The 2024 Museum + Heritage show brought together professionals from the cultural sector for two days of sessions, networking and exploring the 150 exhibitors. The event took place at Olympia, London, where attendees came together for over 70 sessions, eight networking sessions in the Ambience Networking Lounge and for the reveal of the Museum + Heritage Awards 2024.
Gateway Ticketing Systems, Satisfi Labs, Vox Group, Art Fund, BIC Graphic, Bloomberg Connects, Displayways, Navigate, and People Landscapes Buildings sponsored this year’s show.
Exploring the latest trends at the Museum + Heritage Show 2024
With 90 speakers, attendees had plenty of sessions to choose from at the show. This year, Vox Group supplied earpieces for the four theatres to improve sound quality for those listening. The programme was sponsored by Art Fund, BIC Graphic, Bloomberg Connects, navigate, People Landscapes Buildings and Satisfi Labs.
There were several sessions about AI. Dr Oonagh Murphy, senior lecturer in digital culture and society at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Jamie Unwin, head of digital technology at Science Museum Group, spoke about how AI will affect the cultural sector. They discussed some reservations organisations may have in adopting this new technology.
Matt Rothman, international business development and Vikram Rajkumar, account director at Satisfi Labs, discussed how AI can transform visitor behaviour and business outcomes. They spoke about how ChatGPT is accelerating, so everyone must adapt. Even if you don’t like or understand it, you need to know how it can help your business.
In 2016, Satisfi Labs started using AI to help solve business problems. As AI becomes more sophisticated, it can understand intent. This means your website chatbot can solve problems for your visitors. If they ask if there is parking, the response doesn’t have to be ‘no’ but can suggest other ways to travel to the venue.
70% of answers given using Satisfi Labs’ chatbot are pre-generated because they must be accurate. For example, questions about accessibility. Thanks to AI, other questions can now be more conversational. The result is an increase in questions because the chatbot provides a good experience for visitors. This saves staff time and gives customers significant data on what problems visitors are having.
Sector update
Bernard Donoghue, director at ALVA, led an informative session at the Museum + Heritage Show 2024 covering the latest sector updates. He spoke about how visitor attractions can be better prepared for the future. The overwhelming message is that in the post-lockdown tourism industry, “we are not out of the woods yet.”
Donoghue highlighted the challenges posed by cuts to the cultural sector and how attractions can better secure their futures with threats of public funding being withdrawn from many institutions. Across the industry, many operators are now diversifying their offerings, investing in events, f&b, and all-weather activities to maintain visitor numbers.
Equity and sustainability were also on the agenda. An increasing number of attractions are looking to increase access to their sites for those who previously wouldn’t have visited for economic reasons. From a sustainability perspective, Donoghue posited that institutions have mastered measuring their scope 1 and 2 emissions. However, they are now tackling scope 3, which looks at the carbon cost of guest travel, exhibitions, and more.
Breaking down barriers: essential accessibility tips for visitor attractions.
Steve Dering, director of strategic partnerships at Direct Access, and Spencer Clark, managing director at ATS, gave a session on accessibility in attractions. This looked at how operators can improve the visitor experience for all guests. They highlighted the three main barriers that attractions encounter when trying to be more accessible: lack of funding, limited internal resources, and not knowing where to begin.
This session at the Museum + Heritage Show 2024 covered the best practices that the industry can employ to make sites more accessible, from tactile maps and objects for visually impaired people to the wide variety of interpretation materials available for deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors and how attractions can adapt their visitor journeys to become more inclusive of those with physical access and sensory needs.
Clark discussed the rapid advances in AI and how it is employed to create more accessible experiences. He highlighted its use in sign language guides, adapting to visitors’ preferential signing style and dialect.
The Design Museum and sustainable exhibitions
Elise Foster Vander Elst is head of exhibitions & environmental impact lead at the Design Museum. She spoke about how and why the museum has focused on sustainability.
She said that exhibition makers have a lot of agency with their scope 3 emissions. It can be complicated, and historically, institutions have ignored it. However, she explained, “We can’t ignore it; we’re in an emergency.” Furthermore, recent studies show that audiences expect museums to be more sustainable, ensure materials are recycled, and influence society about the climate emergency.
The Design Museum opened an exhibition, Waste Age: What Can Design Do, to coincide with COP26. This temporary exhibition focused on waste and worked with designers to find solutions. However, the museum wanted to go further and change how it created the exhibition. They thought about the life cycle of the materials used for the exhibition and designed it for deconstruction and reuse. For example, using data to inform the decisions made when choosing materials was vital.
Ultimately, they calculated the carbon assessment impact of the entire exhibition to understand what decisions mattered. This led to them creating a toolkit for other design teams at the museum to use.
They also have an object and material decision tree to help them decide which materials are better for certain scenarios or if they should ship an item for an exhibition. This process is similar to working with a budget and deciding if you can afford something. You have to think if the carbon cost of a material or object is necessary.
Foster Vander Elst highlighted the importance of museums communicating with visitors about their sustainability efforts. She also encouraged everyone in the community to collaborate, share learnings, and advocate for better practices.
Exhibitors and awards at the Museum + Heritage Show 2024
There were 150 exhibitors at the show this year, giving attendees plenty to explore.
Gateway Ticketing was excited to return to the show celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. The team will return to London for their European Galaxy user group meeting from 11-13 June. Tyg Tickets demonstrated its innovative ticketing and CRM solutions to attendees. Convious spoke to attendees about how its solutions can help the cultural sector become more sustainable by reducing the need for printing and how dynamic pricing can sell more tickets.
Glasbau Hahn GmbH was also exhibiting at the Museum + Heritage Show 2024, showing its latest cabinetry and climate control products as well as the work it did on Oman Across Ages. CEO Hamadi El-Ayari highlighted that museums today are always looking for new and custom exhibition solutions, creating displays that are works of art unto themselves.
DigiTickets spoke about shiftie, a new standalone product under the DigiTickets banner that helps businesses schedule staff, make rotas, and more. It is cloud-based and can integrate with the DigiTickets system. Imagineear spoke to attendees about how its audio guides can revolutionise the museum experience. Bloomberg Connects and Imagineear also spoke about how organisations can enhance the visitor experience and reach new audiences for free.
Vintia, previously Gantner Ticketing, showcased its new branding. The team spoke to attendees about its integrated ticketing, booking, management, and payment systems. The Association for Cultural Enterprises also exhibited and hosted a networking session, Money Talks, that explored ideas around revenue generation.
On Wednesday evening, the 2024 Museums + Heritage Awards winners were announced at a live ceremony in London. There were 20 winners, including Beamish, The Living Museum of the North. Beamish won the Visitor Welcome Award sponsored by Tyg Tickets.
The winner of the International Exhibition of the Year, sponsored by BECK, was Mission Masterpiece at the Rijksmuseum – Are you discovering a new masterpiece? at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
The Research Centre for Museums and Galleries, University of Leicester, won the Judges Special Recognition award.
