Hello! Thank you so much for your interest in LiveWalk! Roberto and I began LiveWalk in October 2013 after an awesome road trip through the USA in which we took many walking tours. Roberto, an industrial engineer and MBA who thought history was terribly dull [!! my academic background is in history, and I couldn’t believe this – I was guilty of signing us up for 10+ walking tours!] was left mesmerized by the power a touch of storytelling had on making history come alive.
In Panama, we realized that we had both a rich history and fantastic storytellers but that the two camps remained largely isolated. In general, our history remained buried in the library. LiveWalk was born as an attempt to bridge the gap between these camps and make our history come alive for locals and travelers. Each LiveWalk tour reflects the work of local historians, writers, actors, theater directors, photographers, graphic designers, programmers and sound engineers.
We currently have four LiveWalks and downloads from over fifty countries. We have been recognized by Martes Financiero, TVN News, Macrofest, PTY.Life, and Cybertech Latin America among other organizations. We have won grants from Panama’s Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation (SENACYT) and the Embassy of Taiwan in Panama and have worked in collaboration with the Ministry of the Environment to create LiveWalks for two national parks. To-date one of our greatest achievements has been discovering how well students connect with LiveWalk. Our youngest (and perhaps our biggest!) fan is six years old!
With your help, we will be able to further LiveWalk’s mission of preserving and sharing Panama’s history by creating two new LiveWalks: Casco Antiguo, A Social History and, in collaboration with the formidable Panama Vieja Escuela (http://www.panamaviejaescuela.com), The Martyrs of the 9th of January. In addition, we will bring LiveWalk Challenge to several underfunded schools and will integrate a new crowdsourcing feature in the app. The funds raised will be used to cover: research, scriptwriting, acting, recording, sound editing, design and programming costs. If we do not reach our funding goals, we will still proceed with these goals using the funds as indicated above (albeit at a slower pace).
We’re really excited about our perks! When you contribute, you’ll be one of the first to have the two new LiveWalks in your hands. You’ll also have the opportunity to visit us at the studio, have a character named after you, or receive a limited edition photo by a local photographer among many other perks!
We would be most appreciative if you would help us spread the word about the campaign! Thank you very much for your support!
Elizabeth
Co-Founder, LiveWalkPTY
www.livewalkpty.com
The photos of Roberto and me in Santa Ana are by the photographer, Eric Batista