Thanks again to the support of the Startup Accelerator and its renewed staff, we had the chance to show i-muse™ to the public for the second time since the birth of Togunà Interactive.
The exhibition area of the Wireless for Business Forum was smaller than the R2B one and the event was pretty much focused on the conferences. However, our little desk at the Startup Accelerator’s stand, which also hosted our friends at Urbano Creativo and Fluidmesh, got the attention both of curious people and potential partners and clients.
Compared to other providers of innovative technologies, we have can directly show a working videoguide, and this easily get the attention of the people passing by.
By the way, how could you resist to the banner with “Chiara - the virtual guide“, as you can see in the photo?
See you at the next exhibition!

It was a great satisfaction seeing i-muse™ among the digital pages of Punto Informatico, my favorite Italian online magazine!
I’m reading Punto Informatico since ever, to keep me updated about what’s happening in the hectic ICT world, so it was a pleasure meeting Enrico Giancipoli, a collaborator of the online daily newspaper, at the recent R2B exhibition in Bologna.
Enrico came to visit our stand, tried i-muse™ and asked me some questions for the article, published this week.
Other than some technical insights about the software architecture on which i-muse™ is based, the interview contains a juicy anticipation: we’ll port the videoguide to the famous Apple smartphone, the iPhone!
Now we’re getting ready for our second exhibition as exhibitors: on June 25 and 26, me, Paolo and Samantha, our content managers, we’ll be in Milan for the Wireless 4 Business Forum.
We’ll have a desk at the stand of the Startup Accelerator of the Politecnico to show i-muse™, just like I did with Guido in Bologna.
Enjoy reading Punto Informatico’s article!

An angular stand, a good position inside the hall and our staging attracted the attention of a lot of people during the two days of the R2B exhibition in Bologna.
Me and Guido, our marketing manager, setup the stand with the banners made by Luca and we welcomed people interested to see the videoguide running on our Pdas interacting with Rfid tags.
During the two days we continued the networking activity begun with the birth of Togunà Interactive a few months ago, searching for partnership with hardware vendors, Rfid and Zigbee in particular, software solutions complimentary to our own, and presenting ourselves to potential clients, also thanks to the staff of the Startup Accelerator of the Politecnico di Milano.
Very interesting was learning the experiences of other startuppers in their search for financial support, in particular with Italian Business Angels. About this I’d like to point you out to a great guide made by IBAN and Kpmg.
A positive result then for Togunà’s first stand, after the demonstration of i-muse™ at the Ichim 07 last year in Toronto.
For me it was the first exhibition as an exhibitor, and I have to say that it’s always useful being able to look at things from different points of view!
In the pictures you can see the stand with me and Guido, as well as the Start2B area of the exhibition.

We’re getting ready for our first exhibition!
On June 5th and 6th Togunà will be at stand 216 of the R2B exhibition, in the Start2b area, dedicated to new entrepreneurial initiatives.
We’ll showcase our first product, the i-muse™ videoguide system, so that interested people could give it a try.
In Denver, during private demonstations, people told me i-muse™ was “nice and sleek“, due its graphics and user interface responsivity. I hope in Bologna we’ll get the Italian translation of these appreciations.
Before leaving for the AAM 2008 Annual Meeting in Denver, Intruders.TV’s staff interviewed me when I met them in Milan during the event The Next Web Now organized by Microsoft. It’s a series of a brief answers to questions about the startup of our entrepreneurial adventure.
The interview is short and effective: a good presentation for Bologna. Enjoy it!

I returned from Denver, in Colorado!
I went there to attend the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Museums, since we decided that at least a Togunà’s representative couldn’t miss such an important event, which attracted more than 5000 attendees, including 300 from outside the US.
I went alone, but in Denver I met Mario Bucolo, a veteran of the meeting and one of the few other Italians coming from our country. After the meeting Mario flew to Oklahoma searching for tornados to take pics of them!
The week spent in Denver has been intense and weary, due to time zone effects and the high altitude. Actually Denver is located exactly one mile above sea level.
It was all worth it, both for business and pleasure.
I met a lot of people of the sector and brought home a series of useful indications for the future of i-muse™.
You can find the details of the Denverite adventure in the dedicated photo gallery.
Who knows, maybe the next year in Philadelphia Togunà will join the MuseumExpo™ with its own booth!

It’s dream becoming reality: a new technological company is born, gathering five friends and professionals and offering i-muse™ as its first product!
In this entrepreneurial adventure I involved Guido, Luca, Paolo and Samantha together with me.
Five young guys from Como with complementary skills who try because they believe they can succeed.
What does Togunà mean?
Suggested by Guido, who also gave birth to the name i-muse™ , it’s an African word indicating the “house of wisdom“, a sort of covered place such as the one in the picture where the village’s wise men get together to have a talk.
A simple name, easy to explain and with a proper meaning if we recall the weekly evening meetings we regularly have since we started working on i-muse™.
The company is just a starting point, although with a solid basis, since we built a lot until now thanks to the work we did creating a product such as i-muse™.
Now we’re on the market, ready to take care of our first customer, and I, as President of our Board of Directors, feel at the same time the burden and the honor to give my best in order to continue in this adventure together with my partners!
Finger crossed and thanks to our supporters!

The guys who launched the portal Comoe20.it decided to interview us for their WebTV.
They came to the Educational Silk Museum of Como to see our videoguide at work and ask us if we made the system with our sole forces or someone did help us out.
Although the number of people involved in the project who supported us is relevant, from the Politecnico to the Chamber of Commerce of Como, to the Educational Silk Museum’s staff, the investment in terms of time and money has been almost entirely ours.
It’s something pretty surprising actually. Five youngers from Como who try to play as entrepreneurs starting with a product dedicated to a difficult market, especially in Italy: we’re actually inventing our work!
This is the message of the nice video edited by Comoe20.it’s staff and we hope the people will get it.
Enjoy the video!

Lucca is a town of magic: I already wrote this when I visited it last year for the first time during my Vespatour 2006.
This year I had the chance to get back to Lucca thanks to Lu.Be.C 2007, the event dedicated to the combination of ICT and cultural heritage organized by Promo P.A. Foundation at the Real Collegio.
A combination which isn’t exactly a marriage in Italy yet: I had the feeling that Public Administration representatives managing our cultural heritage and entrepreneurs offering their so called additional services, too often speak different languages.
It’s a natural defect of computer science engineers making things only they can use and in my opinion this is the strongest barrier in the dialogue between the two sides.
We try to do our part with i-muse™: technology, PDAs and Rfid in our case, it’s just a tool.
What really counts is that the service we provide boasts quality and the visitor actually benefits from it.
Along this line I appreciated the brilliant speeches of Andrea Granelli, advisor of the Minister of Cultural Heritage, and Ilaria D’Uva from D’Uva Workshop.
Who knows if next year at Lu.Be.C we’ll be able to report some progress towards this marriage thanks to i-muse™.

Rfid Italia, the Italian portal about Rfid technology published a video interview on i-muse™.
Paolo Conti, Rfid Italia’s director, came to see us in Como and had the opportunity to try our video guide at the Educational Silk Museum.
He spent words of appreciation for our system, in particular since we implemented the Rfid technology in a transparent way for the visitor.
Actually a small antenna mounted on the Pda is used to locate the Rfid tags placed on the caption holders and the visitor just have to bring the Pda close to the icons hiding the tags in order to play the content related to the exhibit he’s looking at.
A pretty simple interaction method which proved to be critical for the people who doesn’t feel at ease with technology in general, especially the so called couch potatoes.
The Rfid Italia portal is pretty active lately. For example they recently launched the Rfid Italia Network initiative, aimed to provide consulting, matching and marketing services to the companies operating in the sector.
Enjoy the video!

A week spent in Toronto really flown away: an experience shared with my four friends that I couldn’t even imagine just one year ago when we seriously started working on i-muse™.
Our demonstration at the ICHIM 07 conference went very well, a lot of people were curious to see our video guide running: from representatives of major Canadian, American and European cultural heritage institutions, to curators, researchers, professors and students. Being able to meet these people, discuss and talk to them, has been the real added value of the event.
The clear impression I had is that we’re among the pioneers in this sector and at the same time we have a product with a quality many doesn’t expect!
A positive experience from a business point of view then, as much as it was for the pleasure of discovering a multi-cultural and rich of points of interest city such as Toronto: we walked through the city’s quarters visiting the major museums, climbed up to the CN Tower’s 447m high Sky Pod and we also admired the power of the Niagara Falls.
A nice presentation and a great cultural enrichment are the balance of our Canadian adventure.
Soon I’ll upload the Torontolati’s Gallery with the best photos of the journey.