Digitally Enabled Practices for Culture, Tourism, Entertainment & Games

Focus

Emphasis on the best ICT initiatives and practices in Culture, Tourism, Entertainment and Games

• Role, Impact and Importance of digitalization in these domains and discussion on prospects
• Cumulative involvement of various sectors for a comprehensive approach to progressiveness

Speakers

chair: Moe Chiba, Programme Specialist for Culture, UNESCO
Moderator: Anirban Sarma, National Programme Officer, UNESCO New Delhi, Cluster Office Communication and Information Sector

Jury expert: Hempal Shrestha, Practitioner, ICT For Education and Social Development

panelist: Smita Jha, Director, PwC

presenters:

Rahul Malik, Monuments in Delhi
Siddharth Hegde, India Cheers Loud and Clear
Akhilesh Shukla, MTDC Online Booking Website
Gaurav Agarwal, Trip Platform
Naheed, SKYPE, Love across Borders
Atish Udayshankar, Thrillophilia Adventure
Srinivasa Varma Mantena, Vishnu Taranga
Anuradha Piyadasa, Sri Lanka Archeology
Sriram Emani, Indian Raga
Sandeep Singh Sandhar, CycEscape (by RLTgo.com)

Summit Bytes

Rahul Malik, Monuments in Delhi, e-Culture and Tourism :
“Monuments in Delhi” is an initiative towards cataloguing the various architectural establishments of Delhi through the web and mobile based platforms. With over a catalogue and categorization of 300 monuments of Delhi on the website, the initiative has outreached to millions of visitors, promoting various archaeological sites in Delhi. The catalogue was generated through secondaryresearch from various books,on-site visits and assistance from the local people. The portal also provides a feature where any visitor is allowed to add any new and currently unavailable heritage site on the website. The offering is also been developed in mobile based application and is currently under process for availability in Hindi language. The project also visions to add cultural tours through the website and thereby making it an overall culture and tourism based website.

Siddharth Hedge, India Cheers Loud and Clear, e-Entertainment and Games :
The India Cheers Loud and Clear is a social initiative utilizing the social media for creating awareness, promoting athletes in Olympic events, and supporting them with equipment for optimum preparations.The project works towards strengthening the Indian athletes through various forms of assistances including financial support through various fund raising campaigns. The project has currently been supporting around 17 athletes, with most of them performingin international arena at present.The initiative utilizes the social media network to reach out to the public
and has established itself in the social media domain with over a million fans on its Facebook page. Interestingly, the campaign was able to raise 9 Lakh rupees for an Indian athlete through its social media presence. The project was founded on the realization that Indian athletes also deserve equal appreciation on their performances as do the cricketers, and visions to create the largest fan base for them through its efforts.

Akhilesh Shukla, MTDC Online Booking Website, e-Culture and Tourism :
MTDC Online Booking Website is an initiative to provide information on various tourist destinations in Maharashtra along with a travel plan, fare, places of attractions, nearby attractions etc. The information is available on a mobile based application, as well as through a web based portal. The project is integrated with an IVR section that connects the user to any place in Maharashtra. Currently the information is provided in 2 primary languages, Hindi and English and has over a 1,000 places across the state integrated with the IVR.
The website also showcases advertisements of various tourist agencies, and recommended hotels along with options to book online accommodations through the website, thereby making it a one – stop portal for all tourism related activities in Maharashtra.

Gaurav Agarwal, Trip Platform, e-Culture and Tourism :
In today’s scenario, there has been a generic belief that the tourism websites are more focused towards promoting hotels and travel options, but hardly emphasize on promoting local culture among the travelers.Trip Platform has been launched to bridge this gap by creating cultural awareness and promoting local adventures on their website.
The website also allows tourist operators and agencies to populate their offerings and connect with visitors and enthusiastic travelers, enabling them to interact about the travel plans, interesting details, and important information before the actual journey. The website also promotes local heritage by offering accommodations with local families. Trip Platform has collaborated with local NGOs to facilitate better understanding of the local areas and small villages that would otherwise been difficult to map as a tourist destination.The platform also provides the travelers to feed/blog their stories and experiences after the travel so as to enable the tour planners and the organizers toimprovise on their offerings.

Naheed Hasan, Love Across Bordervs, e-Culture and Tourism :“Love across Borders” is an initiative that discusses the stories of people and incidents to create empathy and harmony across the borders.The stories are not based on the hatred or anger, but talks about the positivity, love, care and connection between the two nations through story narrations. The initiative narrates about the various fictional incidents and stories on the relations across the two nations with aspirations to launch another anthology and on-ground events including readings and discussions.

Atish Udayshankar, Thrillophilia, e-Culture and Tourism :
Thrillophilia is a travel oriented website featuring tourist destinations in India with a slight change! The organization explores the destinations itself, travelling across the country and share its own experiences online. Further to this, the organization searches for local vendors providing these activities, and connect them with the global audience visiting Thrillophilia.
With over 1700 + local destinations and 700 + associated small vendors, the travel portal plays the inclusive part in:

• Working with local vendors and individual
• Connecting local vendors with global travelers
• Encouraging local home-stays, thereby promoting local life-styles
• Food arrangements through local farmers, benefitting the local community

Srinivasa Varma Mantena, Vishnu Tarang, e-Culture and Tourism :
Vishnu Tarang is a mobile application for the speech impaired people to assist them during their travel. The speech impaired people, many a times, faces difficulties in commotion and in communication with the public for directions.The application provides features such as travel directions in 6 Indian languages and one click notification to home, enabling a confident travel for such people. The application supports major application bases on mobile phones, and is also working on integrated map navigation.

Anuradha Piyadasa, Sri Lanka Archaeology, e-Culture and Tourism :
Sri Lanka Archaeology is an initiative to promote the archaeological attractions of Sri Lanka at the international forum to disseminate knowledge and create awareness of the various archaeological sites in Sri Lanka. The project works through a website, sharing information about the Sri Lankan archaeology. The organization also promotes the initiative through various offline workshops and publications.

Sriram Emani, Indian Raga, e-Entertainment and Games :
Indian Raga is an attempt towards the 1st ever music fellowship program to help the enthusiastic,passionate and budding musicians to pursue music as their full time career. The fellowship program invites applicants from across the globe, scrutinizes them, and brings out the best talent from the music industry. The initiative realizes an extensive utilization of social media to reach out to the potential candidatures.

Sandeep Singh Sandhar, CycEscape, e-Culture and Tourism :
CycEscape, an initiative of the Roads Less Travelled, is a cycling based tourism promoting portal that attracts tourists for adventure on cycling.The organization provides long haul expeditions, short hauls, and weekday and daytrips for the excursion. The portal also contributes towards local development and sustainability by local hosting, accommodation, reducing CO2 emissions. The organization has also tied up with various other travel companies to offer better opportunities.