About Us

Echobox Memory Vault was inspired by the BBC News story of Stan Beaton, a widower and old age pensioner living in Yorkshire, England. His late wife Ruby’s voice still remained on their answering machine and he treasured every word. The heartbreaking loss of this precious recording followed by its safe return was overwhelming for Stan, and it was incredibly touching to watch. 

(Here is the YouTube video about Mr Beaton that started it all for us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY7gSAYAf8s). 

We knew there must be a better way for us to capture the memories, sentiments and life stories of our elder loved ones. It was shocking to discover that despite incredible advancements in technology, these astounding opportunities for healing, understanding and connection were being missed, greatly undervalued or completely ignored altogether. It seemed absolutely disgraceful to us. We felt strongly we had discovered a long-untended gap that was in sore need of filling. So, without any clue about what we were getting ourselves into we took a deep breath, set up camp and got down to work.

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Echobox began as a sketch and a set of notes on our kitchen table. We had little knowledge about running a small business, had no particular interest in apps or technology and neither of us had any real experience in caregiving. Our pilot model launched as a family-based digital legacy platform and was soon showcased on local, National (CTV) and International (BBC) News! We somehow began receiving attention from healthcare specialists all around the world! It was marvellously baffling but it soon started to make a lot of sense. In the feedback we were receiving there was an encouraging and reoccurring theme: Echobox had a much bigger role to play. 

We met with hundreds of caregivers, listened to them closely and learned a lot about various daily challenges. We earned a huge appreciation for the difficult work they do for those in their care. Their advice and contributions went directly into the makings of our new design. Meanwhile, Echobox Memory Vault was awarded $100,000 in grant funding by Alberta Innovates to help us with the new iteration’s development costs. It was full steam ahead! 

We launched Internationally in the summer of 2024. For the next few years we’ll be promoting this revolutionary tool Internationally at conferences, conventions and expositions as a person-centered, senior healthcare solution. Echobox continues to drive us forward. It gives us an incredible sense of purpose and is quite literally a dream coming true. We hope that our passion for this project and our devotion to helping seniors and their caregivers will steward this technology to its rightful place in healthcare. Together, we can do this everyone! Big bear hugs to everyone who has helped us out.

Timothy and Tannis Roberts

Timothy and Tannis Roberts live in Calgary, Canada where they raise their two daughters and manage Echobox. Music, travel and food are often priorities in their lives as they always enjoy meeting new people and exploring new places. Tim is an artist who enjoys playing guitar and watching his favorite hockey team struggle, while Tannis (a book-lover through and through) loves family genealogy and is often hunting down the next mouthwatering recipe to bubble up! Both feel incredibly fortunate to be running Echobox Memory Vault and greatly appreciate this opportunity to do their part for people everywhere.