Sesame Summit 2026 – application open

Do you want to smell the future?

In my previous post we kicked-off a journey into the Internet of Senses and as promised, we’re now immersing ourselves one sense at the time, so let’s start with the sense of smell!

Why smell? One reason being that in the US, the national Sense Of Smell Day is celebrated on the last Saturday in April, which this year falls on April 24th, so let’s start celebrating the sense of smell.

To get the full picture, let’s travel back in time… to 1959, when two projects (AromaRama and Smell-O-Vision) were attempting similar innovations in cinema by bringing aromas to big audiences. Unfortunately those solutions were technologically deficient, very expensive, impractical, and unnecessary. Fast forward to today and we only find similar initiatives in rare cases and very specific locations.

For “private” consumption, things came only in late 90’s when a company produced a device called the iSmell that was connected via USB to a PC, and could emit odors right on your desk. When it was launched Wired wrote that if that technology would take off, it would launch the next Web revolution…but it clearly never ended up taking off. Then in 2006, iSmell was even named one of the “25 Worst Tech Products of All Time” by PC World Magazine. Even if they raised $20M, the project failed…and it failed BIG.

One of the main flaws of trying to integrate “smell” was it was trying to solve a problem that nobody had…and few industries ever really tried it.

Just like VR that’s still struggling to achieve mainstream usage, the potential for smells seemed rich thanks to many other projects – like oPhone or Scentee that could dispense smells directly from a mobile phone – that failed.

But also just like VR, the failed quest to bring smells to the internet and more mainstream adoption is still on…and it may be closer to reality than you think. The fact is that the “Smell-o-Vision” is real and literally knocking at our doors; the Internet of Senses may be the final materialization of the past attempts!

A recent BBC article highlighted the Founder and Director of the Mixed Reality Lab in Singapore as an example of “The people who want to send smells through your TV.” Today there are several great international projects pioneering this work, from Aromajoin in Asia, to Olorama in Europe, to OVR and Hapticsol in America, just to mention a few.

Some people like the award-winning artist Daniel Stricker believe that “olfactory virtual reality is one of the greatest storytelling tools that has ever been invented.” I must say, those who try it, immediately fall in love with it.

Understanding how to find the best use cases, how to design a great UX, and how to ignite mass consumption to avoid more flops are the keys to solving the equation and quest that I just described above.

If you’re still skeptical, bear with me and look at the overall XR equation, that is indeed getting very interesting, and some recent industry news that you should be aware of show it:

And yes, the Metaverse is finally popping up on our “newsfeeds” and suddenly people want to leverage it and want to be ready for it.

If you’re curious and want to learn more, here are some upcoming events that might be of interest:

Stay tuned for the next article in this Internet of Senses series to find out which sense will be covering next

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Events 2 days ago

Last week, I spent three days at Bits and Pretzels in Munich — a startup-focused event with a distinctly Bavarian flavor. Think Oktoberfest meets startup conference, complete with dirndls, lederhosen, and more beer than you might expect. As someone building an AI-powered event platform, I went in with a specific mission: Observe how startups actually market themselves at events. Here’s what I discovered: GoodBytz: The power of good demos What they did: Robotics startup GoodBytz set up a booth where its robots prepared kaiserschmarrn (a traditional German dessert) all day long. Why it worked: Nothing beats seeing a product in action. While other booths had brochures and demos, GoodBytz’s robots were actually cooking. The smell, the movement and the end result stirred together an experience that people will remember and talk about. The lesson: If you have a physical product, show it in action. The old writing adage generalizes well: Show, don’t tell.  Let people see, hear and touch the product. WeRoad: The bathroom hack What they did: Posted “Missing Investor” flyers in bathroom stalls with QR codes pointing to their website. Why it worked: Pure genius. Every startup at the event was looking for investors, but the “Missing Investor” headline, while a bit on the nose, proved irresistible. Plus, bathroom stalls are one of the few places where people have 30 seconds to actually read something. The lesson: Think about where your target audience’s attention will remain undivided. Sometimes, the most effective marketing leverages the most unexpected places. Emqopter: Visual impact matters What they did: Designed a bright orange booth that displayed their drone prominently. Why it worked: In a sea of grey, white, beige and brown, Emqopter’s bright orange booth was impossible to overlook. The drone was real, too, and proved a real conversation starter. The lesson: Your booth is competing with hundreds of others. Make it visually distinctive and ensure your product is the hero. Quests: Community building using the product What they did: Created a busy, branded booth with accessories (toy car, traffic cones, a bulletin board) and used their anti-loneliness app to build communities among founders at the event. Why it worked: Quests used their product to solve a real problem right at the event, and the busy booth design generated energy and curiosity. The lesson: Use your product to solve a problem at the event — if it’s possible, of course. Demonstrate your value in real time. Dyno: Event-themed marketing What they did: Distributed branded electrolyte packs with the tagline “Your hangover ends. Your pension lasts – with Dyno.” Why it worked: Dyno aligned its messaging perfectly with the Oktoberfest theme. Every attendee was thinking about beer and hangovers, so Dyno’s goodies were quite relevant. The tagline was clever, memorable, and directly addressed a pain point most people at the event might have to deal with later. The lesson: Tailor your marketing to the event’s theme and culture. The more you tie your messaging and product to the context, the more memorable you become. So, what did I learn? Event marketing is about more than just showing up and setting up a booth; you have to understand your audience and create experiences that people will remember. Here’s what really struck me: most startups and even big companies don’t know how to leverage events properly. They book the booth, show up and hope for the best; maybe they bring some branded pens and a pop-up banner. Then they’ll go back home and wonder why they spent €5,000 in exchange for 50 business cards that never convert. The startups that stood out at Bits and Pretzels understand something fundamental: event ROI isn’t about booth size or location; it’s about strategy, creativity and planning. None of the startups above improvised on-site, or planned something the night before the event in their hotel rooms. They laid everything out 4-6 weeks before the event. A solid pre-event strategy is what separates successful event marketing from expensive booth rental.  But what matters most for early-stage startups is that you don’t need a massive budget to stand out. WeRoad’s bathroom stall hack probably cost €50 to print the flyers. A standard booth package at Bits and Pretzels would go for €3,000 to €5,500. The ROI difference is staggering when you compare the cost per meaningful conversation. That’s the difference between simply spending money and investing smartly. Building Sesamers has taught me that helping startups find the right events is only half the equation. The other half is helping them understand how to maximize ROI once they’re there. Good props aren’t a marketing expense; they’re opportunities to meet customers, investors and partners, and strike up engaging conversations.

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