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Rising Stars: Meet Greta Buccellato

Today we’d like to introduce you to Greta Buccellato.

Hi Greta, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We were somewhere around the Atlanta Beltline on the edge of Krog Street when the happy hour drinks and my ideas for implementing augmented reality into the hospitality industry really began to take hold. I remember saying something like, “That really would be so awesome!…. I could make augmented reality cocktails for Atlanta!”

I jotted the idea on scrap paper, tossed it in a stack, and then in the gloom of my library, it waited. It was during the quiet solitude of the shutdown that I started thinking of ways I could potentially weave technology into my bar guests service. Exploring and tinkering around with different types of applications, their capabilities and limitations. I’m a Bartender by profession, and when the shutdown ended, all of us returning hospitality workers were under a lot of extra pressure and scrutiny for safety. So a nearly touch-less garnish seemed like something that would have appeal, especially in a Covid-19 shutdown tech industry boom. I had no formal tech education unless you count an early Mario Paint career and a bit of Myspace HTML coding a lifetime ago. I was cutting and pasting snippets of wallpaper codes and inserting my own HTML code where I could to further customize my profile. With this application, I shifted tech and started with the standard bar codes that everyone was using for touchless menus, but I directed mine to land on a web page I designed for that specific cocktail or that special event.

After a couple of those codes, I found an amazing AR developer to work with and moved on up into augmented reality. My coworkers and regular bar guests were the easiest places to test out the new AR cocktail prototypes, and being a vigilante product developer of sorts, “Hey! Want to try something cool?” was a phrase they were already very used to hearing me ask. The original Coded Connections was such a small thing really. A simple application and 2 physical tokens, but I was still extremely proud of it. It was the joy that it brought to people’s eyes that was enough to encourage me to continue to explore the capabilities of AR in hospitality. From there I built a small team of talented developers who I trusted with the security area of the project, which it goes without saying, is paramount. Several happy guests, and a local write-up later, led me to doing private events and commissioned augmented applications in Midtown. I’m really excited to see how it will all advance going forward because this industry is so very promising. It has the ability to instantly connect, educate and thrill a guest with a unique experience. This AR model is poised to set a trend for new industry and art standards here in Atlanta, and I’m absolutely thrilled to help create it, for the honor of the ATL.

Information on current and upcoming Coded Connections AR installations and events can be found on our website.

2022 and 2023 locations will include:

GEORGIA:
A Sip of Paradise garden
Krog Street
Truist Stadium

FLORIDA:
Ft. Lauderdale
Wynwood

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’ve had plenty of hardships, but everyone has their own struggles and sacrifices. In the beginning, I was born (a Libra and a Metal Rooster for those interested) and raised right here in Georgia on a Main St, in a small city in Cobb County. Even though my parents put me in a lot of different activities, I still really struggled with being more of an introvert. My circle was pretty surprised when I got a job as a bartender, not only because of my quiet disposition but also because of all the trouble I had seen it cause. I figured I was perfect for the job.

One of my sisters was diagnosed at an early age with Rett Syndrome, it’s a neurological disorder with symptoms a lot like Autism. She was totally non-verbal so it gave us all an education in body language and eye gaze communication to troubleshoot her needs. It’s not easy, seeing someone you love in pain and feeling helpless, its a great motivator. These skills were useful when my own son was diagnosed with Autism several years later and also in the hospitality industry serving my guests.

After a long, very complicated series of problems, I had custody of all of my sisters when I was 17. It’s been a long-running joke between us that some of our earlier years played out like a terrible soap opera. Some new outlandish production each week. We pulled together and we made it work though, my sisters are still my best friends. Those Murphys Law years taught me the importance of maintaining composure. How to take a deep breath, relax and keep going because the people who depend on you are watching and looking to you to lead by example.

It’s ok though. Life is wild, it’s supposed to be, those problems are sort of the spice of life. I grew from them, and they made me stronger. I’m quite resourceful when pressed, but I know that if there’s a burden I can’t handle, I have a good circle of family and friends to draw from. That and serendipity definitely has a sense of humor.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Even before my passion for augmented reality, I’ve always had a creative streak and been known as someone who’s a maker. I’m grateful I was allowed the freedom to explore wherever my bike could take me, as long as I was back by sundown. I could usually be found by the creek or at the public library. I also had a lot of encouragement to collect whatever hobbies I pleased. I think that kind of practical upbringing gave me a certain respect for tools and how things work together in general. As a kid, there were sometimes things that were either out of my kid budget or something I just made up, so I learned the practical side of how to make them myself. All sorts of things, candles, jewelry, soaps, tinctures, perfumes, anything I thought up really. Most of it all ended up being given away as a gift anyway, I just like making things. They aren’t all winners though, and I take a good deal of personal satisfaction whenever I can bring an idea to fruition or bring someone joy through my work. I think that’s part of why I love bartending and the hospitality industry.

It allows me to regularly flex those creative muscles and also make people happy in the process. A cocktail is a gift too, an experience they’ll carry with them if it’s done well., even if they have to pay the tab at the end. Out of all my ideas or ventures Coded Connections is definitely my favorite. Not only because augmented reality is the ultimate blank canvas I’ve been searching for to connect with my guests, but simply because it was so far out of my creative comfort zone and I was still able to do it. I’ve always been much more accustomed to hands-on production, working with physical products I could touch, and the field of technology is an unforgiving and exact science that takes a lot of patience. One wrong letter or number can throw everything off and cost a lot of time and effort to fix. The final product though, the smiles on my guest’s face is what really makes any frustration worth it in the end. I guess I’m known as the quiet one tinkering away on a project in the corner.

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Missing my family and a few certain people was the worst part. I’ve always been ok left to my own devices, and I had already collected so many hobbies that I had endless activities available to me to pass the time. Shortly after I started those activities that had always brought me so much joy in the past, I found that without other people around me, I was struggling for inspiration to make anything. Turns out I am not entirely an island unto myself, but I still had to occupy my time. At the start of the shutdown, I was let go from a really amazing company, and the owners had decided to give the employees all the perishable food to take home to our families. I really like to keep fresh herbs, fruit and vegetables on hand, and the outbreak was still really new and no one knew what was going to happen to supply chains in the coming weeks or months. I wanted to be as proactive as I could so I used the seeds saved from the fruits and vegetables given to me from work, went outside, and just started germinating things. That led to plant propagation. It was so much easier than I remembered. I thought it was so silly that I hadn’t figured it out before then, I think I was missing the patience. After the quarantine ended, I joined a Community garden started by a bartender for bartenders in East Atlanta called A Sip Of Paradise. I highly recommend it. I got a cool plot all of my own for a whole growing season, which of course I considered more of an edible art exhibition. I loved that little plot. Fast forward to today and I have a growing collection from collecting seeds and cuttings all over the place. It’s pretty cool. People really should take more of an active interest in where their food comes from and how it grows. You might need to know it one day.

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