Rather than create a play by play recap of the annual conference, this post highlights broad strokes of the event.
On Museums:
- Museums are holder of the public good. Programs should showcase public value.
- Museums should create memories for visitors.
- Museums are community based and community responsive. They are public utilities.
- Museums serve 55 million kids nationally –annually!
- Arts and culture are the heart, soul and conscience of society
Community:
- Create community of visitors through experience that leverage their shared interests and the museum’s strengths.
- Develop and employ partnerships with other institutions around desires to reach particular visitors.
- When using visitors as partners to develop community events create a culture of mutual respect between visitors and staff.
- There is not a simple 1+1 equation between community building events and fundraising.
- Target market—go where your visitors are to get the message out. Or even better, invite someone from that community to help you develop the program and then market it.
- Develop communities within your institution. Brainstorm in selected, though not siloed, groups.
Fostering Connections to Visitors:
- Understand that each visitor community (casual visitors and teachers) have their own vocabulary and culture. Own that and then come to a common language.
- Don’t assume that everyone wants the same thing.
- Understand what your audience wants before developing your program, while running your program, and after your program has completed.
- Similarly, know the digital habits of your target audience and make sure your digital plan targets the right audience
- Awareness of your museum can be an important and viable goal for your programs.
Stories, Games and Media:
- The process of social media and crowd sourcing is what fulfills the mission not the product.
- Create stories for your visitors. Stories can make the collections relevant to the visitor.
- Bring your community into the museum to tell their own stories, so that they can feel like they contribute to your museum culture.
- Games can create meaning for visitors—often those with a great story.
- No all gamers are alike!
- Simple and clear can be essential to a good story or game.
What were your biggest takeaways?