York is a great place to be based, we have a vibrant tech community, a great student population with many international students and a variety of inspirational businesses.
This year we have been very fortunate to work with six Chinese students, helping them with their degrees at York St John and enhancing their experience of York and British business.
The students have been studying Mass Communications which has included a practical project. Course tutor Jane Cullen (former ITV and BBC television producer) approached The Distance to help the students with their aim of producing an App for York Chocolate Story, to help make their exhibition more accessible to foreign visitors.
Over the last few months the students have developed a Chinese tour guide which incorporates some very rare Yorkshire Film Archive footage of a Rowntree’s trip to Africa, tracing the route of the cocoa coming to York.
On Friday 6th May I attended the students presentation of their prototype to the York Chocolate Story. I was very proud to see what had been achieved with our help and to have contributed something special to the students’ time in York. Jane was very kind in her words saying “We knew what we wanted to offer the attraction, but as this is still fairly new technology to be offering within the curriculum, we were delighted when York App Company ‘The Distance’ agreed to give us some advice and expertise. They saw the potential in what we were doing and spent time helping us to develop our ideas.”
Hopefully on returning in November for their graduation the students may find that their virtual App ideas have indeed become a reality, helping share the York Chocolate Story with more visitors.