MCG Museums+Tech 2025 — Seize the Tech!

9am – 5pm, Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum, Millennium Point, Curzon St, Birmingham B4 7XG

2025’s theme

In many ways it is a golden time for digital creativity. Thanks to many tools we are able to process more data than ever and create images and videos that are of a vastly higher quality than even a few years ago. All this is at a time when the tools to make them are currently very ‘cheap’ or even ‘free’ to use. Increasingly our online experiences are also federated through a series of algorithms: Google, Meta, TikTok. Our digital landscape is rapidly changing.

Yet behind this as a sector we may have concerns. The output may look fantastic, but is it accurate? Are there biases going into the output which are shaping opinion? Is it properly representative? Has the source data been used with consent? What are the legalities of the software and the output? Who owns it? What about the impact on the planet? What are the changes it represents to society and our attitude towards what is created? When is synthetic data being useful, and when not?

How do museums – whose role in society is surely apolitical and concerned with bringing together diverse viewpoints around shared aspects of our material culture and human condition – navigate these biases inherent in communicating with audiences online? How are we ‘seizing the tech’ for social good? What can we do as a sector to better meet the challenges posed by AI, algorithmic bias and misinformation?

Our theme this year also had a focus on ‘seizing the tech’ in a practical sense for the Museum Computer Group community. We want to use technology as a leveller, and really focus on what we can do for visitors. We want to stimulate reasoned debate, as with the mailing list, we are all a community here to discuss and build consensus. The MCG’s annual conference attracts speakers and participants from some of the most innovative cultural organisations, agencies and university programmes in the world.

Watch the Museums + Tech 2025: Seize the Tech! conference playlist on YouTube

Programme

9:00 – 9:50 Registration

Welcome address

10:00 – Session 1: Websites and Systems

• Sponsor talk – manifesto
• Empowering audiences, easing operations: How the Science Museum transformed group bookings across five museums. Stephanie Clark, Head of Strategic Services, Substrakt and Graeme Ellis, Head of CRM, Science Museum Group
• How to make it easier for disabled and neurodivergent visitors to plan a visit to your museum. Alison Bean, Website Product Manager, British Museum
• Beyond the Promise: what digital failures reveal about the cultural sector’s readiness for change. Ash Mann, Digital strategist and advisor
• Lightning talk – Tech It to the Next Level: Enhancing Experiences and Driving Growth. Josephine Chanter, Deputy Director, Design Museum
• Q&A

11:30 – Keynote: FOMO is not a strategy!

• The pros and cons of a careful approach to AI with Rachel Coldicutt, Executive Director, Careful Industries

When using and deploying new technologies, it’s worth putting the FOMO on hold. This talk will explore practical methods for combining curiosity and inventiveness with a careful approach to using technology that puts people and planet first.

Rachel Coldicutt is a researcher and strategist specialising in inclusive, community-powered innovation and the social impacts of new and emerging technologies. She is founder and executive director of research consultancy Careful Industries.

• Q&A

12:15 – Lunch & Museums Computer Group AGM

13:00 – Session 2: AI

• Sponsor talk – Numiko
• Leveraging AI and Crowdsourced Data. Richard Nevell, Wikimedia UK
• Responsible AI use and colonial collections in museums and heritage. Marjory Da Costa Abreu, Associate Professor in Ethical Artificial Intelligence, Sheffield Hallam University
• Lightning talk – Building Goose: How community-driven AI is democratising skills development in heritage – the how and the why. Carol Jones, Editor, AMAculturehive
• Lightning talk – Re-imagining accessibility to collections with the help of AI. Edward Kay, Head of Platforms and Development, Imperial War Museum
• Showcase: Using rich modern technologies to deconstruct Dutch colonial myths in Brazil. Babak Fakhamzadeh, Creative Technologist
• Q&A

14:30 – Break

15:00 – Session 3: Social, multimedia and third party content platforms

• Sponsor talk – Bloomberg Connects
• Life after X: How Twitter’s favourite museum left Twitter. Joe Vaughan, Marketing Manager, The Museum of English Rural Life
• Lightning talk – Going Open with GLAM-E Lab and Wikimedia: Developing Tools for Open Culture. Lucy Hinnie, Topics for Impact Coordinator, Wikimedia UK
• Lightning talk – An Intangible Future? Creating affordable and accessible interactive video experiences. Kat Rolley, Digital Learning & Engagement Consultant
• Lightning talk – Delivering digital reach project round-up. Sian Toogood, Head of Delivering Digital Reach Project, Science Museum Group
• Q&A

16:00 – MCG List Live!

16:45 – Closing address

17:00 Pub: The Victoria, John Street

With thanks to our conference sponsors Bloomberg Connects, numiko and manifesto.