STQRY

What a week in Providence!

Lydia and Thomas had a great few days at the 2026 American Association for State and Local History & National Council on Public History - NCPH Joint Conference, catching up with familiar faces, meeting new ones, and hearing about the projects and stories being shared by organizations across the country.

And a special congratulations to Shawnee Town 1929 on their award! We loved seeing their work, including their STQRY-powered mobile app, recognized.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the STQRY booth to say hello, chat about visitor experiences, or show us what you’re working on.

See you next year in Madison!

This free six-week course from Smartacus follows the process from source material to self-guided audio tour.

You’ll learn how to work with local experts, organize historical research with AI, develop scripts, create narration with ElevenLabs, bring audio, images, maps, and GPS-triggered stops together in STQRY, and use Substack to start building an audience.

The focus throughout: using new tools without losing the human judgment, local knowledge, and historical accuracy.

Six Wednesdays starting September 30. Free and online.

Learn more and register: https://smartacus.pulse.ly/h75zviw746

Weekend drives through San Diego’s backroads sparked an idea for Paul Behnke: the best route isn’t always the fastest one.

That idea became Drives & Detours, helping travelers find scenic roads, worthwhile stops, and the stories behind the places they’re passing.

See how Drives & Detours is using STQRY to scale self-guided walking and driving tours across the U.S.

https://stqry.pulse.ly/zibzvlchut

🔍 Meet Chi Doan, Customer Support Specialist at STQRY!

If you’re easily scared but love shark and zombie movies, Chi has a solution: enjoy the excitement from a safe distance.

When she’s not watching scary movies, Chi dreams of visiting Bhutan to experience its peaceful culture, beautiful scenery, and those famous roadside quotes.

At STQRY, Chi’s attention to detail plays a big role in helping our customers. One of her most rewarding projects involved loading hundreds of screens and media files into an app—a challenging project that required plenty of patience, but was especially rewarding once everything came together.

Her career advice? Small details can make a big difference.

We’re lucky to have Chi on the team! 👏

🏌️‍♂️ With the free Visit Syracuse app, you can discover 24 participating golf courses across Onondaga County, check in as you play, and earn your chance to win exciting prizes. Whether you're a local looking to explore new fairways or visiting for a golf getaway, the Golf Tour is a fun way to experience some of the region's best courses while playing your way toward rewards.

We loved partnering with Visit Syracuse on their launch, helping with content creation.

Congratulations to the Visit Syracuse team on the launch! 👏

✨ Another great exhibit is getting a digital layer with STQRY Kiosk.

This new experience invites visitors to explore disability in premodern Europe through multimedia presentations, images, and intuitive navigation.

A collaboration between the University of St Andrews, University of Dundee, University College Dublin, and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, we’re thrilled to see this project out in the world and excited to see where they take it next.

The exhibition runs through January 24, 2027.

Learn more: https://historyinourbones.pulse.ly/l2hq8yltck

🌿 A walk through Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve now comes with a digital guide to what’s growing, living, and happening along the trail.

Visitors can explore the Preserve’s native plants, diverse habitats, and wildlife through a self-guided experience featuring GPS navigation, interactive maps, and multimedia storytelling.

Visit Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve just outside New Hope, Pennsylvania.

https://stqry.pulse.ly/igesgksfbx

🚗 Road trips are having a major moment this summer.

TravelAge West Magazine highlights growing interest in scenic drives, heritage travel, Route 66 adventures, national parks, and small-town discoveries.

With GPS-triggered storytelling, visitors can hear stories automatically as they reach key locations—whether they're following a scenic byway, exploring a w**e region, discovering historic landmarks, or taking a self-guided driving tour.

A drive becomes a journey with stories unfolding at exactly the right place and time.

How is your organization helping travelers discover more along the way?

🦋 A museum collection can hold millions of objects—and millions of untold stories.

The Natural History Museum in London has 80 million specimens, yet globally, only a small portion of natural history collections has been digitized and made discoverable.

Digitization is important to preserve records. But it can also reveal new scientific insights, expand access for researchers, support education, and give museums new stories to share with the public.

That’s the opportunity behind tools like STQRY Collect: helping organizations bring collections out of storage and into searchable, accessible digital experiences.

What stories are still waiting to be discovered in your collection?
https://museumnext.pulse.ly/0yscy95yy4

MuseumNext