On Monday I spent the day in Birmingham for Museum Camp 2013. The event was billed as an ‘unconference’ which essentially means we collectively (100 or so) had 15mins at the beginning of the day to suggest topics to talk about for each of the six 45min slots across five rooms. My hope for the day was to bend the ear of just one person about my draft 8 digital principles. Instead I pitched it as a session and the pleasure of explaining each principle to 15 people and listening to their experiences. I think I was coherent and some of the feedback will be helpful in refining some of my examples. Much of the day was just listening to others but with the helpful caveat that you are allowed to interject at any point which made for a fun day. Topics we touched on included “Why online collections are crap, our biggest digital fundraising mistakes, gesture-based gaming and much more”.
For the rest of the week I rolled my sleeves up for a bunch of interesting stuff. I met with a researcher about trying to collaborate with the University of the West of England. Met the Apple Business team with a view to see what is involved in leasing iPads, explored digital signage (shouldn’t be this hard to find a TV stand should it!). Experimented with Shopify as an online shop, which then unravels data protection issues and careful reading of terms and conditions. I got a quick and dirty demo from a local developer of his work on augmented reality with somebody from the learning team. I am keeping an eye on as many technologies as possible as I really need to think how we can integrate digital into exhibitions and learning work.
I ended the week with a session with my boss about plans and personal development for the next six months. I like to think of the next phase of work as spinning 1001 tiny plates. Lots of things that need juggling across varying time-spans which i’m really looking forward to.