21st Century Visitor Attractions
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 refreshing or creating their audience strategy – identifying their purpose, clarifying their brand identity, understanding their visitors and developing an audience-focused approach.
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 Organisational Health Check.
“We just wanted to say a huge thank you, we can’t express enough how much inspiration, confidence and excitement has been generated at our organisation as a result of this programme” Previous Participant
Who is the Programme For?
To be eligible for this programme you:
- Need to be an Accredited Museum
- Have completed the MDEM Organisational Health Check
- Can be open or closed due to Covid-19
- For both staff led and volunteer run museums
This programme is aimed at museums who wish to prioritise the development of their brand and purpose 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 8 days of allocated staff time over the 6 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.
“The programme has been transformational for us as an organisation since the first session” Previous Paricipant
How the programme works:
- 7 x 3hr online training sessions – cross-team approach
We will hold 7 x 3hr online training sessions focused on a range of areas. At each of these sessions 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 coaching
Following each of these days you will implement activity within your organisation and after each online session you will have 2hrs of coaching with one of 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 cause supported by the whole organisation
- The understanding of what it means to be an audience-focused organisation
- A clear brand identity to inform your future work
- Enhanced ability to plan, execute and analyse audience data
- A more informed understanding of their audiences
- The tools to build a marketing strategy
- Enhanced influencing and negotiation skills
- Change management skills
Attendance:
Please note that we recommend up to 5 people attend each online session and this must include the leader of your organisation.
Programme Plan
| Starting Session
1.5hr call on either 1st or 2nd October |
This online call will be with Julie Aldridge who will be asking you about your organisation. What are your ambitions and challenges? What are you hoping to get out of the programme? How has Covid-19 impacted you and your visitors and how can we help you to move forward? |
| Cause
Online workshop 10am-1pm 15th October |
Cause – Guy Turton
This day will take you through a process of identifying your organisation’s Cause. 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 we ask you to replicate with your teams to ensure the whole organisation is on board. |
| Audience Focus
Online workshop 10am–1pm 22nd October |
Audience Focus – Julie Aldridge
What is an audience focused organisation? Why might we need to develop an audience focused approach more than ever as we emerge from lockdown? What does an organisation that is audience focused do? What do they look like? Is your Cause audience focused? Does it work for you and your audiences? What might need to change within your organisation to help you become more audience focused? |
| Coaching
2hr online coaching session on either 28th or 29th October |
Coaching – Julie Aldridge or Guy Turton
You will have a 2hr session with either Julie or Guy who will work with you to articulate your Cause, explore what audience focus means for your organisation and help you overcome any roadblocks. |
| Brand
Online workshop 10am–1pm 5th November |
Brand – Guy Turton
During this session Guy will work with you to start to build a brand model for your organisation. |
| Coaching
2hr online coaching session on either 11th or 12th November |
Coaching – Guy Turton
You will have 2hrs with Guy to develop your brand model. |
| Strategies for Leading Change
Online workshop 10am–1pm 19th November |
Strategies for Leading Change – Julie Aldridge
Julie will work with you to explore how to lead change within your oragnisation. This will include identifying ‘enablers’ and ‘blockers’ to change, how to negotiate and influence, how to create a culture that can embrace change. |
| Coaching
2hr online coaching session on either 25th or 26th November |
Coaching – Julie Aldridge
You will have 2hrs with Julie to go deeper into how you can lead change. This is also an opportunity to identify any other areas of the programme so far that need clarification or you have further questions about. |
| Understanding Audiences
Online workshop 10am–1pm 3rd December |
Understanding Audiences – Guy Turton
Guy will work with you to think about segmentation, qualitative and quantitative research and how to use insight to achieve audience focused objectives. |
| Coaching
2hr online coaching session on either 9th or 10th December |
Coaching – Guy Turton
You will have 2hrs with Guy to ask further questions about how you can better understand your audiences and use that insight to inform your strategy and action. |
| Strategic Marketing
Online workshop 10am–1pm 14th January |
Strategic Marketing – Julie Aldridge
This session will guide you through the strategic marketing planning process and share models to enable you to inform your decision making. |
| Coaching
2hr online coaching session on either 20th or 21st January |
Coaching – Julie Aldridge
You will have 2hrs with Julie to further explore your strategic marketing planning and to work through any challenges or questions that you have. |
| Final session
Online session 10am-1pm 28th January |
Closing Session – Guy Turton and Julie Aldridge
This will be a reflection session to consolidate learning and identify next steps. |
Price / Commitment:
This training is being offered to you for FREE thanks to the support of MDEM. The true cost of this training is over £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 session and completing the activity recommended during the interim periods.
How to apply:
To apply to join this programme you will need to complete and return the Expression of Interest Form by the 4th September 2020 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 11th September.
21st Century Visitor Attraction – Expression of Interest 2020
Please note only accredited museums or those working towards accreditation are eligible to join this programme. Furthermore, museums must have completed the MDEM Organisational Health Check before application.
