Speakers & Schedule

If you would like an advance copy of the AIM Conference Delegate Handbook, you can download a copy here: AIM Delegate Handbook 2017 1

Day 1 – Thursday 22nd June 2017

Keynote Speakers

Richard Evans, Chair, AIM

Welcome and introduction to AIM National Conference 2017

Bill Ferris, Chief Executive, Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust

Post Industrial Dilapidation to Sustainable Place – Lessons and reflections on 33 years of endeavour and enterprise: There are many lessons to be gained from the story of the rejuvenation of the 80 acre Historic Dockyard site from dilapidation to sustainable place and its role in the areas wider regeneration story … warts and all!

Julia Kaufmann OBE, Voluntary sector consultant and Chair Small Charities Coalition

The voluntary sector has particular challenges in facing change. What are they? Can they be turned into positive opportunities?

Other speakers and subjects

Max Dunbar, Chief Executive, Manchester Jewish Museum; Deborah Besley Jarman, Voluntary Education & Outreach Officer, Leominster Museum; Sarah Golding, Associate Artistic Director, Battersea Arts Centre; Gaby Porter, Associate, Moving Museum, Battersea Arts Centre.

Leading with creativity: fresh encounters in museums: In this session, the speakers will share their stories as museums, producers and partners in the Creative Museums programme. They will explain how they used Scratch – an iterative process which champions creative risk-taking – to reimagine the future. The speakers will invite you to experience Scratch and hope they inspire you to take creative risks.

Fiona Candlin Professor of Museology, History of Art department, Birkbeck, University of London

Mapping Museums: the history and geography of the UK independent sector 1960-2020: We know a lot about the history of major museums in the UK. By comparison, we know very little about the emergence and development of independent museums. ‘Mapping Museums’, a four-year research project based at Birkbeck College, aims at rectifying that situation. This presentation explains how and why.

Rachel Cockett, Director of Development, Birmingham Museums Trust

AIM published research in Autumn 2017 to help museums understand the impact of charging for admission, or not, on all aspects of operating a successful museum. The session will look at how changes in pricing policy have been implemented across three different organisations and the impact on their sustainability.

Philip Walker, Head of Engagement, Bristol Culture

In this session, Philip will talk about the innovative Pay What You Think model for exhibition charging that Bristol adopted and has been refining over the past 3 years, discussing some of the learning and why it is an effective model that delivers on both audiences and income.

The Realities of Organisational Change – led by the following AIM Hallmarks Leaders Programme participants: Elaine Sansom, Jason Semmens and Katherine Lynch

Elaine Sansom, Consultant and Museum Development Officer SEMDP

An MDO/consultant view on the realities of external support for organisational change. This session considers how MDOs/consultants support organisational change; and how to get the best out of using an external change agent.

Jason Semmens, Director, The Museum of Military Medicine

The Museum of Military Medicine (formerly the Army Medical Services Museum) has committed itself to an ambitious transformation programme, culminating in a new purpose-built museum facility opening in 2020 in Cardiff. This presentation highlights some of the challenges faced while pursuing organisational change along the way.

Katherine Lynch, Director of Heritage, Port Sunlight Village Trust

Port Sunlight Village Trust is two years into an ongoing transformational change programme to modernise all areas of the business and set a new strategic direction for the organisation. Katherine will share her experiences of the process so far and provide some insights into future challenges that she and her colleagues are likely to face.

Julian Smith, Partner, Farrer & Co

Legal Update for charities: An invigorating canter through recent developments in law and practice relevant to independent museums, including early lessons in the implementation of the new exhibition tax relief, the resurrection of the deed of covenant, and the updated Code of good governance for charities.

Professor Nick Grief, Dean for Medway, University of Kent

Professor Nick Grief will be contributing to the breakout session looking at partnerships between museums and universities. He will focus on the University of Kent’s partnership with Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, with particular reference to the refurbishment and adaptive reuse of the Royal Dockyard Church, the Sail and Colour Loft and the Galvanising Shop.

Steve Prowse, Director, Heritage Project Management, Artelia

Walking tour of the Dockyard – Capital Projects – Tow Rag to Forecastle: A fascinating insight into the challenges of the Dockyard’s capital projects, from funding to creating exhibitions within Scheduled Ancient Monuments and helping create a new landmark visitor centre.

Paddy McNulty, Culture Heritage Museums Consultant and Emma Middleton, Curator, Artists’ Projects Foundling Museum

This session will focus on providing museums with top-tips and advice so they can successfully engage, and partner with, universities in projects that are effective and mutually beneficial.

Victoria Rogers, President of the Federation of Welsh Museums and Galleries and panel members

Discussion: The One Thing I would Change About Museums

Dr John Patrick Greene, Cultural Heritage and Tourism Consultant and Ex CEO of Museums Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

Discussion: The one thing I would change about museums. Patrick will address the topic from the perspective of someone who is active in the world of cultural heritage (especially museums) in Australia, but also having worked in the UK museum sector.

Michael Turnpenny, Museum Development Manager, Museum Development Yorkshire, part of York Museums Trust

This session will explore two initiatives developed by Museum Development Yorkshire to help museums learn from their peers; the Northern Museums Volunteer Pass and the Yorkshire Visitor Experience Consortium. The session will outline benefits, pitfalls and the mechanics of the two initiatives and how they could be replicated in your museum.

Amanda Hart, Museum Director, Corinium Museum and Claire Sully, Programme Director, Volunteer Makers

Volunteering in the 21^st century – Blended Volunteering and Micro-Volunteering: Funded by Arts Council England, Volunteer Makers is an inspiring new model to help museums manage, grow and engage a community of volunteers, with added benefits of widening public participation and diversity. The programme includes working with a number of pioneers of Blended Volunteering, including Corinium Museum. Museum Director Amanda Hart has implemented Volunteer Makers since February 2017 and will talk about her museum’s experience of thinking, planning and implementing the technology and philosophy.

NEW! For This Year – Walking Tours

Alex Patterson – Collections, Galleries & Visitor Experience Manager, The Historic Dockyard Chatham

From Car Park to Beyond … The Full Visitor Experience: This walking tour will take delegates on the visitor journey at the Dockyard. Find out how we take a holistic approach to visitor experience – from facilities and galleries to staff and training.

Nigel Crisp, Estates Manager & Film Liaison Officer, The Historic Dockyard Chatham

A walking tour of Film Locations at The Historic Dockyard Chatham: This walking tour will allow you to view a variety of locations that have been used in various films and TV productions that have been shot at The Historic Dockyard. Some locations may be instantly recognisable and others were totally transformed by the use of scenery and/or visual effects. From Call the Midwife to the Muppets, Guy Ritchie to Kanye West, they all want to be in Chatham.

Richard Holdsworth – Preservation & Education Director, The Historic Dockyard Chatham

Sustainable approaches to industrial heritage: Visit Chatham’s Iconic Ropery and explore how visitor interpretation and experience can align with rope-making reality.

AIM AGM

Day 2 – Friday 23rd June 2017

Keynote Speakers

Ros Kerslake (CEO, Heritage Lottery Fund)

Michael Day (CEO, Historic Royal Palaces and Vice President of AIM)

So, what was all that about, then …? A reflection on my last 43 years in heritage and museums

John Orna Ornstein, Director of Curation & Experience, National Trust and previously Director of Museums, Arts Council England

The next 40 years and how we need to get there

Other speakers and subjects

Rosalind Meredith, Learning and Events Officer, Maidstone Museum and Bentlif Art Gallery and Robert Shrubb, Chair, Wheels of Time and Treasurer, Ashford Borough Museum Society

Wheels of Time: The creation, development and management of a partnership aimed at encouraging young children and their families to explore small to medium museums and heritage sites: Wheels of Time is a free badge collecting scheme encouraging the exploring of 25 Kent heritage sites for 5-11 year olds and their families. The speakers will share how it started, how it’s developed, how it works and how the current sites joined the scheme.

Julia Aldridge, Consultant, Julie Aldridge Consulting Ltd and Mel Larsen, Marketing Consultant & Coach, Mel Larsen & Associates

Diversifying Museum Visitors Project: This session will share insights emerging so far from the Diversifying Museum Visitors project. This is an opportunity to get a sneak-preview of some of the findings and to contribute your own ideas, challenges and success stories. This ground-breaking project is designed to help museums increase the diversity of their visitors and will be providing tools and guidance to help museums make long-term change in their organisations to achieve this.

Helen Smith, General Manager, The Fusilier Museum

Enterprising Museums: Helen is now working with the Army Museum’s Ogilby Trust to introduce a video coaching project to improve commercial practices throughout the military museums network in the UK. She will share her experiences of how she has encouraged her team to think more creatively and commercially and how she is going to spread the word to the wider museum community.

Shelley Morrell, The National Lottery, Heritage Partner, Camelot

National Lottery players raise £30M for Good Causes around the UK every single week. We will take a brief look at the role of The National Lottery in heritage funding, with a focus on what we can do to recognise the role of players and attract a more diverse audience to independent museums.

Mark Bills, Director, Gainsborough’s House

Everyone’s a winner: Thanking Lottery Players: How do you effectively thank those people who contribute to Lottery funds? And how do you get them engaged in Lottery projects? This talk will discuss the beginnings of an initiative that aims to address these questions and reach new audiences.

NEW! For This Year – Walking Tours

Alex Patterson – Collections, Galleries & Visitor Experience Manager, The Historic Dockyard Chatham

Nigel Crisp, Estates Manager & Film Liaison Officer, The Historic Dockyard Chatham

Richard Holdsworth – Preservation & Education Director, The Historic Dockyard Chatham

Sustainable approaches to industrial heritage: Visit Chatham’s Iconic Ropery and explore how visitor interpretation and experience can align with rope-making reality.

And More….

Museum Fizzers 2017

Following on from the success of Museum Fizzers at conference last year – it is back – and we would love to hear from you!

Could you tell us at conference in just three minutes about a project at your museum that you are proud of, or one that has made a positive difference to how you work?

If so – we would love to hear from you and you could win a bottle of champagne to share with your team.

If you want to shine the spotlight on your museum, enter Museum Fizzers HERE by 14 June

How We Achieved Success

Listen to stories of AIM members and their secrets of success over the past forty years

Industrial Heritage Networking Lunch – Friday 23 June

If you work or volunteer at an Industrial Heritage site – you are welcome to a special lunch with networking opportunities during AIM National Conference which this year will be held onboard HMS Cavalier. There is no need to book in advance for this lunch – we look forward to seeing you there.