions explored home-based care, artificial intelligence, caregiver support, remote monitoring, senior living, next-generation safety technology and investment across the industry.

“The opportunity ahead is much larger than any single technology or service,” Gross said. “Emergency response remains foundational to our industry, but increasingly our members are helping identify risk earlier, engage people more proactively and connect individuals, caregivers and healthcare organizations in entirely new ways.”

A highlight of the conference was the 2026 Connected Health & Safety Awards Gala, held at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

CHS presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to Senator Bill Frist, M.D., recognizing his career spanning medicine, public service, healthcare leadership and innovation. Nick Stengle, Chief Executive Officer of Brookdale Senior Living, received the Champion for Aging Award for his leadership and commitment to advancing the health, well-being and quality of life of older adults.

The evening also recognized Tenovi as Company of the Year and Cognitive Systems as Innovator of the Year, celebrating organizations helping shape the future of connected health and safety.

“The leaders we honored and the organizations that came together in Nashville demonstrate how quickly this ecosystem is evolving,” Gross said. “CHS is becoming the place where healthcare, technology, safety and aging come together, and we are excited to continue building on that momentum.”

The Association will celebrate its 20th anniversary at the 2027 CHS Annual Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, October 13–15, 2027.

About the Connected Health & Safety Association

The Connected Health & Safety Association (CHS) is the leading trade association bringing together organizations advancing technologies and services that help people live safer, healthier and more independent lives. CHS represents organizations spanning personal emergency response, remote patient monitoring, virtual care, artificial intelligence, caregiving, senior living, connected devices and AgeTech.

Through advocacy, education, research and collaboration, CHS works to advance innovation and strengthen the role of connected technology in supporting aging adults, people with disabilities and the caregivers who support them.

Learn more at chsassociation.org.

Media Contact

Matt Guerrieri
matt.guerrieri@medicalguardian.com

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A Sovereign AI tender win in Brazil and the first national-scale AI factory in Ukraine open a six-country rollout with SERPRO, VEON and Kyivstar

LOS ANGELES and SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — MeetKai today announced a six-country rollout of its sovereign AI stack, built on NVIDIA AI infrastructure, across Brazil, Ukraine, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Bangladesh, six countries home to more than 700 million people. In each country, MeetKai’s sovereign AI platform and locally trained models will run on NVIDIA accelerated computing: MeetKai Brasil, working with SERPRO; Meetkai working with VEON (Nasdaq: VEON) and its operators in the other five markets, beginning with Kyivstar (Nasdaq: KYIV) the leading telecommunications and digital services provider in Ukraine.

MeetKai builds its stack on NVIDIA at every layer. Its national language models are trained, fine-tuned and served on NVIDIA accelerated computing. Its sovereign AI platform runs on NVIDIA accelerated computing, NVIDIA networking and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software. Its AI factory reference design for sovereign sites is specified on NVIDIA infrastructure. One platform, MK-A1 SOVIA, across every market means a model built for one country and a deployment pattern proven at one site can both be repeated at the next, with no dependency on foreign cloud services.

“Sovereign AI only works when the entire AI stack, infrastructure to models, sits inside the country,” said James Kaplan, co-founder and CEO of MeetKai. “That is a hard thing to build once and a very hard thing to build six times. Building on NVIDIA turns it into a repeatable design: the same accelerated computing under every site, our platform and national models on top. Ukraine will have AI it fully controls, Brazil takes the same approach into Latin America on the back of our sovereign AI win there, and we will replicate it in every market in between.”

MeetKai and Kyivstar, VEON’s majority owned subsidiary and leading Ukrainian digital operator, will build a sovereign AI data center in Ukraine, the first national-scale AI factory in the country, with first capacity planned to come online in 2027. The design of the facility is expected to expand from 15 to 100 MW as demand from the public sector and Ukrainian industry grows. It will be equipped with the latest NVIDIA accelerated computing and NVIDIA reference architecture and will run MeetKai’s sovereign AI platform, including Ukrainian-language models trained and hosted inside Ukraine. MeetKai and Kyivstar will operate the facility and deliver sovereign compute and AI services to the Ukrainian government, critical infrastructure operators, enterprises and Kyivstar’s own customers.

Because the platform is designed to run in isolated environments, it is expected that Ukrainian ministries, energy and transport operators, banks and defense-adjacent civil agencies will be able to train, fine-tune and run AI on their own data in fully air-gapped deployments.

Across VEON’s five markets, home to more than 150 million mobile customers and over 225 million digital customers, MeetKai acts as VEON’s AI lab-as-a-service, beginning in Ukraine followed by Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Bangladesh, with each site operated by MeetKai together with VEON’s local operator. In every market, MeetKai and its operating partners train local engineers to run and extend the sites, so AI skills diffuse into each country’s workforce and stay there.

“Every nation wants AI that runs on its own infrastructure, in its own languages, under its own rules. MeetKai is building its AI platform and national language models on NVIDIA accelerated computing, giving governments and telecom operators a full-stack foundation for AI factories deployed and operated in-country,” said Calista Redmond, VP Global AI Initiatives at NVIDIA.

In Brazil, MeetKai Brasil won SERPRO’s public tender for the national sovereign AI platform with the highest overall score. It will deploy the platform and locally trained models on NVIDIA accelerated computing in-country, including a sovereign coding agent for secure workflows, now launching with SERPRO.

The Brazilian partnership opens one of the Western hemisphere’s largest regulated markets. Brazil’s banks, insurers, energy companies and state-owned enterprises carry workloads their regulators expect to stay secure under Brazilian control, and SERPRO, the federal government’s own IT company, operates many of the systems much of that economy already runs on. The air-gapped platform Ukraine’s ministries and banks can use serves the same need in Brazil: institutions train, fine-tune and run AI on their own data, in-country. And this sovereignty is unlocked on NVIDIA accelerated computing.

MeetKai, which is also an NVIDIA Inception member, is expanding its work in Egypt with Smart Africa, building its AI stack on NVIDIA technology as part of its plans for the market. The company is among a growing group of AI innovators using NVIDIA technology to build and scale across Africa.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the planned deployment of MeetKai’s sovereign AI platform and locally trained models in Brazil, Ukraine, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Bangladesh; the construction, equipping, expansion and operation of AI data centers, including the planned facility in Ukraine and its expected timeline; expected demand from public-sector and enterprise customers; and the expected benefits of the collaborations described. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including risks relating to the negotiation and completion of definitive agreements, the timing and completion of infrastructure projects, the availability of hardware, power and financing, regulatory approvals and export controls, political and security conditions in the markets described, and the performance of counterparties. Nothing in this press release is a guarantee of future results. Except as required by law, the companies undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement. Statements concerning VEON, Kyivstar or NVIDIA are subject to those companies’ own public disclosures and risk factors.

About MeetKai

MeetKai is a sovereign AI company that builds and operates national AI platforms for governments and telecommunications operators.

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Manitoba-based company grows from 50+ to 80+ locations as it expands its entertainment concept around the world

WINNIPEG, MB, Sept. 25, 2026 /CNW/ — Activate has been named to The Globe and Mail’s 2026 list of Canada’s Top Growing Companies, ranking No. 35 among 375 companies nationwide and No. 2 in arts, recreation and entertainment, with a growth percentage of 958%. The recognition marks the company’s third consecutive appearance on the annual ranking.

Since first making the list in 2024, Activate has undergone significant global expansion, growing from more than 50 locations to more than 80 today. The company now operates in 12 countries across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East and has welcomed more than 14 million Players worldwide.

“Activate started in Winnipeg with an idea for a completely new way to play, and we’re now building a global entertainment company from Manitoba,” said Adam Schmidt, CEO of Activate. “As we’ve expanded internationally, we’ve continued to invest in the games, technology and innovation that power the experience right here at home. That ability to build in Canada and scale around the world has been fundamental to our growth.”

That momentum continues. Additional locations are in development across North America and Europe, while Activate is preparing to enter a new continent with its first Australian location set to open in Melbourne in early 2027.

Activate’s third consecutive recognition from The Globe and Mail follows another major business milestone earlier this year, when the company ranked No. 1 in Leisure & Entertainment on the Financial Times list of The Americas’ Fastest Growing Companies 2026.

For more information, visit playactivate.com or follow @activategames on Instagram and TikTok.                                              

ABOUT ACTIVATE

The games await. Behind every door, you’ll need your reflexes, your wits, and your friends to beat them. Play against the room or against each other–it’s easy to play but hard to beat. Welcome to Activate. Headquartered in Winnipeg, Canada, Activate is North America’s fastest-growing entertainment experience with more than 80 locations across Canada, the U.S., Denmark, Germany, France, Finland, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, the U.K., and the U.A.E.

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