Digital Works Podcast

We sit down with MCC Theater's Artistic Director, Will Cantler, and Digital Marketing Manager, Molly Barson, to delve into their recent digital production of Alan Bowne’s Beirut starring Marisa Tomei and Oscar Isaac https://mcctheater.org/tix/beirut-benefit-play-reading/. 

They speak openly about what they learned working in this way for the first time, what worked (and what didn't) and the surprises they encountered along the way. We discuss how to conduct rehearsals in quarantine, the benefits of live chat, the proportion of new audience members this reached, how to price this type of work, and loads more.

A conversation with cultural fundraising consultant and director of Apollo Fundraising, David Burgess. We talk about the state of digital fundraising in the sector, inter-departmental collaboration, the importance of human connection, behavioural psychology and much more.

In this special 'live' recording of the podcast (a Zoom webinar with an audience of around 100 folks from around the world joining us) Ash discusses the sector's recent pivot to digital with One Further's Chris Unitt (https://onefurther.com/about).

This conversation came about following Chris's recent blog post https://www.chrisunitt.co.uk/2020/04/questions-about-the-cultural-sectors-pivot-to-digital/ which poses a number of questions around the how, what, why (and more) of the sudden surge in digital activity brought on by the Coronavirus crisis.

In our chat, Chris references David Sabel's talk at our Digital Works #10 event back in April 2020 (you can watch/listen to that here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5yJt64rJpk&list=PLIvMezMER7izAGsQIheZWi4tOa24NcSVT).

A conversation with Louise Cohen, Head of Digital Content & Channels at the Royal Academy of Arts. We talk about the importance of strategy, how to embed strategies across an institution. Louise's background as a journalist, storytelling, the expansion of the RA's digital capacity, the content projects she's proudest of and more.

Louise's work on content strategy at the RA won a GLAMi Award in 2017 https://www.museweb.net/winners-of-2017-glami-awards-announced/.

A conversation with the Victoria & Albert Museum's Head of Digital, Kati Price.

We talk about the elements of digital success, Kati's work researching how digital teams are structured at cultural institutions, digital storytelling, Kati's career to date and much more.

You can find more information about Kati and Dafydd's research on the Museums & the Web site https://mw18.mwconf.org/paper/structuring-for-digital-success-a-global-survey-of-how-museums-and-other-cultural-organisations-resource-fund-and-structure-their-digital-teams-and-activity/

This episode focuses on accessibility and inclusive design as we sit down for a chat with Robin Christopherson MBE, Head of Digital Inclusion at AbilityNet (https://abilitynet.org.uk/). Robin is a really inspiring interviewee and has lots of insightful things to say about the impact of accessible products and services.

Robin mentioned a number of initiatives during our conversation including; the Tech4Good Awards, https://www.tech4goodawards.com/.

We were slightly beset by technical gremlins and Ash having to self-isolate after returning from a trip to Italy but we've battled on. This does mean the audio quality isn't quite as crystal clear as it usually is but hopefully that doesn't cause any issues.

We sit down for a chat with Head of Digital at the Audience Agency, Katie Moffat to talk about her career, her thoughts about the usefulness of a digital strategy, bridging the digital skills gap, what defines a digital mindset and more.

Cas and Ash also discuss the recently announced Digital Culture Compass (https://digitalculturecompass.org.uk/), Nesta's Digital Culture Survey (https://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/digital-culture-2019/) and how artistic practice seems to remain mostly untouched by digital.

In this first episode we grapple with trying to be concise, talk about recent Ofcom research around how young people are engaging with the internet, Ash speaks with Mike Harris (former Tech Lead at the Royal Academy of Arts) as he reflects on his 2 years in the sector, Andy looks back on how digital has changed over the past 14 years and we talk about the importance of mobile experiences.