Heritage Key -
Experiencing Ancient
Culture
Claus Nehmzow
Alcus International Ltd.
4th Culturemondo Digital Culture
and Heritage Roundtable
Taipei, Taiwan
December 10th to 12th 2008
Friday, 12 December 2008 1

Agenda
• Consumer demand for ancient culture
• Current offerings and their limitations
• An immersive, consumer-centric approach to
experiencing ancient cultures
Friday, 12 December 2008 2

Global demand for Ancient World
experiences is massive
Source: Unesco, UK TV Survey, other US/UK stats
Friday, 12 December 2008 3

Current offerings are mostly museum/
media - not consumer/interest centric
Friday, 12 December 2008 4

Visiting original exhibitions and locations:
highlights but also limited
• Visiting real locations might
suffer might shrink in a
recession
• Real locations have limits of
number of visitors before
suffering irreparable damage
• Most popular exhibitions are
crowded, you can’t get close
to the artefacts
Friday, 12 December 2008 5

Heritage Key: high quality ancient world
experience - enhanced by community
Friday, 12 December 2008 6

Working with many culture experts and
institutions
• Egypt:
• leading antiquities expert
• Nigel Hetherington, Owner, Past Preservers, Egypt
• Dr Kent Weeks, American University of Cairo, Director Theban Mapping
Project, discovered KV 5
• China:
• X'ian Museum of Teracotta Horses and Warriors
• Prof Wang Tao, Chair of SOAS, University of London
• Janice Lee, PHd student SOAS and staff member X'ian Museum
• Others
• Museums:Robert Knox, ex Keeper (30 years) of SE Asia Dept, British
Museum
• Ashley Brown, CEO, Brown Reference Group. Content provider.
• Sandro Vannini, Owner, Studio Vannini Photos, Italy
Friday, 12 December 2008 7

Focus on quality: best content, museums,
collections, heritage sites, and historians
Friday, 12 December 2008 8

Rich media, including video content,
photos, maps
Friday, 12 December 2008 9

Unique: a 3D immersive time machine -
“as is” and “as was”
virtual
original
Friday, 12 December 2008 10

Multiple visitors can share a virtual visit
to the egyptian tombs, “as they were”
Friday, 12 December 2008 11

The high quality cultural artefacts can
contain further embedded multi-media
• Original high
quality
photography
• Work with site
owners and
archaeologists
• Real world
replication /
virtual experience
Friday, 12 December 2008 12

Historians and experts will provide
lectures and tours
Friday, 12 December 2008 13

A video filmed “in-world” illustrates work
in progress on the terracotta warriors
Friday, 12 December 2008 14

The (virtual) valley of kings at an early
stage
Friday, 12 December 2008 15

Heritage Key will not compete but
complement and partner with others
• Free website access
• Subscriptions
(masterclasses, virtual
exhibitions)
• Exhibition/Massterclass
entrance fee
• Cross promotion with partners • Affilitate programs
• Cross links from virtual world - • Merchandizing
website • Sponsorship programs
• Centered around topics of interest
• Creating original artwork
• Licensing partner content
• Creating original artwork
Friday, 12 December 2008 16

What questions do you
have?
Friday, 12 December 2008 17