6th December 2024, Think Tank Birmingham

Audience-centred work is something that is championed in our field, but isn’t every project for an audience? We have projects which can feel like they lack focus if the audience is ‘everyone’, or hyper-localised target audiences which may seem too niche. 

How do we know that the intended audience actually cares, and can actually show the value of the work? 

In the digital realm we have different ways of identifying audiences. Do those remote audiences who never visit compare to the physically visiting audience? Can we compare and measure their impact?

Do we change to suit changing audiences, or do we stay constant and bring audiences to us?

As Computer based practitioners, we also must be aware of the societal impact on technology. New tools and systems allow us to reach new audiences, but do we exclude others by our choices and requirements? 

Our conference theme this year sets out to directly allow us to discuss the idea of who our audiences are, and show how we make them value our museums. We are living in an interesting and difficult time as we must define and display our value, not just against competing audience interests but also internally to funding bodies. We want to hear how you are identifying audiences and connecting with them, and proving that success. Together we can share improve our sector.

The MCG’s Museums+Tech 2024 conference seeks proposals for presentations addressing these issues. It’s time to celebrate good work, and share ideas for helping museums and other cultural institutions do better. We’re open to suggestions, and here’s some thoughts:

The broad idea of what is an audience is for you, such as:

  • Public audiences (how we classify and reach them)
  • Organisational audiences (we all have to report in to somebody)
  • The professional community (nobody is an island)

Areas we might be looking to stimulate conversation around:

  • Digital poverty: Are we making work which some people cannot access, or has no value to them.
  • How are tools such as AI affecting our ideas of audience.
  • Segmentation: The ways in which we differentiate people, the good and the bad. 
  • Knowing your audiences:  What do you know about your audiences, how have you found out more, what were the results of it.
  • Ethics of audiences: issues of inclusion and exclusion.
  • Connecting with your audiences digitally: We measure people differently to how you measure footfall or other audiences, what about those ‘digital only’ users.
  • The value you have gleaned from understanding your audience.

The MCG’s annual conference attracts speakers and participants from some of the most innovative cultural organisations, agencies and university programmes in the world. We’re keen to hear from practitioners, researchers, funders, and those from related cultural heritage and technology sectors. All submitted papers will be reviewed by experts in the field.

Presentations

This year, the conference will be at Think Tank in Birmingham, and streamed online. The programme will include:

  • Full presentations (20 minutes + Q&A) are a great way to share the main learning points from a topic or project
  • Lightning talks (7 minutes + Q&A) are best for sharing useful ideas that others in the sector can try, or to present a provocation

Please note that we may group these presentations into panels with a discussion component.

If you would like to present but are unable to attend in person, we will have up to two slots available for remote speakers. Please select this option when submitting your proposal. To help the event run smoothly we may ask you to pre-record your presentation and be available for live q&a.

Our audiences love our mixture of old and new voices, and we have a great track record in presenting a diverse range of speakers. Please also read our Guidance for Speakers before submitting your proposal. Our events have a code of conduct designed to help everyone enjoy the event.

Submission details

Proposals will need to note preferred format and include: 

  • a title and brief abstract (250 words max)
  • a biography (150 words max) for the presenting author
  • a brief (150 words max) non-technical summary of what attendees will learn from the presentation
  • a brief (150 words max) explanation of how the paper relates to the conference themes

We will also ask whether the paper or project has been presented at any previous conferences, and we encourage potential speakers to share links to their videos, slides, blogs etc to help us get a sense of their presentation style.

Submit your Proposal

Proposals deadline

The deadline for proposals is 23:59 (UK time) on Monday 3rd June. If you have any questions about submitting a proposal, please contact us at contact@museumscomputergroup.org.uk.