I am a PhD researcher in Public Health at Auckland University of Technology, working at the intersection of healthy ageing, smart cities, and inclusive governance. My research explores how older adults, particularly Chinese migrants in Auckland, experience and navigate increasingly digital urban services and participation systems. As cities move towards digital-first models of service delivery and civic engagement, older adults are often framed as “late adopters” who simply need more training or better tools. My research challenges this assumption by shifting the focus from individual capability to system design. Rather than asking whether older people can keep up with smart city systems, I examine how those systems are structured, whose forms of participation they recognise, and where everyday barriers quietly accumulate. Using a participatory co-design approach, I am developing and testing a method called World Teahouse, a culturally adapted version of the World Café model. Through small, facilitated sessions that combine storytelling, mapping, and collective reflection, older adults and local stakeholders work together to make visible how participation pathways function in practice and how they might be redesigned to better support autonomy, dignity, and social connection. The project treats older adults not as passive service users or consultees, but as legitimate contributors to future urban governance. Its aim is to translate lived experience into practical, governance-relevant insights that can inform more inclusive and future-ready approaches to healthy ageing in Auckland and beyond.