The winners of the # EUvsVirus Hackathon with more than 20,000 participants, organized by the European Commission, were announced today. With more than 2,000 projects, the teams responded to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 in various ways of life. Frankfurt locals, the entrepreneurs Pedro Ferreira and Fabrizio Gramuglio together with an international team, won #EUVsVirus Hackathon in the category “Support Art & Entertainment Challenge” and secured 5,000 Euro.
“We are delighted to have won the ‘Support Art & Entertainment Challenge’, with Guide-Your-Guide. As a widespread group of motivated culture-loving Europeans, we hope this prize will help advance our solution’s development to the next level. I´m very looking forward for the next two weeks, where the financing and resource needs of the winning teams to develop and scale their ideas, as well as the financing and resources that partners are willing to dedicate, will be collated. This prize was just a first step. We are looking forward to participate in the Matchathon, antoher initiative from the EIC, to match the needs with available resources, held at the end of May”, claims Ferreira after winning the price.
The Cloud-Based Guide-Your-Guide is the first app to get interactive and personalized remote guidance to a museum or heritage site. The purpose of the app is to bring together again the places to visit, guides and culturally hungry people separated by the COVID-19, while supporting the industry of the sites and guides.
“There has already been a lot of interest in the app,” says Pedro Ferreira. “Our team includes people from all over Europe, and also a network of the largest museums in Berlin and in Greek archeological sites.”
The technical basis of the application is the soon-to-be-launched Xperience Plus platform, backed by a UK company with an operative office in Frankfurt.
The Hackathon created an entirely new concept on the technical basis of how the platform could serve one of today’s most vulnerable sectors, namely art, culture, and tourism.
“We decided to join the Hackathon to find the right idea and team to brainstorm on how to use our current solution at Xperience Plus and we were scouting for the fit. After just a few minutes, we met Guide-Your-Guide’s team leader Paul Fabel and we decided to proceed with the project”, Fabrizio says. “As the project sounded really good – and it was a great opportunity to work with European talents we decided to spend the weekend together, and are thrilled by how far we have come in this short time.”
Personalized remote visits to museums and heritage sites with the guide will work well during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are expecting to grow our network and adhesions after the restrictions are over. The app offers the opportunity to have a personal and interactive visiting experience regardless of, for example, physical disabilities or limitations.
The Guide-Your-Guide and Xperience Plus journey continues. Funds and partners are the next steps for the winning project.