This January, the Portuguese project VIRAL celebrates the first international implementation of its awarded events guide, namely in Costa Rica.

VIRAL is currently the most complete, up-to-date and organized events guide in Portugal. For the past few years, the VIRAL platform has contributed to make Portuguese cities smarter by helping citizens to easily acknowledge what is happening in their cities concerning culture and entertainment, and by helping promoters communicate their upcoming events more effectively. Built taking scalability into deep account, VIRAL is extraordinarily replicable, with the potential to become a leading events guide on a global scale.

Fueled by the participation of VIRAL in FIWARE’s acceleration program SOULFI, the implementation of the events platform in Costa Rica is the result of a partnership with the Costa Rican project GAM Cultural. Since 2009, GAM Cultural is one of the country’s main platforms concerning cultural promotion, and is also responsible for relevant actions concerning the revitalization of the historic center of S. José. “In GAM Cultural we found an ideal partner, one that shares both our mission and values. Henry Bastos, the project’s mentor, saw our technology as an opportunity to optimize his resources and to maximize the reach of the work he has been developing so far.” — explains Hugo Branco, head of communication and partnerships at VIRAL.

This partnership follows the contacts developed between 2013 and 2014 at events such as the 4th Iberoamerican Design Biennale, held in Madrid, and the 5th Iberoamerican Congress of Culture, held in Zaragoza, where VIRAL was award with several prizes and recognitions.

The platform’s implementation in Costa Rica coincides with the launch of the v2.0 of VIRAL’s web platform, which was ultimately possible thanks to the company’s participation in the SOULFI, one of FIWARE’s acceleration programs. Besides a deep renovation concerning design and user experience, the current version integrates new functionalities such as user registration, an events suggestion form and the project’s first commercial service: a wallpaper advertising system called JUPITER.

“We developed VIRAL so that it is extremely scalable and replicable: this is our first step regarding internationalisation.” — says Tiago Abelha, head of development. — “Our objective? To implement, on a global scale, the first relevant social platform exclusively dedicated to events and culture.” — concludes Carlos Quitério, responsible for design and product management.