In a signed recommendation letter dated 7 December 2023, World Culture Project founder and director D. Paul Schafer assessed Emblem's potential to connect cultural travel, participation, local art and digital souvenirs.
In a signed recommendation letter dated 7 December 2023, World Culture Project founder and director D. Paul Schafer assessed Emblem's potential to connect cultural travel, participation, local art and digital souvenirs.
In a signed recommendation letter dated 7 December 2023, World Culture Project founder and director D. Paul Schafer assessed Emblem's potential to connect cultural travel, participation, local art and digital souvenirs.
A recommendation grounded in a detailed discussion
Schafer wrote the letter in support of Daniel Michels and Emblem after discussing the project with Daniel at length. He said the discussion covered how the project began, where it stood in December 2023 and how Daniel and his colleagues planned to develop it.
That distinction matters: this page reports what Schafer understood and wrote in December 2023. It does not turn every prospective idea mentioned in the letter into a claim about Emblem today.
Cultural participation that can travel with a person
In the letter, Schafer describes Emblem as a project designed to validate and record people's attendance, experiences and participation in cultural activities during their travels and lives. He compares that continuing record with passport validation, but operating across a broader scale and a longer period of time.
His framing connects digital souvenirs with cultural participation: the collection is not only evidence that someone reached a place, but also a record of experiences gathered over time.
Potential for cultural travel and tourism innovation
Schafer links Emblem's potential to the growing number of people travelling to experience different cultures and fulfilling events. He also saw room, at that time, for the project to develop across public, private and commercial settings.
His assessment brings together themes that still shape discussion around digital souvenirs and sustainable cultural tourism: how technology can encourage place-based experiences, how cultural activity can be remembered, and how local creative work can remain visible after a visit.
Direct excerpt: “I was immediately struck by the incredible potential of this project.”
From collector to storyteller and ambassador
The letter's most distinctive idea is that a digital souvenir passport can change the role of the visitor. Rather than keeping an experience private, a collector can become a storyteller and ambassador for the place, its values and its narratives.
Schafer connects that role directly with local art. In his description, each collected Emblem can help carry cultural stories beyond the original visit and give the creative interpretation of a place a longer life.
Direct excerpt: “turns each one of them into a storyteller and ambassador”
What Schafer explicitly supported
Schafer's explicit statement of support concerned an Emblem pilot that was being discussed with the International Institute of Gastronomy, Culture, Arts and Tourism in 2023. He wrote that he fully supported that initiative and believed it could benefit its participants.
This is historical source context, not a claim that the proposed pilot or any other organisation named in the letter has a current partnership with Emblem.
About the December 2023 context
The signed letter records Schafer's assessment at one point in Emblem's development. Its references to proposed pilots, conversations and possible future relationships describe the situation presented to him in 2023. They should not be read as evidence of current partnerships, current negotiations or an ongoing endorsement beyond the letter itself.
From vision to implementation
Emblem editorial update · August 2026
Since the letter was written, Emblem has continued to turn parts of that cultural vision into a public product. The points below describe Emblem's current published experience, not Schafer's words.
GPS-verified digital souvenirs
Emblem connects digital souvenirs with real places and uses location verification so they are collected through physical exploration.
A live Luxembourg cultural Passport
Luxembourg Passport YFP brings real locations, cultural stories and work by credited Emblem creators into one collectable route in the Emblem app.
Visible local creative authorship
The public Emblem creator directory connects participating creators with the digital souvenirs they made for the Luxembourg Passport.
Place-based formats for organisations
Emblem publishes ways for cultural, tourism and destination organisations to develop events, partner experiences and cultural Passports around real places.