Programme

Join Cèlia Domínguez, Network Producer from the Watershed team to take a free one hour tour of Watershed's unique Pervasive Media Studio, hear about their global collaborations and get your hands on some of the projects that have been made. Tours last for one hour and will run at 3pm, 4pm and 5pm for up to 10 people on each tour. Booking is required and is only available to conference ticket holders after you have purchased . Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Tea and coffee will be available and the Networking Space will be open where you can meet and talk to our sponsors and invited sector support organisations.

Unlocking digital value: A transformation journey

We have brought together a range of dynamic organisations, all offering different digital services, products, that are designed and tailored to the needs of the cultural sector. Come and meet their teams and chat over coffee, tea and snacks.

Organisations to meet: ArtUK, AMA, Accessible by Design, Bloomberg, Digital Culture Network, Flying Geese, Helen Dunnett Consultancy, HdK, Manifesto, Museum Data Service, The Audience Agency, The Space and Vernon Systems

Unpacking the experiments carried out by cultural organisations who took part in the 2024 Let's Get Real programme. Hear directly from The Box, Shakespeare's Globe, National Trust and Bradford Museums.

Plus a deep dive into the strategic insights for the sector.

In this talk Professor Angela Chan, explores the opportunities of using emerging technologies for creating value, connecting communities and transformation.  Her practical research within StoryFutures (an immersive cluster within the Creative Industries Cluster programme) advocates for an approach that embraces end-to-end inclusion within the project lifecycle, focusing on building marginalised audiences into every aspect of project from ideation, design and realisation. She explores how digital innovations can be used to build cognitive proximity by embedding underrepresented people into the creative process to understand where tech presents and removes barriers to participation.

Angela will explore the development of major digital public projects delivered by StoryFutures with industry partners and cultural institutions, including the Keeper of the Paintings for the National Gallery, and StoryTrails for Unboxed 2022 – a multi award-winning mixed reality project in partnership with the BFI and others, that set out to create public value by placing underrepresented communities at the heart of the storytelling. StoryTrails toured 15 cities and towns bringing immersive storytelling to audiences through their local libraries and beyond. The stories were produced by local creatives and told through a series of augmented reality trails, virtual reality experiences and locally generated immersive cinema experiences built from BFI archive, and 8000 LiDAR scans, audio stories and 3D animations. 

These projects set out to create a playbook for inclusive, accessible, immersive,
place based experiences considering every aspect from the editorial content to accessible recruitment practice, co-creation workshops, user testing, legacy and, of course, the events themselves.  But the path to engagement is not always straightforward. Angela’s research revealed a novel set of concerns amongst marginalised audiences about surveillance and data capture when participating in digital culture, and the session looks ahead to the risks and benefits of incorporating AI in public engagement. 

The Crit Room - this practical, troubleshooting session is back again this year with industry experts offering top tips and advice.

Delegates can submit their ‘project’ in advance for inclusion in the session, where they will receive honest, strategic and practical problem-solving guidance delivered in a friendly and supportive environment. The focus is on constructive advice about what is working well and what can be improved, all through the lens of value. Alongside our panel, we'll be inviting input from the audience too, where there's always rich and varied expertise.

Tea and coffee will be provided inside our Networking Space

Let's Get Real: Exploring the value of AI.

This panel will explore how to begin to get your own house in order when it comes to AI and how to introduce AI into your organisational thinking is a way that's purposeful and ethical.

If you don't have to leave town at 5pm then let’s meet in the Watershed Bar for a drink and a chat. It's only a 5 minute walk from M Shed and they will kindly be setting aside some tables for us to congregate.