Museum Strategy

Guest post no. 2 , Alice Lebredonchel, My Museum Next Review

As you may have noticed, I was finally not at the Museum Next conference last 22 -23 October, but present and thus giving us the opportunity of a second guest post was Alice Lebredonchel, French consultant in cultural communication and owner of Innovart, a blog specialising in innovations in culture, particularly dedicated to the theme of growing audiences through marketing. She provided us with a full account of her experience at Museum Next that you can only read with profit. The layout slightly differ, so you can find the original post at Innovart.

"Back from Newcastle, here is my report on Museum Next, a conference for worldwide museum professionals based on a great interaction between its participants through workshops, “unconference” sessions  and other debates, that is to say two intense days of sharing, exchanging and brainstorming among the participants. Approximately 70 professionals of the museum world were there among whom artists, curators, institutions directors, members of  education departments or consultants, an eclectic mix to think together about tools and strategies for involving audiences in museums in order to make them more lively and interactive.

This event was held at the Great North Museum for the first day and at the Center for Life for the second day

Day One :

For the first moments of exchange between participants of Museum Next we went to a space specifically aimed for the young audiences of the museum imagined by the collective [re] design , a sustainable exhibition designer group. Each participant was asked to test the scenery in groups,  from the design of a monster with a sock or a sculpture with paper cups.

 After these first moments of chatting and “creative stimulation”, we got to work with a presentation of every "wild ideas" submitted by some participants

Once these presentations were made, work could begin and groups were formed  each treating on one of the 6 “wild ideas”

Day two :

The second day began with a fascinating presentation by Nina Simon (slides available here). The content of her inspiring remarks , relevant examples that she has contributed to, and the conceptualisation of ideas she presented - and the quality of the layout of her power point presentation:)-  have been, I think, an inspiration for all participants until the end of the conference.

Then followed 8 “unconferences” submitted by participants during the previous evening, two sessions of approximately 45 minutes held on topics as diverse as:

- How can we measure success?
- How to manage  visitors who came because they had to?
- How can social interactions be facilitated by digital devices in museums and so on and so forth

Then we got back to our  “wild ideas”.

During  lunch break I had the chance to visit the exhibition “Democracy” with some attendees accompanied by its designer Jim Richardson. This exhibition aims at being  as democratic as possible, with works chosen through a voting system which is continuously updated. You can visit the website of this incredible exhibition here or listen to Jim himself :

                

Back to the Center for Life, we had the opportunity to finalise our proposals before presenting them to the rest of the participants.

All the videos are available here.Congratulations to Jim Richardson and Nina Simon for giving us the opportunity to think and create together and to leave Newcastle with our head full of ideas!"

               

Internet and the Museums: an October Agenda

Hello everyone !  

October is going to be a busy month for sure, but there are two events which I want to share more with you about in particular. In keeping with the bicultural spirit of Museum Strategy, here is one French and one English conference you should pay particular attention to :  

On 16 October I will be at the Louvre to take part to the first round of the Rencontre Web <>Musées organised by Yves-Armel Martin from the Centre Erasme and Samuel Bausson, the Muséum de Toulouse webmaster. This one day working session will be based on very quick and multiple returns of experiences and case studies on the possibilities offered by social media for museums. They will pave the way for discussions and exchanges between participants and speakers. This session will take place in French, and will be directed towards museum professionals. Speakers include Diane Drubay, Samuel Bausson, Alain Romang, Ana Laura Baz from Montréal.  

>> Three main sessions to understand web 2.0 /museums landscape today, learning about concrete and successful examples and thinking of how to extend a web 2.0 strategy tomorrow  

Later in the month, I will tweet from Newcastle Upon Tyne in what promises to be a goldmine of forward thinking ideas on how to engage audiences in the museum’s global project, including the curatorial sphere.  

>> Set up by Jim Richardson from SUMO and Nina Simon, the voice behind Museum 2.0, Museum Next lays on the principles of sharing and co creating from « wild ideas » chosen pre-conference, that will be discussed and shaped throughout the sessions. With nothing set in advance Museums Next « unconference sessions » will primarily depend on its participants’ will to discuss and develop key-topics together and bring wild ideas to life.   These two events are not exclusively but largely based on people within the French and North of England communities but the ideas developed surely go way beyond the borders of strictly geographic areas.  

Don’t miss on Twitter: if your French is up the scratch, follow the #webmus hashtag. Museum Next has got a feed and a hashtag, @MuseumNext and #MuseumNext  

… as well as a most excellent blog also mentioning the Democracy project you can check with profit to get a taste of the conference.