There has been a flurry of conferences in May, including the VSG conference and the Museums and Heritage show. MHM’s Research Manager, Roisin Coleman, and Consultant, Helen Rackstraw, have been in attendance to hear about the exciting work across organisations and how research is evolving to cater to the needs of audiences.
They’ve put together a short round up of some of the themes which have been emerging and have stayed with us:
The role of young people
While young people have increasingly been an area of focus for organisations, direct engagement can be minimal. At the VSG we heard about London Museum’s fascinating project into revealing children’s relationships with London. The creative qual responses from young people (in years 5 and 8) living in London on what the future of the city might look like were truly eye-opening. This piece of work emphasises the work Kids in Museums are doing to ensure young people are front and centre in strategic planning. At their talk at Museums and Heritage they highlighted that the responsibility of young people are often that of the learning team, and are therefore not considered across the organisation to provide an experience that feels relevant to them.
The role of AI
AI and machine learning was, unsurprisingly, a hot topic across both conferences – and is likely to continue as we learn how, and when, it should be used. From conversations on how to use AI ethically, to examples of how it can be utilised to bring the experience to life for visitors, or increase accessibility, AI is making its presence known in the sector. The London Transport Museum shared how useful topic modelling can be used to code visitor reviews; quickly analysing a vast number of responses (saving precious human hours for more important tasks). Their talk also highlighted the need for total transparency in terms of how audience data is used and analysed.
Using qual effectively
We all appreciate the richness of data that qualitative engagement can produce, and we heard a number of examples of how this methodology was being effectively utilised. At the VSG we heard from English Heritage and MEL about their pivot to using a qualitative approach to both provide KPI data AND thoroughly explore the ways in which visitors are engaging with interpretation. A reminder that qual can often be left by the wayside in favour of hard numbers when it comes to reporting.
