Deborah Schull
Deborah Schull is founder and CEO of Cultural Roadmapp, a startup based in Ireland that creates immersive experiences for cultural tourists. Their signature product is a GPS enabled, hands-free audio guide to local culture and heritage for motorists on iconic driving routes. Deborah conceived and has led production and written scripts for a 4-part series, ROAD TRIP: IRELAND, which tracks 7 counties along the Wild Atlantic Way driving route that borders Ireland’s beautiful west coast. The first audio guide in the series, for County Clare, launched and earned international, Irish, and American awards (https://www.roadtripirelandapp.com).
CLARE remains unique in the marketplace in that it combines storytelling, music and literary performances, folklore, history, and interview excerpts on a huge range of cultural heritage topics, all tied together with polished narration read by internationally recognised Irish actors and, of course, Irish humour and wit. The second tour in the series, CORK & KERRY, is nearing completion. These tours have much to do with the preservation of culture and heritage. Content is sourced by trained ethnographers and ethnomusicologists, whose method of interviewing elicits powerful responses. As many of our interview subjects are elders, these oral histories preserve fleeting cultural memories and traditions that might otherwise disappear. In fact, we were invited to preserve all of our audio recordings for CLARE in Ireland’s national music repository. The writing process transforms this content into something new and accessible on a mass scale: even the app user—by listening to the audio tour (and spreading the word)—also keeps these traditions alive.
Deborah recently joined Europeana Network Association and would love to meet others involved in cultural tourism. She’s particularly eager to speak with stewards or overseers of Cultural Routes for potential collaborations, because she believes cultural heritage audio guides could enhance these cross-border journeys immeasurably. She welcomes any and all inquiries and introductions!
Please contact Deborah through LinkedIn