Exceeding Visitor Expectations
The Exceeding Visitor Expectations course, delivered by Tourism South East, has been designed specifically for visitor attractions. It combines the expertise of VisitEngland’s Visitor Attraction Quality Scheme and the experience of the renowned Welcome to Excellence training programmes to help staff and volunteers avoid the pitfalls of customer service. This short online course is suitable for staff and volunteers engaging with visitors.
Exceeding Visitor Expectations will help participants to:
- Identify what your attraction and the area where you work has to offer
- Understand who your visitors are and what they need and expect
- Meet, manage and, whenever possible, exceed visitor expectations
- Welcome visitors from all sections of the community and provide an accessible service
- Communicate successfully with visitors
- Use product/ destination knowledge to provide information and advice in an inspiring way
- Deal effectively with challenging situations
- Act as an ambassador for your attraction and local area
Tourism South East will deliver the session via Zoom using a range of exercises and interactive features, including Breakout Rooms and Polls. Participants are encouraged to ask questions and actively participate in discussion. If you have any concerns about accessibility or usability for these features please contact wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk
Maximum two delegates per organisation. Priority will be given to delegates from non-NPO and non-National museums in the West Midlands which are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation. This event is being delivered in partnership with Museum Development East Midlands. Museums based in East Midlands can book their place here
This online event will be auto-captioned by Zoom. If you would benefit from live captioning or any other form of access support, please answer ‘yes’ to the access requirements question on the booking form and email the WMMD team as early as possible stating the support you require.
All participants will receive an email containing a Zoom link to the training prior to the event. The email will be sent to the email address used for booking. If you have not received an email the day before the event please contact us.
If you can’t see the booking button this event is fully booked. To join the waiting list please email wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk
Exceeding Expectations
Thursday 6 July, 10am-12noon
Zoom
How To Create an Audience Development Plan
Join this session from The Audience Agency for a walk through a no-nonsense process for creating an audience development plan which you can put into practice straight away to help you successfully retain audiences and reach new ones.
Find out more and book How to Create an Audience Development Plan
Creating Family Friendly Interactions
This training session from Kids in Museums is designed to support Front of House (FOH) staff and volunteers to create family friendly interactions with visitors.
During the training, delegates will:
- learn why family visitors are an important part of your visitor profile
- gain an understanding of the key concerns families have about visiting museums
- come up with solutions to resolve common scenarios together
- explore playful ways to interact with families that are relevant to your site
Maximum two delegates per organisation. Priority will be given to delegates from non-NPO and non-National museums in the West Midlands which are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation. This event is being delivered in partnership with Museum Development East Midlands. Museums based in East Midlands can book their place here
This online event will be auto-captioned by Zoom. If you would benefit from live captioning or any other form of access support, please answer ‘yes’ to the access requirements question on the booking form and email the WMMD team as early as possible stating the support you require.
All participants will receive an email containing a Zoom link to the training prior to the event. The email will be sent to the email address used for booking. If you have not received an email the day before the event please contact us.
Creating Family Friendly Interactions
Wednesday 3 May, 10am-12.30pm
Online
If you can’t see the booking button, the event is fully booked. Please email wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk to join the waiting list.
Regenerating Education Offers to Schools
BOOKINGS ARE NOW CLOSED
With a focus on growth after the pandemic, four museums actively engaged in West Midlands Museum Development funded action research to explore how each setting could enhance their education offers and reinvigorate how schools engage with museum services. After shaping a bespoke question of enquiry each setting began their learning journey, supported by Rebecca Bell, Creative Teaching and Learning Consultant and Director of Integrate Education.
This event is all about sharing that learning. The victory narratives and the pitfalls will inspire a sharing of ‘top tips’, approaches, tools, and activities with a particular focus on developing a Teacher/ Educator network group and innovating in the planning, delivery and promotion of ‘extra-ordinary’ school workshops.
What’s in it for you?
This day will involve practical workshops and experiences with a focus on ‘learning by doing’ as each museum shares its wisdoms. The four workshops of the day will be diverse in their content and offer a range of insights that will appeal to any delegate aiming to:
- Position themselves as a rich resource for curriculum development and innovation in primary schools
- Consult effectively with key stakeholders and shape programmes that are leading the way for schools, and robustly meeting their needs
- Innovate in their practice and offer creative and brain friendly learning workshop experiences that go above and beyond what any school could offer their learners
What’s on the agenda?
The day will include workshops exploring stakeholder engagement, teacher networks and implementing a drama and Narrative Immersion approach.
- Engaging teachers in a quality professional development network (Warwickshire Heritage Learning)
- Teacher networks; marketing, recruitment and engagement (Rugby Art Gallery and Museum)
- Drama as a powerful pedagogic approach in schools and museums (Brampton Museum, Gallery and Park)
- Inspiring quality engagement and outcomes for young people using the Narrative Immersion approach (Soldiers of Shropshire Museum)
Refreshments and lunch will be provided.
Maximum two delegates per organisation. Priority will be given to delegates from non-NPO and non-National museums in the West Midlands which are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation.
Accessibility
Accessibility information for the venue can be found here. If you would benefit from access support, please answer ‘yes’ to the access requirements question on the booking form and email the WMMD team as early as possible stating the support you require.
Regenerating Education Offers to Schools
Thursday 11 May, 10am-3.45pm
RAF Museum Cosford, TF11 8UP
If you can’t see the booking button this event is fully booked. To join the waiting list please email wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk
Exceeding Visitor Expectations
The Exceeding Visitor Expectations course, delivered by Tourism South East, has been designed specifically for visitor attractions. It combines the expertise of VisitEngland’s Visitor Attraction Quality Scheme and the experience of the renowned Welcome to Excellence training programmes to help staff and volunteers avoid the pitfalls of customer service. This short online course is suitable for staff and volunteers engaging with visitors.
Exceeding Visitor Expectations will help participants to:
- identify what your attraction and the area where you work has to offer
- understand who your visitors are and what they need and expect
- meet, manage and, whenever possible, exceed visitor expectations
- welcome visitors from all sections of the community and provide an accessible service
- communicate successfully with visitors
- use product/ destination knowledge to provide information and advice in an inspiring way
- deal effectively with challenging situations
- act as an ambassador for your attraction and local area
Tourism South East will deliver the session via Zoom using a range of exercises and interactive features, including Breakout Rooms and Polls. Participants are encouraged to ask questions and actively participate in discussion. If you have any concerns about accessibility or usability for these features please contact wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk
Maximum two delegates per organisation. Priority will be given to delegates from non-NPO and non-National museums in the West Midlands which are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation.
This event will be auto-captioned through Zoom. If you would benefit from any other form of access support, including live captioning, please answer ‘yes’ to the access requirements question on the booking form and email the WMMD team as early as possible stating the support you require.
All participants will receive an email containing a Zoom link to the training prior to the event. The email will be sent to the email address used for booking. If you have not received an email the day before the event please contact us.
Exceeding Visitor Expectations
Monday 13 March, 10am-12noon
Online
If you can’t see the booking button below this event is fully booked. To join the waiting list please email wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk
Stimulating Memories
A course aimed at heritage staff/ volunteers or carers/ activity coordinators on best practice in collecting, sharing and recording people’s memories.
Run by Julia Letts. www.lettstalk.net Julia is an oral historian and accredited trainer for the Oral History Society. She has also worked as a trainer with the Association of Dementia Studies and runs intergenerational projects every term in a local Worcestershire care home.
This course is for heritage professionals/ volunteers, activity coordinators, care professionals or carers who want to learn more about:
- How to run activities that involve stimulating people’s memories and past experiences
- The best ways to gather people’s life stories
- How to engage people and get them to reminisce and share stories
- Oral history and how to record people’s memories legally and ethically
- The online platforms ‘Know your Place Worcester’ and ‘Life Stories Herefordshire and Worcestershire’, both of which have been developed to stimulate and collect memories.
You do not require any previous experience to join this course, but places are limited, and we would expect people to commit to the session and be prepared to join in. The course would particularly suit people who want to develop their professional practice, learn new skills or share their existing experience in this field.
The course will be held online via zoom and participants are expected to have cameras on and engage in the practical sessions.
To book please email julia@lettstalk.net
0930 Introductions
0945 Who? Working with different communities including older people, children and people living with dementia.
10.00 Why? The therapeutic importance of stimulating memories. Differences between reminiscence, oral history and life story gathering. Examples and case studies including the ‘Life Stories Herefordshire and Worcestershire’ platform.
1015 Practical: discussion in groups about challenges. Feedback and solutions.
1045 Break
1100 Getting started. Formal and informal memory collection. Different ways of engaging people. Example – making use of the platform ‘Know your Place Worcester’
1130 Practical: using objects as a prompt. Practice story gathering in pairs in break out rooms. Evaluation of practical.
1215 Using collected memories. Examples of effective ways of sharing what you’ve collected.
1245 Review and questions.
Who should sign up to this course?
This course will be aimed at heritage professionals/ volunteers, activity coordinators, care professionals or carers who want to learn more about:
- How to run activities that involve stimulating people’s memories and past experiences
- The best ways to gather people’s life stories
- How to engage people and get them to reminisce and share stories
- Oral history and how to record people’s memories legally and ethically
- The online platforms ‘Know your Place Worcester’ and ‘Life Stories Herefordshire and Worcestershire’, both of which have been developed to stimulate and collect memories.
You do not require any previous experience to join this course, but places are limited, and we would expect people to commit to the session and be prepared to join in. The course would particularly suit people who want to develop their professional practice, learn new skills or share their existing experience in this field.
The course will be held online via zoom and we would expect participants to have cameras on and engage in the practical sessions.
The course will run from 0930 to 1245, with a break in the middle.
Coffee and Chatter
Grab your morning cuppa…
WMMD is pleased to announce that Museums Worcestershire is delivering Revealing Hidden Histories in 2023/24. Join WMMD and Museums Worcestershire to learn more about the programme and how it can help you explore your collection and engage with audiences.
It’s also the perfect opportunity to share what’s happening at your museum, exchange ideas with colleagues across the region and hear about the latest sector guidance and news.
10.30am-11.30am
Zoom details:
https://zoom.us/j/99254865285?pwd=R2xiUlUzOFdWMGJFQXpyL0E4cHpNQT09
Meeting ID: 992 5486 5285
Password: 579046
Coffee and Chatter will be auto-captioned.
Co-curation and Decolonisation: Mythbusting
This training session is delivered by Isilda Almeida and Maurice Davies. The training will provide you with an overview of the principles of co-curation and tackles the topic of decolonisation within a museum context. Isilda and Maurice will also discuss how you can begin to consider creating an EDI Action Plan.
Guest speakers Nicola Bird, Community Engagement officer for Oxford University Museums Partnership and Rawz., artist, youth worker, teacher, will discuss co-curation with underserved communities.
Between them, Isilda and Maurice bring knowledge, professional and lived-experience, current approaches to Equity and Inclusion, contextualised by historical and political events that have shaped how museums got to where they are.
This event is being delivered in partnership by WMMD and South East Museum Development (SEMD). It is the second in a series of three events linked to the WMMD Inclusive Museums programme. Other events in the series are Museums and the Legacy of Imperialism and Involving Volunteers in your EDI Journey.
Trigger warning
Content and activities in this session may be triggering. We ask that if you feel the need to stop and take a break, please do. If you need to reach out, please private message one of the facilitators and they will see you in a breakout room or start a separate call.
Isilda and Maurice will deliver the session via Zoom using a range of exercises and interactive features, including Breakout Rooms. Participants are encouraged to ask questions and actively participate in discussion. Some activities will also involve the use of Padlet. If you have any concerns about accessibility or usability for these features please contact wmmd@ironbridge.org.uk
Maximum two delegates per organisation. Priority will be given to delegates from non-NPO and non-National museums in the West Midlands which are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation.
This event will be auto-captioned through Zoom. If you would benefit from any other form of access support, including live captioning, please answer ‘yes’ to the access requirements question on the booking form and email the WMMD team as early as possible stating the support you require.
All participants will receive an email containing a Zoom link to the training prior to the event. The email will be sent to the email address used for booking. If you have not received an email the day before the event please contact us.
If you can’t see the booking button this event is fully booked, please email wmmd@ironbridge.co.uk to join the waiting list.
Isilda Almeida and Maurice Davies deliver tailored approaches to increasing inclusive and equitable practice in the cultural sector, including training, advice, strategic planning, service review and community engagement.
Isilda Almeida, works as an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Consultant in the culture sector and brings with her over 20 years’ experience of the UK heritage sector. Isilda will be supported by Maurice Davies, who brings nearly 40 years’ experience in UK museums and galleries as a policymaker, leader and curator. He has championed equity and inclusion since the 1990s when he was editor of Museums Journal. He has advised organisations such as the Greater London Authority, the National Museum Directors Council and the National Trust on aspects of heritage and race. Most recently he has helped Museum Detox with an organisational review and, with Isilda, delivered training on museums, equity and inclusion.
Co-curation and Decolonisation: Mythbusting
Thursday 23 February, 10am-12.30pm
Online
Coffee and Chatter
Grab your morning cuppa, hear from WMMD team and our guest speaker Julie Brown.
Julie, Collections Curator will speak about The New Art Gallery Walsall’s Here&Queer project.
Here&Queer has been co-produced with members of the LGBTQ+ community. Community members have had the opportunity to take ownership of the Collections and the stories they tell, re-interpreting works from a queer perspective, and increasing the visibility of queer lives. The steering group explored both the Garman Ryan Collection permanent displays, and also delved into the Collections Store and found works they connected with in the Permanent Collection.
Here&Queer will be on display in The New Art Gallery Walsall until 28 May 2023.
Coffee and Chatter is also the perfect opportunity to share what’s happening at your museum, exchange ideas with colleagues across the region and hear about the latest sector guidance and news.
10.30am-11.30am
Zoom details:
https://zoom.us/j/99254865285?pwd=R2xiUlUzOFdWMGJFQXpyL0E4cHpNQT09
Meeting ID: 992 5486 5285
Password: 579046
Coffee and Chatter will be auto-captioned.
Coming up…
- Thursday 2 February – Art UK will join us to discuss copyright
- Thursday 16 March – Learn more about the Revealing Hidden Histories programme for 2023/24
Museums and the Legacy of Imperialism
Join Isilda Almeida and Maurice Davies for a short online event exploring the legacy of imperialism in museums.
Focussing on collections displays, participants will:
- Learn how 19th and early 20th-century museums are rooted in colonialism and imperialism
- Understand how museums changed the histories they present in the late 20th and early 21st centuries
- Become familiar with the recent pressures on museums to decolonise and examples of good practice in UK museums
Participants will also be invited to develop ideas to bring in a wider range of people to present a wider range of histories in their museum.
Isilda and Maurice will deliver the session via Zoom using a range of exercises and interactive features, including Breakout Rooms. Participants are encouraged to ask questions and actively participate in discussion. Some activities will also involve the use of Padlet. If you have any concerns about accessibility or usability for these features please contact michelle.davies@ironbridge.org.uk
Between them, Isilda and Maurice bring knowledge, professional and lived-experience, current approaches to Equity and Inclusion, contextualised by historical and political events that have shaped how museums got to where they are.
This event is being delivered in partnership by WMMD and South East Museum Development (SEMD). It is the first in a series of three events linked to the WMMD Inclusive Museums programme. Future events scheduled for early 2023 are Involving Volunteers in your EDI Journey, and Co-curation with Communities. Events will promoted via the WMMD newsletter and website and bookings will be first come first served for each event.
Maximum two delegates per organisation. Priority will be given to delegates from non-NPO and non-National museums in the West Midlands which are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation.
The presentation for this event will be auto-captioned via Zoom. If you would benefit from live captioning or any other form of access support, please answer ‘yes’ to the access requirements question on the booking form and email the WMMD team as early as possible stating the support you require.
All participants will receive an email containing a Zoom link to the training prior to the event. The email will be sent to the email address used for booking. If you have not received an email the day before the event please contact us.
If you can’t see the booking button this event is fully booked, please email wmmd@ironbridge.co.uk to join the waiting list.
Isilda Almeida and Maurice Davies deliver tailored approaches to increasing inclusive and equitable practice in the cultural sector, including training, advice, strategic planning, service review and community engagement.
Isilda Almeida, works as an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Consultant in the culture sector and brings with her over 20 years’ experience of the UK heritage sector. Isilda will be supported by Maurice Davies, who brings nearly 40 years’ experience in UK museums and galleries as a policymaker, leader and curator. He has championed equity and inclusion since the 1990s when he was editor of Museums Journal. He has advised organisations such as the Greater London Authority, the National Museum Directors Council and the National Trust on aspects of heritage and race. Most recently he has helped Museum Detox with an organisational review and, with Isilda, delivered training on museums, equity and inclusion.
Museums and the Legacy of Imperialism
Tuesday 6 December, 10am-12.30pm
Online
