21st Century Visitor Attraction – Programme Open for Applications
21st Century Visitor Attraction is an intensive 4-month programme for museums designed to help your organisation become more audience-focused, resilient and successful. Working with experienced trainers each museum will take a whole-organisation approach to identifying their purpose, clarifying their brand identity, understanding their visitors and developing an exceptional visitor experience.
This programme has been developed by Museums Development East Midlands (MDEM) and the Arts Marketing Association (AMA) in response to the needs identified in the MDEM Business Diagnostic.
Who is the Programme For?
This programme is aimed at museums who wish to prioritise the development of their brand and vision and focus on how this translates into a specific visitor offer. It is aimed at museums that have the capacity and are willing to dedicate time and resources to improving their brand, audience data capture and marketing.
You don’t need to have dedicated marketing staff, or in house audience development expertise to apply. However, you do need to have a nominated member of staff to lead the programme at your museum, alongside full organisational buy in. The programme will work best when the governing body is signed up to developing in this area, as well as the museum leadership whom will at times be required to attend programme sessions.
We expect this programme to need at least 10 days of allocated staff time over the 5 months to be successful. This does not need to be from one person, but can be spread over a number of roles. This includes attendance at meetings, but also time back at the museum to enact action plans and deliver in-house workshops.
How the programme works:
- 5 training days – cross-team approach
We will hold 5 training days focused on a range of areas. At each of these training days you will be encouraged to bring 2 or more team members to ensure the whole team is benefitting from the experience and is on board with the programme.
- Practical application and on-going support
Following each of these days you will implement activity within your organisation and during this time you will have access to the trainers to troubleshoot challenges and support your progress.
- Tailored approach
Only 6 museums will be taking part in this programme ensuring that the experience is tailored to the needs of your organisation.
Outcomes:
Museums coming through this programme will have:
- An agreed purpose supported by the whole organisation
- A clear brand identity to inform your future work
- The ability to plan, execute and analyse audience data
- Insight from audience research
- An outline marketing strategy
- An understanding of customer experience design
- Insight from the customer experience design process
Programme Plan
| Day 1
29th Jan at Derby Museum |
Purpose and Brand: Speaker Jo-Taylor
The day will be split into 2 sections taking you through a process of identifying your purpose and exploring your brand. You will be led through a series of exercises to help you get to the nub of why your organisation exists, what it wants to achieve and what difference you will make. This process will be one you can replicate with your teams to ensure the whole organisation is on board. We recommend up to 4 people per organisation attend this day. |
| Interim | During this period you will be asked to complete 2 whole-organisation workshops to use the methodologies learned during the day with their team.
You will have 2 hours available to call Jo Taylor for coaching / troubleshooting. At the end of this the outcome will be you have an agreed purpose and brand. |
| Day 2
26th Feb at National Civil War Centre |
Understanding Visitors: Speaker – Jo Taylor
Harnessing the power of data is an essential tool for thriving organisations. This day will help you understand the potential power of your data, what you have already, how you might collect more and what it will enable you to do. At the end of the day you will have a research plan to implement in your organisation. We recommend that the leader of your organisation attends with at least 1 person responsible for your organisation’s relationship with visitors. |
| Interim | During this time your organisation will gather or review your data. You will also analyse this information to gather useable insight.
You will have 1 hour of Jo’s time to troubleshoot and ask questions during this process. |
| Day 3
2nd April – venue TBC |
Strategic marketing/audience development planning: Speaker – Jo Taylor
This session is about learning the tools you need to effectively, efficiently build the relationships you want with the visitors you would like to engage. During this day you will learn about models and techniques to help you develop effective marketing strategies. At the end of this day you will have a skeleton marketing strategy We recommend that the leader of your organisation attends with at least 1 person responsible for your organisation’s relationship with visitors. |
| Interim | You will be asked to complete your marketing strategy. During this time you will have 1 hour of Jo’s time to troubleshoot and ask questions.
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| Day 4
30th April and/or 1st May venue TBC |
Customer Experience Mapping: Speaker – Lisa Baxter
Improving your visitor’s experience within your museum is essential to remaining relevant to your visitors. This day will include a site visit with Lisa to see in practice how customer experience mapping works. You will be given the tools you need to be able to do this in your own venue. The outcome will be an understanding of customer experience mapping and a plan to look at your own organisation |
| Interim | You will undertake customer experience mapping within your own organisation. Each organisation will have 1 hour of Lisa’s time to troubleshoot and ask questions.
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| Day 5
21st May venue TBC |
Sharing the learning: Facilitator – Cath Hume, CEO, Arts Marketing Association
A final day bringing together the organisations to hear about their experiences, the change experienced and plans for the future. |
Price / Commitment:
This training is being offered to you for free thanks to the support of MDEM. The true cost of this training is almost £3,000 per organisation so this is an incredible opportunity to move your museum forward. We therefore ask that you commit to attending every training day and completing the activity recommended during the interim periods.
Please note you will need for your organisation to have the following availability:
– 29th January: We recommend up to 4 people per organisation attend this day.
– 26th February: We recommend that the leader of your organisation attends with at least 1 person responsible for your organisation’s relationship with visitors.
– 2nd April: We recommend that the leader of your organisation attends with at least 1 person responsible for your organisation’s relationship with visitors.
– 30th April and/or 1st May: Please hold both dates, these will be confirmed. We recommend up to 4 people per organisation attend this day.
– 21st May – This is the final wrap us session so we would recommend up to 4 people per organisation attend this sharing day
How to apply:
To apply to join this programme you will need to complete and return the 21st Century Visitor Attraction – Expression of Interest Form by the 14th December to sarah.hartshorne@leics.gov.uk . We expect this to be a competitive process and will inform all applicants if they have been successful by the end of December.
Please note only accredited museums or those working towards accreditation are eligible to join this programme. Furthermore, museums must have completed the MDEM Business Diagnostic before application.
