MUSEUMS IMMERSIVE NETWORK 2021 "FUTUREPROOFING MUSEUMS FOR A POST-COVID WORLD: THE POTENTIAL OF IMMERSIVE TECH"
TABLE OF CONTENTS 01 02 03 04 07
INTRODUCTION NOTES FROM THE HOSTS AGENDA MEET THE SPEAKERS OUR VALUES
INTRODUCTION The Museums Immersive Network has been established to promote and share best practice, new developments, skills development opportunities, and potential collaborations with immersive technology and museums.
Encourage a forward thinking culture of positivity towards museums. Provide upskilling opportunities for those wishing to develop their knowledge and understanding of immersive technology.
Immersive technology offers the potential to interpret our collections and share our stories in new, accessible, and interesting ways. We hope the Museums Immersive Network will support the establishment of immersive technology more broadly within the sector and boost confidence in working with tech businesses to create new experiences for our communities.
There Museums Immersive Network aims to: Establish an international network where expertise can be established and developed collaboratively. Address the power imbalance in working relationships between museums and immersive tech companies. Support collaborative partnerships between museums, tech companies, and higher education institutions. Provide a platform for honest conversation about issues in the heritage and immersive technology sectors through our Immersively, Museums podcast.
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NOTES FROM THE HOSTS Nicola Henderson For me, MIN is a vehicle to bring museums, tech businesses, academics and funders together in order to help encourage critical conversation in this sphere so that heritage organisations can not only see the potential for their communities, but also to ensure that any approach to immersive tech is thoughtful, considered and will be as impactful as possible for all involved. I have been delighted to continue working with the wAVE team on MIN; we all bring different areas of expertise, knowledge and contacts which strengthens the network for all involved and helps ensure the conversation is inclusive, relevant, interesting and inspiring.
Amy Shakespeare We have been overwhelmed by the response to the launch of MIN. I think it indicates a real appetite in the sector to explore the potential of immersive technology to enhance museums in many ways. Equally, we have seen tech businesses from all over the world keen to utilise the stories and collections museums hold in order to further the advancement and adoption of this technology. I am so proud of the collaborations and learnings that MIN has already provided in its first six months and am so excited to be hosting the second webinar. This past year has been one of the hardest our sector has ever faced, but we believe that immersive technology offers a wealth of opportunities to support museums in a post-COVID world – not only to survive, but to thrive.
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AGENDA 1:00PM
Introduction Amy Shakespeare, Innovation Manager at Cornwall Museums Partnership
1:10PM
Keynote: How Immersive Tech Is Revitalising The Cultural Sector Jessica Driscoll, Head of Immersive Technology at Digital Catapult
1:30PM
No-Touch Technology - The New Frontier in Museums Wo King, CEO at Hi9
1:45PM
Utilising Immersive Technology To Support the Black Lives Matter Movement Vas Piyasena, Associate at Hoskins Architects
2:00PM 2:05PM 2:20PM 2:25PM
Jargon Buster Round 1 Break Jargon Buster Answer Badenoch Great Place Project - Bringing The Past To the 21st Century Graham Fraser, Badenoch Heritage
2:40PM
An Introduction to Ithra - Being Saudi Project and The Deconstruction of Colonial History Saif Chaudhry
2:55PM
Panel: Making the Most of Existing Assets Joe Bell - Sideburn Panda, Tim Madison - Raven Sun Creative, Anna Vermehren - Museum Nord
3:15PM 3:20PM 3:35PM 3:40PM 3:55PM 4:10PM 4:25PM
Jargon Buster Round 2 Break Jargon Buster Answer Talk Title TBC Linda Spurdle, Digital Development Manager at Birmingham Museums Trust How To Leverage The Power of Brand Storytelling for Cultural Institutions, Heritage Tourism, and Artainment Louis Alferi, CCO at Raven Sun Creative A Museum Beyond Walls: Connecting, Experiencing, and Reinventing in a Time of Covid Sofie Andersen, Head of Digital Content and Editorial at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Panel: Monetisation Barbara Seidl - Senior Producer at Northern Lights Production, Tim Wright Director of Twintangibles, Carl Graves - Director at Egypt Exploration Society
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MEET THE SPEAKERS Louis Alfieri Louis Alfieri has over 30 years of experience in guiding, designing, and building entertainment destinations, immersive media-based attractions, cultural sites, retailers, and passionate people to success. Louis is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of Raven Sun Creative, an experiential design and consulting firm in Saratoga Springs, New York, since 2012. He is passionate about work with originality, integrity, and creativity with a focus on working internationally to build cultural bridges that lead, accelerate, and enhance the quality of emerging markets.
Sofie Andersen Sofie Andersen leads organizations to develop holistic digital and content strategies. She empowers teams to create humancentered products that convene creativity and ideas in dialogue with art and communities. She creates transformative storytelling experiences that innovate the museum experience - in person and remotely - by inspiring and activatin audiences. Currently, Sofie is Head of Digital Content and Editorial at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Previously, she was interim Chief Digital Officer at the Met, and was the Director of Digital Media at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Joe Bell Joe Bell is an experienced Bristol-based freelancer and creative who has worked on a range of innovative and awardwinning digital projects. Joe has enjoyed working for a wealth of clients through his company 'Sideburn Panda' - including a series of prominent arts organisations through 'The Space', Nottingham City Council for their ÂŁ30m redevelopment of Nottingham Castle, BBC Studios for the 'Global Values; Where Do You Fit' experience and Dan Snow & Ballista Media, to deliver the Royal British Legion's digital offer around Passchendaele 100 & Cambrai 100.
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Saif Chaudhry Saif Chaudhry has a wealth of experience as a senior director. He specialises in working with international, multi-disciplinary teams and effectively harnessing state-of-the-art immersive audio visual technology to tell stories. Delivering projects in museums, culture and heritage sector organisations, international events, entertainment, corporate entities, defence sector and real estate clients. Saif runs Ilum Studio with partners in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Ilum Studio specialises in curating, designing and producing experiences that blend the boundaries between the digital and physical worlds.
Jessica Driscoll Jessica Driscoll is the Head of Immersive Technology at Digital Catapult. She has an MA in Digital Culture and Technology and experience of working with a variety of technologies like VR, AR and haptics. She has implemented immersive training solutions in both educational and commercial institutions. Her previous experience at BBC Research and Development gave her understanding and insight into audiences and testing new broadcast technologies at scale. This hands-on experience in immersive will help to shape the support offered for startups and scaleups in the immersive economy.
Graham Fraser Since moving to the area in 2005 and subsequently retiring, Graham has been involved with Badenoch Heritage. This community group wanted to use local heritage to encourage tourists to stay longer in the area, benefitting the local economy. The Badenoch Great Place Project, with the support of its partners, has provided a means to develop that further since 2018. As the project nears its end, the project is looking forward to the launch of its App around Easter time. Graham is not only a member of the project board but on the project team as well.
Wo King Wo King is the CEO of Hi9 and a widely renowned expert in the creation and use of chatbots. Hi9 is a company which creates voice user interfaces, to provide support and help across both the public and private sectors. Wo has a wealth of experience working with tech giants and small cultural organisations alike. He also works with Universities including Exeter, Plymouth, and Falmouth in research and development on AI, bots, data communications and more. Wo's 'people centred' approach to his work ensures that his technology is accessible to individuals with any level of tech experience.
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Tim Madison Tim Madison is the Senior Writer and an Associate Producer at Raven Sun Creative. Since 2005, Tim has written extensively for the location-based entertainment and experiential destination industry. During his time at Raven Sun Creative, Tim has collaborated on projects for clients like Ubisoft, Hersheypark, Lamborghini, and Dalian Wanda Group. Prior to joining the Raven Sun team, Tim performed story development and show writing for Universal Creative on such award-winning attractions as The Simpsons Ride, Transformers: The Ride-3D, and Space Fantasy.
Vas Piyasena Vas Piyasena is an associate at Hoskins Architects. The worldwide protests in the wake of the brutal murder of George Floyd, led to a global debate on how society addresses structural racism. Part of this debate focused on our built environment, statues and street names historically connected to slavery and racist ideology. Vas will present a concept project exploring Glasgow’s connection to the Transatlantic slave trade. The project proposes the use of augmented reality to recontextualise our surroundings, reveal a hidden history and create an evolving platform for underrepresented voices.
Barbara Seidl Barbara Seidl is an award-winning producer/director with over 30 years of experience including designing online educational resources for America's schools and, most recently, creating large-scale interactive museum exhibits. Seidl's museum work has been installed in every region of the United States for clients ranging from the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture to the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. Her expertise includes designing interactive experiences that function as separately ticketed events as well as leveraging "taking it home" or "share online" interactives.
Linda Spurdle Linda Spurdle leads Birmingham Museums Trust's Digital Team, leading on digital strategy, digital engagement and ICT. Linda spearheads the digital transformation of the organisation - the digital team works on web, social media, interactives, photography and video, digital asset management, ICT and the Planetarium. Linda has extensive experience of managing and leading on digital projects, having produced award winning websites. Her work is audience centred, based on research and testing - enjoying trying new ideas, technologies and platforms.
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Anna Vermehren Anna Vermehren is Head of Research and Development at Museum Nord, Norway, where she has been leading both national and international projects. Her current portfolio includes the digital heritage project Connected Culture and Natural Heritage in the Northern Environment which spans a collaboration of 9 Project Partners and 10 Associated Partners in Norway, Scotland, Iceland, Ireland and Northern Ireland; the SKREI Convention project which tells the European history of stockfish exported from Norway; and the project management of a new national museum in Storvågan, Lofoten.
Tim Wright Tim Wright is Director and co founder of twintangibles a UK based management consultancy that helps organisations create value through accessing the crowd economy. Tim provides expert insight to the OECD, European Commission, and the Scottish Government and is author of The Scottish Crowdfunding Report. He is also an adviser on Digital and Crowdeconomy at XpoNorth. Previously Tim has worked for Egon Zehnder International, McKinsey & Co and a number of other highly respected organisations.
Carl Graves Carl started working for the Egypt Exploration Society in 2013 when he was appointed Education and Public Engagement Manager, since then he has organised the Society’s educational and engagement programmes, fundraising, and communications. Until 2018, Carl also oversaw the Society’s collections and their accompanying volunteering and intern projects. As Director, Carl is also responsible for managing the Society's day-to-day operations in its London and Cairo Offices and works closely with Board, Committees, volunteers, and staff to deliver the Society’s charitable activities.
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THE NETWORK'S VALUES The Museums Immersive Network is an inclusive, collaborative, and supportive place for all who would like to join. Therefore we ask you to remain mindful of the following:
TRUST
We would like the Network to be a place where everyone feels confident enough to share their successes and failures, this relies on creating a sphere of trust between all members, attendees, and organisations.
HONESTY
Please ensure any information you share with other members of the Network is honest and correct to your knowledge.
INCLUSION
Inclusion is essential for the Network to be a collaborative, innovative, and trusting space. Discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated and will result in the individual being removed from the network. This is a zero tolerance policy.
RESPECT
Lead with positive intent and treat all other Network members with respect. Everyone will bring varying knowledge and expertise to MIN, all of which is welcome and encouraged.
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With thanks to Cornwall Museums Partnership and XpoNorth.
Museums Immersive Network Cornwall Museums Partnership Studio 101 Krowji West Park Redruth TR15 3GE www.cornwallmuseumspartnership.org.uk MIN@cornwallmuseumspartnership.org.uk