Treasured: Because History Matters

David and Terri talk with Vito Giovannetti, CEO & Co-Founder, Treasured Inc. about their Virtual Museums, content management systems, and RootsTech. Vito also provides a walk through of their system for our viewers.

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Special Guest

About: Treasured

Treasured is a software company leading a vision to amplify the impact of arts and culture around the world. Delivering meaning and accessibility are the most crucial aspects to a connected online experience, and Treasured achieves this by offering an easy to use tool for writing and publishing online stories.

Through custom, web-based 3D exhibits/exhibitions, cultural storytellers are championing a revolution in curation and audience engagement.

Show Transcription

David: [00:00:04] Hi, I’m David Allen Lambert, and I’m delighted to join you with Virtual Historian, Terri O’Connell, as we both bring you a really exciting episode. We are really honored today to have a personal friend of mine and a new friend of Terri’s, Vito Giovanetti. He is the CEO and Co-Founder of treasured.ca which is something if you haven’t heard about, you’re going to be amazed. I had the honor to meet Vito back a couple of years ago at the Ontario Genealogical Society when I was keynoting and I wandered around the vendor hall. Cause I’m always looking for new things in technology and the newest and latest things that interest historians and I saw their product. I was completely blown away, so much so. I even mentioned it in my keynote address at the end of the week. It’s amazing. So without further ado, Vito, how are you? 

[00:01:01] Vito: I’m great. Thank you, David and thank you Terri, for having me. It’s so exciting to get to share more about my journey and Treasured and, our relationship David, how we met.

[00:01:12] So thanks for having me. 

[00:01:14] David: Absolutely. Well, because this is partly about technology and partly about history. Why don’t you give us a little of your background and how you got involved and Treasured and where you are right now?

[00:01:26] Vito: Yeah, absolutely.  Treasured was really inspired by Nikita, who’s a Treasured CTO and Co-Founder, and I’s passion for storytelling and technology. But most importantly, our family history,  Nikita and I,  both have,  immigrated families that came from parts of Belarus  and parts of Italy, to start a new life. And it’s really been,  those grandparent and,  well, we would say in Italian  stories,  that, motivated us to want to preserve history in a certain way.

[00:02:01] And,  that’s sort of what led us to the Ontario Genealogical Society, where we met you in the summer of June, 2019.

[00:02:10] David: You know, and I have to admit that that was one of the first times I think I ever saw a virtual VR headset. And, when you had me try it on it was like stepping into a whole new world. I mean, I think I I’ve sung the praises of Treasured long before, so I mean, it’s no news to you how much I enjoy the product and how amazing it is.

[00:02:32] But what I think you bring to is a new dimension for family history. And as I’ve said before To history, itself. I mean, because you make this a personal history experience and you basically can walk through a virtual world or museums essentially of your own history. So how did you get the design idea?

[00:02:55] I mean, I’m sure there’s been more than,  just the two of you. There must be a lot of hands that have been in the pot on this one.

[00:03:01] Vito: Yeah. Well,  the idea for Treasured  has evolved,  over the years, with the North star of becoming one of the most accessible places to share and showcase stories in an immersive and engaging way.

[00:03:17]Having that accessible vision first has really allowed us to evolve from those initial,  demonstrations that we were doing at the Ontario Genealogical Society.  Nikita and I, as we’ve built the company, we’ve wanted to build relationships with our customers to understand really like what they need and what sort of gaps exists with other products that they’re using in the market.

[00:03:44]One of the key things that we really tried to focus on was helping people write, short stories about their family history and enabling them to do so in a plot, in a web based platform where they can sign in and they can start editing. And building their collections at their own pace.

[00:04:03]This sort of simple concept of writing these short form stories really,  was something that foundationally led us to saying, how can we do more with the stories that we’re getting from these family historians and genealogists? And we were inspired to utilize a little bit of  our background and our upbringing, you know, playing games and playing more,  virtual experiences.

[00:04:33] And together, you know, we led this vision to say, Hey, You can take all of these stories that you can easily bring, to the treasured platform and you can display them in a museum that truly feels like your own.  So with that very premise, we went to the drawing board and we said, how can we make this museum, you know, most accessible to the public.

[00:04:59] Right.  So we, we created really a vision to make it easier for anybody to create a 3d website or a 3d museum, more specifically. And now,  just recently,  this past RootsTech  2021 virtual. We debuted, our initial vision, our first public virtual museum,  the Museum of American War Letters,  which is entirely accessible in the web browser across all  Windows, Mac, or  PC based devices. So this was a big step for us because now anybody that has a laptop or a computer can be able to go through a 3d experience without having to download anything. 

[00:05:47] David: So I saw that in the news. I was like, wait a second. I know this guy. And I was like, this is great. So, and I remember dropping a note to him saying, Hey, you made the big time now you’re in the international press.

[00:06:00] So that was great. I mean that news story  was obviously in Canadian press, but it made also news over in Europe, correct?

[00:06:08] Vito: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So we, we were so thankful for the opportunity to work with our client,  Chapman university and distinguished best-selling author, Andrew Carroll, who has led the US War Letters or the Center for American War Letters at Chapman university.

[00:06:28] And,  really the story at the New York times. Told a vision for, from the creator on, on how they can organize and curate and design stories in a 3d museum. So it was a wonderful opportunity for us to show a little bit more about the value that people can get from creating these 3d spaces for their stories.

[00:06:53]Treasured had a wonderful couple of weeks in terms of the story getting picked up in Italy by LA Republica, which is a very popular  newspaper out there. What was amazing was that we were able to get, different writers to tell their experience of what we were doing. And that was the beauty of the Italian article is the person wrote about the experience going through the museum and the different stops along the way because there’s a lot of exciting stories that are actually debuted for the first time ever in this museum of American War Letters.

[00:07:31] So it was a great opportunity for us and helps to show, then make it more accessible for people to understand what Treasured is doing has a lot of inspiration impact behind it. And we’re really excited to start working and collaborating with many people.

[00:07:47] David: That’s excellent.  I know you’re not a stranger to RootsTech because I remember when I talked to you back in Ontario, I said, you guys need to go to RootsTech. And what happened in 2020 was pretty remarkable for a first timer to RootsTech. Do you really did that shock and awe, as we like to say.

[00:08:05] Vito: Thanks.

[00:08:06] Yeah, it was a wonderful to have the FamilySearch and RootsTech team recognize us. They invited us to participate in the global innovation showcase. And as you know, young entrepreneurs, we were basically pitching the vision for our 3d museums in between Ancestry’s head of global product and FindMyPast head of global product.

[00:08:27] So it was a big moment for us. To say  we really are working on something really innovative and we got a lot of great feedback and commentary from the audience and it was amazing cause  we’ve been working with and we still support personal projects for family history and genealogy, but we’ve been starting to work with organizations.

[00:08:47] It was really that first batch of members that we got at RootsTech and family historians that really helped us improve our vision for our product and, really understand what we needed to do to make something that people loved. RootsTech was a great start for us, so we’re always thankful to the team out there.

[00:09:07] David: Well, that’s great. Well trying to describe what Treasured is, is kind of like trying to describe a painting in the dark. So I think we probably need to share your screen and have you show our virtual historians who don’t know about treasured.ca and  of experience what it’s all about.

[00:09:26]Vito: Thank you so much. So I’m going to share my screen and show you two different things. But both of those things connect together. So for those  listeners that are interested in writing and publishing stories, without a lot of barriers, you’re going to see Treasured  content management system.

[00:09:44] So this is the way that smaller organizations, museums, and families are organizing their stories and being able to share it without requiring somebody to sign in. So I’m going to share my screen here and you’re going to see one of the first exhibits to go public on the Treasured platform. It’s an exhibit called Stories of King, which was curated by the King Heritage and Cultural Center.

[00:10:09] You can see on the left as a visitor, I can navigate between the different stories. But I can also scroll down on the exhibit page to be able to view the different types of stories that are displayed. I’m going to jump in to two different stories. We’ll start off with the first story. When we come into here, you can see it’s very simple looking , it’s easy to use.

[00:10:30] You can upload your photos,  text YouTube videos, and you can even add audio. But one of the beautiful things is that when you upload photos, our platform automatically resizes it for different devices of different sizes. Tablet mobile and all different screen sizes.  You can see here that to navigate to the next story I have a forward and a back button.

[00:10:56] I’m going to click the forward button and we’re going to actually see that you could also upload stories and create your own graphics to help make your stories a little bit more presentable to whoever you’re showing it to. This story is actually awesome. It’s called Dear Diary and it’s really a set of audio, transcriptions of diary stories that were left in the archive at King heritage center telling and giving context to life,  in this particular,  of the story, we have a, you know, a little feature for who the voice actors were, which I think is just so awesome to blend different online learning together.

[00:11:34] Just to jump to the end. You can see that you can also create a story where you get people’s thoughts. You can survey them or provide your information to support traffic in your other channels, as well as in your physical space, as it opens up or is now already open. So from this view here we make it accessible for anyone to draft their own stories.

[00:11:58] And this is really what you would be able to produce and create,  with our starter plan. So we try to make that starter plan accessible. And for anybody that’s listening to this podcast, that’s interested in creating and publishing online exhibits like this we’re going to give you half off. All you have to do is mention that you heard us from this podcast.

[00:12:21] So this is the Treasured web CMS, but really what people are most excited about is when they’re able to take this content here and they’re able to put it in their own virtual museum, a 3d museum that can make their stories more engaging,  and set users on a guided path, for how those stories should be told.

[00:12:42] So we’re going to actually dive in. To one of our most exciting collaborations so far, which is the Museum of American War Letters. This is a museum that showcases extraordinary correspondences from the American Revolution to present day. This first version of the museum will show case of Vietnam wing and it’s really dedicated to the U S service members, veterans and their families.

[00:13:08] The inaugural Vietnam wing opened on March 29th, 2021,  in honor of the National Vietnam Veterans Day, every March 29th, let’s dive in and take a look what this experience is like. We had launched the exhibit and we come right in. I have to keep in mind that we are right in the web browser here. So as we’re in the web browser, you can see that I don’t have to download anything. I may have wanted to add settings sometimes.  If you’re showing somebody, your museum, you have an option on zoom to optimize for that video clip. I’m just going to, I’m not sure if I clicked on that, but I will just stop it quickly and see that I can also share some sound here, so you can get a little bit more of the experience.

[00:13:59] So for anybody visiting they can just click the space bar and there’ll be receiving some instructions about the museum, the collaborators on the left, the initial story on the right. It describes sort of the different types of content that will be made available.   If you’ve come to this experience and you’ve already visited before, you can simply advance through with a couple of taps of the space bar.

[00:14:26] As soon as you begin, it brings you to this guided tour mode. In this guided tour mode, all you need to do is hit space to advance forward, making it accessible to anyone. From this view, you can get a sense of all of the different letters that are on display in this museum down the middle row, we have a set of short to mini documentaries that you can play right in this experience, we’re going to give a sense of what that’s like. So here describes the oceans apart who participated in Vietnam. And we come to this first letter, which is President John F. Kennedy consoling the sister of one of the Wars first casualties. So here you can start scrolling and read the actual transcript, get a better view of the letter itself and see where this letter originally was sourced from or referenced from below. As I moved to the next letter, all I have to do is hit the space bar and it’ll bring us to our first video or short documentary talking about the Golf of Tonkin. 

[00:15:36] video playing: The Gulf of Tonkin incident was a Naval event off the coast of Vietnam that ultimately gave president Lyndon B Johnson, the power to greatly.

[00:15:45] Vito: As we continue to move forward, we will be brought to the next letter. Some people will choose to go to a specific area of the museum without having to be limited per se, by the guided tour. All you have to do is press G to stop the guided tour and once you stopped the guided tour, you’ll be prompted with some additional instructions to navigate with the keys on your keyboard.

[00:16:19] And this is in for everybody. So that’s why we have the tour guide to make it simple, to move throughout the experience. There are different hotspots that  I can move my mouse to walk to. So there’s a few different other forms of navigation. I’ll just start to turn my head here and be able to turn my head to strain it, look up, look down, and I’m just using the arrow keys. To proceed forward I’m hitting W, a to move to the left D to move to the right and S to move back. So keyboard controls that certain audiences are most trouble with but we sort of give a wide array of options for navigation. You can see these types of options by clicking O, and that’ll bring you in to different controls,  easy controls or more advanced controls.

[00:17:15] I think this gives a really good sense on like how you can sort of navigate the space and be able to explore the museum when we come up to certain content. You can also click to certain areas and be able to view content from different distances.  You may also see here, that I can proceed to, to walk into a specific video or content that I’m closest to just by hitting the space bar and that makes it a little bit more accessible for people to navigate the experience. I hope that was a good enough preview into the 3d space, but also our content management system, which is popular with a lot of our family historians, because they can write, drag and drop the stories and keep them private until they’re ready to publish them, until they’re ready to share. So, one of the wonderful things with all of our members is that they’re getting all future updates to the Treasured platform. We’re really excited about a few of the things that are coming in the pipeline as well.

[00:18:19] David: [00:18:19] Well, thank you so very much for showing us that. I mean, Terri, I mean, you must be as blown away as I am. I mean, that was like kind of being in Washington virtually, you know, 

Really, I think history matters. – Vito Giovannetti

[00:18:29] Terri: [00:18:29] I absolutely loved it.  So here’s my question though. I love how you can hit the space bar it takes you to the next one. In any of your galleries at this point can you virtually pick things up, interact with them beyond the reading and the viewing. 

[00:18:46] Vito: Great question. And the answer is we’re just starting make the 3d model experience a little bit more interactive.  The curator has the choice to display objects or not to display objects.

[00:19:03] So we have a museum that was created from the Stories of King exhibit that I had just showed, which has a few different 3d models on display. So in the future, there’ll be some great experiences that are connected to 3d models, but also for people visiting the museum to be able to comment and share their connection or their thoughts on a respective story.

[00:19:31] So definitely there’s going to be  different experiences that are available. We’re excited because there’s some. Amazing collaborations in the works that we’ll be able to showcase some of those more immersive elements of our 3d museums. 

[00:19:48] Terri: Well, you definitely get the amazing, feel of being in a museum as you walk space to space. That’s very cool. 

[00:19:57] Vito: Thank you. Yeah. Awesome. 

[00:19:59] David: It really is. I mean, I think in the world we live in now, obviously since COVID-19 came into our doorsteps around the world that your product already existed, and this is a real smart move for people who want to keep their exhibits or there museums fresh and maybe they can’t be open yet, or maybe they have people who are living in the other part of the world and want to visit this exhibit, or they may be bound because they’re in firm or elderly.

[00:20:30] I mean, being able to virtually go to a museum. I think Terri and I have been talking about that with the Louvre and different museums around the world. I mean, but this makes it a museum either of your own family or your local historical society or County historical society. So I really urge our listeners who have outreach to a local historical society and is concerned about what the future may lie to really reach out to your team, because I think you’ve got an amazing product and it’s only going to grow. 

[00:21:04] Vito: Thank you so much, David. Yeah, I mean, that touches on a couple of key points, which is really, we see Treasured as a compliment to the physical space.

[00:21:18] We love the physical experience of going to museums, to heritage sites  and the stories that live there.  Treasured really sees itself as a compliment to these physical spaces and you know, removes the limit  and the boundaries that exists that are, you know, with physical spaces, you know, that they’re costly and time-consuming, and there’s a lot of they’re resource intensive and you can’t reach a global audience ultimately. But with our 3d spaces and with what Treasured is, building  any organization, small, medium, or personal projects will have the ability to expand their reach and to stand out as a leader in doing that. Because we really have a vision of building an intergenerational product. That connects to multiple audiences, regardless of their age, or age demographic.

[00:22:18] So for Treasured our  primary goal is to be able to service, and offering a client experience that is world-class right and is truly collaborative in nature. And I think that’s one thing that Treasured stands out from a lot of the other companies in the space. We have a team of people that are dedicated to making sure people know how to use the the platform and that they’re going to get the most out of using it. So we work really closely with anybody  that is interested in expanding their organization’s reach online and the building a deeper and a memorable connection with their audience. I think that’s what we’re really trying to do is lead the future of 3d  on the internet.

[00:23:07] And I think it’s amazing to have  your support and, you know, to be able to share what we’re doing and our passion with your audience. 

[00:23:15] David: Well, it’s been an honor to be associated, you know, in chatting with you all the time since  Ontario, a couple of years passed and just watching how much it’s grown in just the short time is amazing.

[00:23:28] So I think I joined Terri in saying, cause we didn’t know about that. Thank you for offering to our viewers and listeners that special. Obviously we’ll have more information on how to get ahold of treasured.ca at the end. And  we’ll echo in that information about the specials.  Thank you very, very much Vito for your time tonight.

[00:23:50] Vito: Wonderful. Thank you, Terri and David, it’s been,  nice to share our story with your listeners. For those that are, are interested in watching, more of the, the, the video demo, please  check out  the YouTube channel for those details. Really, it was great to share more about Nikita and I’s vision for Treasured, how our content management system is helping people publish stories online.

[00:24:19] And also, you know, what our dream is for connecting to younger audiences who are interested in learning from places of culture.  Really, I think history matters. And that’s why we’re here is because there’s  lessons and insights that that can be absorbed from stories of the past. And if we can enable people to do that, we feel like we’re going to be making a big impact to society,  with the work that we’re doing and the company that we’re building. So just thank you so much for this opportunity and to all the listeners who have,  stayed this long, to hear our story and to hear about Treasured  and where we’re going..

[00:25:03] David: Keep on preserving the worthwhile pass because those young entrepreneurs like yourself, the next generation are going to learn from your example. And I’ll tell you set a good example for them to move forward because the product is really it’s good. I don’t care if you’re 10 or 110. You can easily navigate through it and you can truly get a lot out of it, especially I mean, looking at those Vietnam letters and thinking about how many veterans would probably appreciate that the sit down with their grandchild or great grandchild in some cases and tell their story after they have that experience. So Vito to you and your team. Thank you. And well, I think virtual historians is very lucky to have you here, and we hope that you have more exciting news for us down the road. Cause we’d love to have you come back again. I’m sure Terri agrees with me on that. 

[00:26:00] Vito: Wonderful. 

[00:26:01] David: Thanks again, Vito. 

[00:26:02] Well, that’s what all we have for this episode and we’re really please a Vito had came on and given us all the story about what Treasured.ca is all about. And we are hoping to have veto come back and tell more about exciting things. I think I joined Terri and saying that we’re pretty sure that it’s going to be a frequent flyer on virtual historians.

[00:26:24] Well, until next time. Virtually yours, David Allen Lambert and Terri O’Connell signing off.

[00:26:36]Terri: To take advantage of this great offer from  Treasured. You need to email company at email@treasured.ca. And  they we’ll set up a demo  with you for free and give you 50% off of their starter plan, which gives you access to their content management system for one year. Total price being $125. Original price is $250.

[00:27:05] A big thank you to Vito and his team over treasured.ca for this great offer for our subscribers. And do  remember when you email them to let them know you heard them on the Virtual Historians podcast.