What we learned at the Museums and Heritage Show 2022

Last month the AD team travelled to London for the Museums & Heritage show. It was a two day conference filled with educational sessions and informative presentations. We had our own booth on the trade show floor so The AD team was able to meet so many other arts, culture and heritage professionals. We wanted to share what we learned from individual talks, our favourite parts of the conference and what we got up to during the trip. 

Monetising your visitor journey - Complete Works 

The conference started off with a presentation from Bala McAlinn, the Founding Director of Complete Works. Their work supports visitor attractions by giving organisations the resources they need to generate formidable ROI. The informative presentation explained how to produce a positive visitor experience whilst also boosting your income generation. It was great to see how simple things such as the positions of security, signage and donation boxes can heavily influence the financial decisions of a visitor.

Get to know your audience better with ticketing - Art Fund and The Audience Agency

Our expertise in ticketing is well known, so we definitely couldn’t miss this enlightening exploration into how ticketing your attraction’s admission, events and exhibitions – even if free– can help you get a better insight into your customer’s decision making process. 

Using DAM to unlock Coventry’s heritage - Capture Ltd

Our last Digital Asset Management (DAM) partnerships were with The Courtauld Institute of Art and Amber, so we knew we had to stop by Capture Ltd’s masterclass and hear about how they used their DAM platform to unlock Coventry’s historic past. In partnership with Coventry University, Capture Ltd were able to aggregate Coventry’s existing archives and collections to create an engaging, revenue-generating, and widely accessible digital counterpart. This project unlocked the stories of the city and built a digital picture of their proud heritage.

How visitor data can transform the visitor experience economy - Convious 

It was great to speak to our friends at Convious again as they showcased their attraction management platform. They explained how the power of your digital data can be used to enhance connection with your visitors, grow and diversify your audience, and create profit for purpose. Their workshop gave a fantastic insight into how changes in your ticket price, digital marketing and distribution channels can all directly impact your revenue and guest experience before, during and after their visit. 

After a full day of networking and learning, the team headed to dinner where we debriefed and relaxed before heading to the beautiful Noel Coward Theatre to see Dear Evan Hansen – exactly what we needed after a busy day. 

Using consumer psychology to maximise your income - Baker Richards

Day 2 started off with a presentation from the team at Baker Richards who detailed different pricing strategies to encourage the behaviour you want from your visitors. We loved hearing about their Triple A approach to income generation and the real life examples of how this works for both visitor attractions and for retail.

Adventures in 3D Visualisation - Interspectral

This masterclass was one of our favourite parts of the conference. Interspectral makes visualisation software for 3D data. They showed off their incredible visualisation software and explained how it helped to solve the death of the Gebelein Man (a 5,000 year old Egyptian mummy). This tech gave historians and archeologists the ability to learn about life from thousands of years ago in ways never before possible.

Contested culture as change-maker: a collaborative approach - Bristol Culture & Creative Industries and We are Bristol History Commission

This incredibly thought-provoking session explained the approach taken by Bristol History Commission and Bristol Culture & Creative Industries to display the toppled statue of Edward Colston. This year-long project saw them involve the local community in deciding how they would like the city’s history to be displayed. They described why they kept the graffiti on the statue, why they chose to display it as they did and what this meant for the community in deciding ‘what’s next?’. It was fascinating to hear their thoughts on how history is ever changing and how we can use it to come together as a community in the fight for social change. 

Unmute Art - Orpheo

Our last masterclass for the day was held by Orpheo, an audio guide devices and content production company, built for visitor attractions. They displayed their award winning sign language app where artworks can tell their own story through augmented reality. The tech gave people the opportunity to be shown a video on their device of the artwork coming to life and telling the story behind the art through sign language. Not only did this create a new means of engagement for deaf and hearing visitors alike, it also revolutionised the industry standard for accessibility.

Before we knew it, it was time to pack up the stall, say goodbye to the friends we made and get the train back to Glasgow. Thank you to everyone who stopped by the AD booth to say hello and ask for advice on all things digital. It was great to meet some old friends and make some new connections. You can follow us on Twitter and Linkedin to see what conference we’ll be attending next.