Programme

Supporting and growing a volunteer community

Amberley Museum, Katrina Burton, Museum Director and Alex Bogard, Volunteer Manager  

Amberley Museum is continuing to grow their dedicated and award-winning community of over 400 active volunteers. This session will include practical examples of;  

• Low-cost ways to recognise, reward, and retain volunteers  
• Ways to support volunteers with training and wellbeing opportunities  

• Different approaches to engaging and involving volunteers in decision-making   

• The benefits and the challenges of developing new volunteering partnerships, particularly around corporate and supported volunteering programmes.  

Disability in the heritage sector - can a museum become seamlessly inclusive?

National Paralympic Heritage Trust, Dr Samuel Goldstone-Brady, Collections Engagement Officer and Emily Toettcher, Head of Programmes  

In 2023, the National Paralympic Heritage Trust began a five-year strategy to ‘Become Seamlessly Inclusive’. This challenged the team to rethink and redefine their approach to disability at all levels of the organisation. Work has included inclusive approaches to recruitment, the creation of traineeship and work placement opportunities, and the development and maintenance of meaningful partnerships with disability-focused organisations. Samuel and Emily will share their current (but in no way complete) learning, insights and practical tips developed from their strategy and advocate for more inclusive thinking for disabled and neurodiverse people. 

Look after the team and the museum will look after itself

Brooklands Museum, Alex Patterson, CEO, Peter Wakefield, Loving Monday, Founder and Director, and Tamalie Newbery, A Different View, Senior Consultant 

Planned investment in people and culture is the missing link in building resilient, adaptable museums. The past and current CEOs of Brooklands Museum will reflect on the deliberate steps they’ve taken to change attitudes and behaviours and the transformational difference it has made. They will share what worked and what didn’t, and ideas that could be tried in organisations of any size. Loving Monday’s founder, Peter Wakefield, has worked with Brooklands since 2019: drawing on his international and cross-industry work, he will share his experience of developing organisations by developing people and teams, and how that is playing out at Brooklands.

Act Green - museum visitors and the climate emergency

Compton Verney, Louise Sinclair, Head of Marketing and Admissions, Kerry Radden, Associate Director at Indigo, and Ellie Oates, Audience Insight Executive at Indigo 

Indigo’s Act Green survey is a UK-wide audience research project designed to understand the attitudes of cultural visitors and audiences to the climate emergency. This session provides an exclusive first look at Act Green 2024’s responses from museum visitors, comparing these to the wider dataset of cultural audiences.

The team from Compton Verney, who took part in Act Green 2024, will share reflections and explain how the findings influence their sustainability projects, including top things visitors expect museums to be doing when it comes to tackling the climate emergency, and how to engage with visitors through sustainability focused communications.  

Beyond the display - environmental action in museums

Oxford GLAM, Jon Ray, GLAM Environmental Sustainability Manager and Chloe Caspers, Buying & Visual Merchandising Manager   

Oxford University’s gardens, libraries, and museums (GLAM) house over 21 million items, making them one of the world’s largest university collections. They serve as a vital resource for research and public engagement and are committed to achieving net zero carbon and biodiversity net gain by 2035. Jon and Chloe will share their sustainability efforts and practical actions and highlight initiatives, including case studies on purchasing and retail, including the development of an in-house product grading system that evaluates environmental impact and supports more informed, sustainable purchasing decisions.  

Seeds for Action live! Connecting a carbon literate climate community

Museum Development England, Alison Criddle, Museum Development Advisor: Environmental Responsibility, Museum Development North, and Catherine Mailhac, Consultant 

This session will see Museum Development England’s Seeds for Action go live in person for the first time! Hear from museum peers about the positive impacts of Carbon Literacy training, and how they’re embedding carbon reduction and climate actions across their work. Together, we’ll explore pathways to support bridging the value > action gap of climate awareness and practical implementation. Consider this your opportunity within the happy whirlwind of conference to take time to connect with one another, celebrate positive steps made, and explore challenges and ambitions for the future.