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deepwell gaming therapy

Are games the future of mental health treatment?

  • min read
    • In Kaspersky's Bring on the Future series, we meet people and businesses worldwide who are changing things for the better. One of the biggest challenges for mental health treatment is reaching more people who need it. Some don't realize they're mentally unwell. Others can't access therapy because of costs or waiting lists. Many don't like the idea of discussing their problems with a stranger. DeepWell DTx aims to change that by bringing mental health therapy to the masses – especially hard-to-reach patients – through gaming. Co-founders Ryan Douglas and Mike Wilson speak about why games are a great way to treat mental health issues – if you get the formula right. Why did you decide to start DeepWell now? We found that mental health came up constantly in our respective careers – Mike in gaming and Ryan in creating medical devices and therapies. We saw many people were missing the resources or help to treat disorders like anxiety and depression. We often talked about what we could do to address this unmet need, then the deepening mental health crisis alongside the Covid-19 pandemic pushed us to start DeepWell. What's DeepWell's philosophy? We put games and game developers first. There is no treatment without player engagement, so therapy must be embedded in a fun and engaging game. How has your team of 40 experts across gaming, science and mental health helped your success? Our diverse team is made up of professionals at the top of their fields. Neurosurgeons, lawyers, creative strategists and others all work in service of the game developer. Without the game's fun, there is no therapy. What can players expect might change after playing your games? Our games aim to help players improve their physical and emotional functioning. After playing consistently, you should notice greater resilience and capability to handle the stress and anxiety of daily life. How has gaming supported your mental health? Which games do you recommend for therapy? At the moment we're focused on virtual reality (VR,) using games like Pistol Whip and motivational fitness apps like Supernatural for leisure and exercise. These games have especially helped during the pandemic for getting off the couch and quelling anxiety with movement. We've also found immersive fantasy games like Lorne Lanning's Oddworld and American McGee's Alice, role-playing games (RPGs) like Wizard101 and world-builders like Minecraft therapeutic for us and our families. Any game that takes you out of your head has potential benefits. Who are your customers? Are businesses investing in these games, such as the healthcare industry, or any business hoping to improve employee wellbeing? We're reaching out directly to folks with mental health issues. We also partner with game developers, publishers and platforms to create new games or repurpose games that are already therapeutic. We hope our games will make mental health treatment accessible to a broader audience. Serious games have evolved as a genre in recent decades, especially in academia and healthcare. Do you align with it? We are not serious games. We rely on the power of play and engagement that good games provide. While we see the value of other approaches, this is what makes us different. How will your FDA games certification project benefit the industry and gamers? Being able to make claims and develop games with therapeutic intent, and to have players understand the therapeutic benefit of engaging, will change game development and the audience games can reach. Can you tell us about games you plan to launch? The first game we're working on focuses on addressing stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression on a VR platform. More to come closer to launch. How will you keep your products secure and safe for users? We closely follow the FDA and HIPAA guidelines and requirements for data management in prescription games. What will success look like for DeepWell? Widespread recognition of the power of game developers to develop Immersive Medicine and being able to produce many therapeutic options for a range of cultures and mental health conditions.
mightfly self driving aircraft

How electric autonomous planes could change the logistics industry

  • min read
    • Five years from now, the shoes or iPhone you just ordered online might be delivered to you in just a few hours. How is that possible? Hybrid-electric, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) autonomous aircraft – that's how. VTOLs are a type of drone about the size of an average car that takes off and lands vertically like a helicopter – no runway needed. An autonomous aircraft flies under the control of automatic systems and needs no intervention from a human pilot. Though at the moment, autonomous aircrafts are flying under the supervision of remote pilots. It's the vision of entrepreneur, aerospace engineer and pilot Manal Habib. In 2019 she co-founded MightyFly, a start-up hoping to disrupt logistics with new-generation VTOL air units called the MightyFly MF-100. Delivery by drone isn't a new idea. Amazon is working on its Prime Air service that autonomously flies packages to customers by delivery drones in 30 minutes or less. UPS's drone airline, Flight Forward, recently received a Federal Aviation Administration certification, removing limits on how frequently and widely the multinational logistics company can operate. Habib says the MightyFly MF-100 is unique because it automates loading and unloading as well as flight. "It can make many deliveries in the same flight. We'll keep the economies of scale and flexibility delivery vans give, but by automating the system and moving it to near-empty airspace, we'll see a cheaper, more efficient and faster service." Small but mighty The MightyFly MF-100 has a cargo capacity of 100 pounds (45 kg) – that's double the maximum checked bag weight on most airlines – cruises at 150 mph (240 kph) and has a range of 600 miles (nearly 965 km.) Habib designed the craft with MightyFly co-founder Scott Parker, a product manager and mechanical engineer. The pair met while working at drone delivery company Zipline. MF-100 uses nine electric motors to take off, then runs on gas once it transitions to fixed-wing flight. In future, the company will look at cleaner alternatives to gas like hydrogen fuel cells, and develop a craft capable of carrying five times the weight. MightyFly MF-100 taking off and in fixed-wing flight Habib says skies full of hybrid-electric autonomous planes is what the huge – worth an estimated 8 to 12 trillion US dollars globally – and "stagnant"  logistics industry needs. Changes in customer expectations and industry norms Will fleets of hybrid-electric ghost planes replace trucks as the delivery's dominant vehicle? Stan Caldwell, Carnegie Mellon University's Adjunct Associate Professor of Transportation and Public Policy, thinks it's feasible. "We're seeing rapid increase in serious consideration of drones for freight delivery, especially last-mile freight," he says. 'Last mile' is the part of a delivery process that reaches the consumer – normally from a distribution center. Some of the world's biggest retailers and logistics companies – like Google, UPS and DHL – are already experimenting with drone delivery. Caldwell thinks delivery systems are becoming less centralized through a few companies, aiding the drone logistics boom. There are many players on the market. "Distribution of systems is a trend in the freight industry. Walmart has delivery drones, and next, your local independent grocery store gets its own." Taking the good with the bad Having systems more spread out and drone-reliant comes with benefits. When electric vehicles replace those with internal combustion engines, you reduce carbon emissions and air pollution. In the US, trucks produce about 29 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions – the country's largest contributor. There's also less congestion. "Drones can't cause a bottleneck at the port," says Caldwell. But Caldwell also urges, before we foresee drone armadas fetching items at supersonic speed, we update (or revise) regulation. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulates commercial air traffic in the US, but drones are a different beast. Drone delivery may need local regulation: Different laws in different cities. "In the same way you see signs saying "No trucks allowed on this road or business district," cities should be able to regulate drones," says Caldwell. In July 2021, there were 858 drone start-ups in the US alone. For Hunter Kosar, owner and president of US shipping and trucking company Twisted Nail Broker Services, the idea ventures like MightyFly might replace trucking is "a bit of a stretch." Kosar struggles to imagine businesses that need to rapidly send under 500 pounds of freight at 150 mph within a 300-mile radius. "VTOLs will make the 600-mile round trip in four hours, but a big rig 18-wheeler truck will do the same trip in 12 hours carrying 90 times the freight." Kosar sees a VTOL niche in transporting time-sensitive supplies like human organs between hospitals. "Organs are light, expensive and needed fast. Healthcare would pay a lot to receive a heart for transport in 90 minutes instead of 4 hours." He thinks to disrupt the traditional freight industry, the craft's loading capacity would need to increase by 75 times, and they'd need local and regional permits to operate in any area's airspace. It seems unlikely to him, at least in the near future. Autonomous aircraft and trucks sharing the load MightyFly's last round of funding raised 5.1 million US dollars in just two months. "We'll use this funding to hire people, scale up our fleet and build the infrastructure to support a global network of hubs," says Habib. But if VTOL units conquer the skies and dot the lands with small, scattered distribution centers, trucks may not be doomed to extinction. "It will need human-intensive management. Trucks could go out to certain neighborhoods, then drones take the goods from the trucks and deliver them to individual houses. We'll need people to manage that system," Caldwell says, although he thinks drones will also redefine those people's roles. The big question when it comes to lightweight, last-mile delivery is not whether the technology is too futuristic – it's already here. Experts stress we'll need tailor-made regulation to govern drone traffic area-by-area and ways for drones to interface with final destinations. Before galloping away with the latest technological sensation, business leaders might consider that technology usually outpaces law. Even simple things like where the drone will leave your package – the mailbox, under the porch, inside or outside? – haven't yet been sorted. "You can't imagine the amount of human judgment that goes into where the delivery person leaves packages," says Caldwell.
tech startup roles

How start-up leaders can juggle roles without losing their heads

  • min read
    • The road to building a successful tech business may be the busiest time of your life. Every tech start-up goes through a phase where its people must do more with less. Often, that means leaders play a range of roles they never trained for nor imagined themselves in. Research increasingly shows multitasking makes us less productive and less effective. If a 'bit of this, bit of that' approach isn't the best way to manage the expansion of your roles, how should you do it? How actors play multiple roles Granted, award-winning English comedy actor of the 1960s and 70s Peter Sellers isn't often touted as a business leadership guru. In Stanley Kubrik's 1964 black comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Sellers played three lead roles. It wasn't an artistic choice – the studio insisted on it. Although some critics were baffled, Dr. Strangelove became an instant classic. Sellers' performances as three distinctive, outlandishly silly characters transfixed audiences. In interviews, Sellers elaborates on the production process. He speaks of how he was able to give envelopes of time to each character without overlap. He instinctually applied his own twists to each role, and when he realized he wasn't a good fit for a planned fourth role, found a way to make sure someone else could play the part. One actor playing multiple roles in theatre, film and television has a long history before Peter Sellers. One recent example shows just how many parts an actor can play while making an exceptional performance of each. Canadian science fiction thriller Orphan Black starred Tatiana Maslany in more than six roles: Genetically identical human clones. To make it work, the team used cutting-edge filming technologies but also solved problems in low-tech ways, like hanging a series of tennis balls from the ceiling to mark each of her characters' positions in a scene. To help her embody them, Maslany made a music playlist for each of her characters and developed a library of movements, postures and actions for each using her dance background. She also highlighted the importance of keeping in mind what all her other characters are doing in each scene. So what can tech business leaders learn from the blockbuster success of these actors playing multiple roles? How to wear different 'hats' with style and safety Although it may be as worn as a pirate's tricorne, the metaphor of 'wearing different hats' is apt for start-up leaders juggling different roles. Classic hat styling applies: Don't wear them all at once and accept some hats don't suit you. Each hat comes with different opportunities and stressors. Let's take a closer look at some of the hats you may need to wear. The creative hat It's easy to forget when you're deep in the details that leadership is all about creativity – especially in tech. According to successful tech entrepreneur Mark Vernooij and leadership coach Robert Wolfe, creative leadership is the ability to create and realize innovative solutions, especially in the face of change. While wearing the creative hat, keep an eye out for where creativity might help in all your other roles. Or, as Orphan Black's Tatiana Maslany said, keep in mind what your other characters are doing in each scene. Creative hat-wearers also need to make sure they're recording all their ideas effectively when they happen. Try Google Keep app to transform and organize your voice notes as stickies. The responsibility hat Sometimes it feels like it's all on you. On the upside, responsibility means choice and control. On the downside, playing out all the possible business chess moves has been known to keep many up at night. Resting more, and taking more breaks, boosts productivity, and most of us aren't 'checking out' enough. Like Maslany's character music playlists, make yourself some playlists to help you get into, and more importantly, out of, your work headspace. Speaking of headspaces, many find meditation helps them recenter. One increasingly popular meditation app is called, you guessed it, Headspace. The money hat Having good control and understanding of finances is crucial when leading a start-up. When you're wearing the money hat, all 'hats' depend on you. And when managing finances, if the hat doesn't fit, don't wear it. Or, as Peter Sellers did for his intended fourth role in Dr. Strangelove, make sure someone can do the role instead of you. The explosion of the work-from-home gig economy means you shouldn't have trouble finding accountants and other financial service providers to suit your needs. On the other hand, today's money management software is gaining ground in making it simple and intuitive to do yourself. Xero is the market leader in cloud-based business finance and accounting software. Add PocketSmith for personal money management – it integrates with Xero, so you can do it all from a single pane of glass. The tech hat The team behind Orphan Black highlighted how using the most up-to-date technology for filming helped them support Maslany as she played her many roles. Likewise, choosing the right tech to run your business can make or break it. Capterra, G2 and Spiceworks Ziff Davis let you search for different software options, compare them and read reviews. For supplier recommendations, many go to credible, independent researcher analysts like Gartner and Forrester. And the right solution isn't always tech. Like the system of tennis balls hanging from the ceiling during the filming of Orphan Black, if you put the work into understanding your needs, the solution may turn out to be inexpensive and elegant. The at-home hat Often overlooked as a role in its own right, wearing the at-home hat means supporting and developing the functions that mean you, any employees and freelancers can work together effectively from home or elsewhere. It covers human resources, like ensuring your people have work-life balance and technical aspects, like ensuring your business's collaborative software and cybersecurity are up for the task. What your business needs in terms of remote and at-home work will be tailored and unique – like how Peter Sellers found it important to give his characters his own spin in Dr. Strangelove. Remember your home life matters too – the Cozi family organizer app can help you keep track of the events and needs of your nearest and dearest. The cybersecurity hat Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting start-ups, seeing them as low-hanging fruit, because many start-ups overlook cybersecurity as their new business struggles along. But it doesn't have to be that way: Kaspersky research found while breaches cost small-to-medium businesses an average of over $100K US dollars, that figure was a third lower if the breach was detected early thanks to up-to-date software appropriate the business's need. Like creativity, understanding and mitigating risk is an entrepreneur's core role, but cybersecurity needn't be time-consuming. Look for set-and-forget solutions with the level of protection a growing business needs, like Kaspersky Small Office Security. Remember, most cyberattacks aren't sophisticated – they begin with basic good practice failures, like an easily guessed password or clicking a link in a dodgy email. Keep up your team's cyber hygiene with little-and-often education. Every successful start-up leader has been where you are today. With today's tools, it's never been easier to wear many business hats. Whether you take your leadership inspiration from classic cinema, science fiction or more orthodox places, make a success of this stage in your start-up's life by dedicating time to each of your many roles. And remember, the most important hat you'll wear is none at all: Give yourself time to switch off from work regularly, and you'll be full of fresh energy and ideas for all your roles.

Scaling up a business in a pandemic? Here’s how to start.

  • min read
    • For many businesses, COVID-19 has thrown all the puzzle pieces into the air. Some are closing their doors for good. But while GDP has fallen in many countries and unemployment is rising, other businesses are expanding rapidly, like those in healthcare, food delivery and digital services. Others still have had to offer services online for the first time. Scaling up a business has never been easy. You've heard of start-ups, and if all goes well, start-ups become scale-ups – defined by the OECD as any company with 10 or more employees that's grown at least 20 percent in the past three years. If you're on that road already or considering it, there are reasons to think carefully and seek the best possible advice. South African venture capitalists and scale-up experts 10X Entrepreneur put any business's chance of succeeding on the path to scale at just six percent. And yet, the opportunities for businesses to scale up are more instant today than they've ever been, thanks to easier access to ever-increasing connectivity, a global market for employees and consumers and cloud-based tools. New cloud-enabled ways of running your IT side of things, like Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS,) are making it much easier to grow your business as and when you need to. Your cybersecurity is just one thing you need to consider as you scale your business. Should you even scale up? The most common mistake when scaling up could be not how you do it but choosing to scale at all. In their 2020 book Unscaled: How AI and a new generation of upstarts are creating the economy of the future, venture capitalist Hemant Taneja and tech writer Kevin Maney say new technologies are turning the old rule 'bigger is better' on its head. The impending climate emergency also places the importance of keeping a check on emissions while a business grows. If you know you need to scale, then there's the matter of when. Palo Alto   Software's free entrepreneurship advice resource BPlans lays out five signs that say your business is ready to scale. What do the experts say about how to scale? Chief among scaling up expert consultants is Verne Harnish, founder of the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (YEO) and author of Scaling up: How a few companies make it...and why the rest don't. In the complex land of scale-ups where business leaders must constantly learn new things, Harnish's advice is attractive. It's easy to follow and based on observing hundreds of real companies that have succeeded, and more importantly, those that failed. Harnish's advice might surprise when you're envisaging a big and bold business future, because it's full of caution. He advises, for example, don't go too fast, use focus to prevent overwhelm and avoid saying 'yes' to everything customers want. Wagepoint's Shrad Rao has pulled together advice from household-name scale-up success stories. Several successful businesses – such as Google, Zappos and The Container Store – have taken to heart the value that employees should drive the company's vision and direction. Rao also points to Steve Jobs' view that far too many leaders of growing businesses are afraid to ask for help. Vincent Mifsud, CEO of ScribbleLive, says it's vital to make sure you're gathering and following the data when it comes to making decisions on where and how to grow. How is COVID-19 affecting businesses scaling up? UK Predictive analytics software providers Bellrock have talked about their experience as a tech business scaling up during the pandemic. They believe that despite the new distance between their remote-working staff, they've seen their team spirit galvanize and colleagues become closer. It's meant they've been even more effective, delivering in "shorter, more compressed bursts than we've seen before." It makes sense that Bellrock has seen signs of greater work satisfaction in their employees, manifesting in closer, more effective teams. Recent research commissioned by Kaspersky found 74 percent of small- to medium-sized business employees want to see a rethink of pre-COVID-19 ways of working, mostly because working from home is giving them more time with family and saving them money. Audit and accounting services firm BDO Australia points out that businesses can use the incentives, loans or accounting leeway some governments offer because of COVID-19 to grow their business or explore new areas. Business change advisory firm McKinsey Accelerate points to the way many businesses successful in adopting a 'pivot' in response to the pandemic. A pivot is a radical and rapid change in how they do business. McKinsey Accelerate also suggests some leadership attitudes that will help bring employees along for the ride. If your company's time to scale has come, the pandemic needn't hold you back. There have never been more digital resources available to you that can help, such as cloud-based software and scalable infrastructure. But scaling up always needs careful consideration. Expect your role as a leader to change, and put your people at the center of your plans for growth.
provenance interview

Blockchain start-up is cleaning ‘greenwashing’ out of retail

  • min read
    • How often have you felt a prickle of guilt when you bought something because you didn't know if it had been ethically made? This conundrum made British tech entrepreneur Jessi Baker found Provenance, which uses blockchain to make supply chains transparent. They're taking on 'greenwashing:' When brands spout ethical claims without credible evidence to support them. It's a beautiful use for blockchain: A decentralized, open and permanent way to track information stored in virtual 'blocks' (transaction records) connected in a chain. Provenance uses blockchain to confirm statements brands make about their product's impact, from raw materials to the customer. The European Commission recently awarded the start-up's latest innovation, Proof Points, 1 million Euro as part of the EU Horizon Blockchains for Social Good award. Businesses can use Proof Points to verify claims. They attach documentation to support their claim and invite an independent third party to verify it. Once verified, the Proof Point earns a green tick, stored as a permanent, public record. Online retailer Cult Beauty uses Proof Points to categorize products in their "conscious edit." Product pages for their eco-friendly offerings feature icons such as 'organic,' 'clinically-tested' and 'vegan.' Verified claims show a green tick. Customers can have confidence in the item's ethical credentials, and Cult Beauty gains credibility in a competitive market. I asked Jessi how Provenance is shaking up retail using innovative tech. Angharad: Tell us about your vision for Provenance. Jessi: Businesses are getting away with greenwashing to grow their brands. They know people want to buy products that align with their values, but some don't want to put the work in to make sure their product lives up to the claims. Jessi Baker,  Provenance founder You'll see "powered by Provenance" at point-of-sale online, in-store and with QR codes on products. In August 2020, we launched QR codes on millions of cans of Napolina tinned tomatoes in supermarkets across the UK. Customers can pick products that match their values in the same way you see reviews "powered by Trustpilot." People can be more conscious and purposeful in their purchases, creating a greener and fairer world. Why choose blockchain for this? It's a new way to store and share information that's transparent and auditable – anyone can see all the records. It's also decentralized – the information is stored in a way that's not owned by one company. It's open for anyone to take part, and one person or organization can't control it for their gain. Finally, the data can't be changed, so there's trust in knowing everyone has the same, unaltered information. Blockchain's nature as an open, (largely) incorruptible and decentralized network means it empowers people across the supply chain. It fosters equality as it brings suppliers, people and practices out of the shadows in a format everyone can trust. How has Provenance made a positive impact? We've done some large pilots in the food and drink industry, now going beyond track and trace to focus on social impact. In a recent project with tinned tomato brand Napolina, we've addressed illegal labor in Italy's tomato industry, bringing proof of their responsible sourcing into the hands of shoppers. What did you do before founding Provenance? I studied manufacturing engineering at University of Cambridge. In my early 20s, I spent time working with supply chains. I was then a Creative Technologist at a leading advertising agency, working with large brands. I've always loved technology, so with Provenance as a side project, I began a Ph.D. in Computer Science at University College London, looking at how new technologies could give trustworthy transparency on the impact of products. You're an inspirational leader in tech. How important is seeing representation, diversity and inclusion among your peers? Provenance has been lucky to have fantastic women leaders. We received investment and support from two inspiring early board members, Alexsis de Raadt-St James and Chemain Sanan. Another woman who's been a great mentor and coach is Alicia Navarro, who built Skimlinks from nothing to a turnover of 50 million US dollars. The start-up journey has a million unknowns. To have her guiding me through launching my own company has been amazing. What does the future hold for Provenance? We're at an incredible juncture. The 1 million Euro award by the European Commission has given us much-needed confidence and support to super-charge our initiatives. We were early for the market when I launched Provenance, but we've now spent years working with pioneering brands and speaking to conscious shoppers. We're finally seeing it become more mainstream. Today, brands can still greenwash. Tomorrow, they'll have to prove it. Consistency and honesty about social impact will let brands of the future win.
360 Stories interview

The start-up using VR to bring the joy of travel home

  • min read
    • As part of Kaspersky's Bring on the Future series, we meet people and businesses around the world who are changing their industry and society for the better. COVID-19 has hit the travel industry hard. As new travel norms establish, new innovations are taking flight. One travel tech trailblazer is 360 Stories. The company set out to film 360-degree, or immersive, videos of destinations around the world for travel guides, so travelers arrive enriched and more connected to its culture. But in the wake of a global pandemic, 360 Stories added something new – a VR live tour you can experience from your home, like this trip to Notre Dame in Paris. Will this change tourism for the better, or create a niche for armchair travel? I spoke to CEO Albert Poghosyan to find out more. Hi Albert. First up, what's the story behind 360 Stories? With my business partner, Vahagn Mosinyan, we ran a marketing agency just as VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) were developing. We used this tech to create content for some of the biggest brands in the world, like Coke and Google. But we wanted to scale up beyond one-off activations. We thought about which industries could use this tech. Travel came to mind; we didn't know anything about the industry, but as travelers ourselves, we were tired of booking tours based on stock photography, which rarely captures reality. We knew we could do better using 360-degree videos. This format captures a view in every direction using an omnidirectional camera. Our research showed that 360-degree video converts twice as many customers than stock photos and descriptions. So it can help travel agents boost their sales, give tourists piece of mind about their vacation choice, and in the wake of the pandemic, offers an entirely virtual experience where travelers don't even need to leave their homes! We started experimenting in Rio de Janeiro then Prague. Some people in the travel industry didn't think we could scale the project because it hadn't been tried and tested. But we scaled from four cities to 32 in 16 months. Now we work with brands like Lonely Planet and have a worldwide community of travelers. Nice. So what's the big vision for 360 Stories? To give travelers a more immersive, trustworthy and flexible way to research destinations and book travel experiences – like museums, attractions or personal tour guides. In 2019, only 17 percent of experiences were booked online, most are walk-ups. We want to help them understand where to go, on the go. With 360 Stories, they can watch short, immersive videos about their destinations on their phone then book their 'real world' experience straight away. Sounds great. How does your technology work? We use 360-degree cameras to create videos. For example, in the Miami art district, we employ a local filmmaker to film what people can expect from the area. Then we partner with travel companies, like Lonely Planet, to include these videos on their apps and websites. And it's working: testing shows conversion rates have doubled. That's huge! What are the benefits of using 360 Stories? For tourists, before you go anywhere, you can be sure what you will get instead of relying on stock photos. Instead of researching a city once you're there, you can know before you go. For travel companies and tour guides, it's simple: you have something more enticing to show potential customers. Let's talk COVID-19, how has it affected 360 Stories? In 2019, our business relied on partnerships with travel guides and tour operators, but when the pandemic hit, nobody was traveling. We lost thousands of bookings. So we decided to offer virtual experiences from home using our content and pre-filmed video guides, like this trip to Tokyo. Our virtual experiences are a mix of two technologies – Google Street View and Google Meet (previously Google Hangouts), but using all our 360 content and tech, so people can experience the tours from the comfort of their own home. You log in, then the guide at the location gives you a real-time tour. We've gamified it so the guide can give the viewer different tasks to do or solve a puzzle, like a scavenger hunt. It's been hugely successful and means we can grow our business and not worry about travel bans. How do you keep your customer and company data secure?   We're always growing, and that means keeping an eye on our cybersecurity measures. Right now, we're looking into security testing and black-box testing to protect our network as we expand into AR. What's the biggest challenge you've faced so far? When you're doing things in new ways, like digitizing tourism, you need a community to support you and convince the travel industry this is the future. That said, we've built an impressive worldwide community of 250,000 users who have booked tours, with 60 percent booking twice or more. It's a very rewarding feeling. It seems to be working out, so I'm happy! Nice! On the flip side of that, what's the biggest success you've had? All of it! We found a problem in the travel industry – people weren't booking online because they couldn't truthfully see the experience – and we found a solution that helps everyone. It works for travelers and tour guides alike. A good day. So what does the future hold for 360 Stories? We're taking our services to the next level. AR is the next step. Right now, we're developing 360 Stories to include AR. Imagine you visit New York. With a pair of AR glasses, you can be joined by a virtual guide, on hand to give you the best restaurant recommendations, tell you about landmarks close to you, with information overlaid on your glasses. Recently we participated in the Kaspersky Exploring Russia Tourism Accelerator program, which is hugely helpful for us. The program included workshops and advice from leading travel industry experts including Booking.com. There were more than 500 applications from 47 countries – we were delighted to win first place!  We will now take part in a disruptive strategy course at Harvard University to learn how to create even more opportunities for us in the travel industry. Thanks, Albert, and good luck!
by Innovating leaders.
Innovative tech.
About Secure Futures

Secure Futures magazine is your go-to business guide for opinions, trends and insight into the world of technology and cybersecurity. We help your business to bring on the future. Brought to you by Kaspersky, the global cybersecurity experts.

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