Edmund Hillary residents proved how keen they were to load the new Ryman-designed app launched in their village this week by queueing up in droves to book a one-on-one session.
The app is just one of the new initiatives being introduced throughout Ryman villages with the idea of refreshing resident activities – the activities and lifestyle programme has also been enhanced and the village team delivering the programme has been boosted with extra team members too.

Group Resident Experience Manager Rachel Garrard presented the exciting new changes to the first of two groups of residents at Edmund Hillary today.
“We love to delight our residents so for the past couple of years we have been working on some very exciting new initiatives,” she said.

From October Edmund Hillary residents will be able to enjoy an additional three activities on their calendar a week.

These could range from yoga, art class, learning a new language or musical instrument or dance classes and would be additional to the customary activities such as Triple A.

The newly-boosted resident experience team in the village will also provide opportunities for activities and events outside the village.

“These could be going to the theatre, festivals, or short destination trips or sky diving or hot air ballooning – it depends on how adventurous you are,” said Rachel.

“But we can get you there and make it happen.”

Group Resident Experience Manager Rachel Garrard captivates the crowd with her presentation.

She said the residents involved in the pilot had tried out an escape room and art classes with a group of men from Charles Upham also making pest traps for conservation purposes.

“We learned from them that one of the best outcomes was the new friendships that formed as a result so as we offer more for you to be involved in, it enhances opportunities to meet more people with similar interests,” Rachel said.

Following on from last year’s Olympics@Ryman event and this year’s ongoing Walking for Wellness activity, Ryman had committed to offer an Active Ageing event each year too, she said.

Drawing all these activities together in one place was the new Ryman Resident App.
Ryman’s UI/UX Design Lead Emily Underwood explained that residents from Diana Isaac and Charles Upham had been involved in the design process to make it as user-friendly as possible so that even the least tech-savvy people could navigate it easily.

The app is firstly designed to store the village calendar of events. Residents ‘save’ the events they are interested in attending to create a personalised schedule, which automatically triggers reminders before the event.

“We had a lot of good feedback about that feature,” said Emily.

Village updates would also be sent using the app, which would prove a useful paperless alternative to the customary flyers, and for the virtual events programme, residents could join via the app therefore avoiding the need to have a Zoom account, Emily said.

“We have designed it to make it as easy as possible to use and we’re still learning so thank you in advance for helping to shape the experience,” she said.

Resident Doug Gibbon books in a one on one session with help from Michael Trengrove

Resident Doug Gibbon, who says he is not particularly tech savvy, was one of the first to book in a session. He said he was excited to use the new app.

“I do a lot in the village, bowls, movies, the walking and the workshop, so it will be good to have up to the minute information about what’s going on. I’m looking forward to it.”

He appreciated having the one-on-one sessions with a member of the tech team to help load the app and create an account that will be unique to Edmund Hillary village.

Next on the list of villages to sign up for the app was Logan Campbell and William Sanders.