Whether it’s a world-class sporting arena, art gallery, music festival or museum, how do you create an experience for the end user that will keep them coming back for more?

In this episode, we draw on experts from a variety of sectors to uncover what the key factors that go into creating a seamless visitor experience.

Ross Calladine is Head of Business Support for VisitEngland. As part of his role, Ross is VisitEngland’s in-house accessibility specialist developing initiatives that help tourism businesses and destinations tap into the high value, growing accessible tourism market. 

Ross has led the development of an innovative Accessibility Guides website, spearheaded the production of a number of guidance booklets and he also manages VisitEngland’s Accessible & Inclusive Tourism Award, which recognises leaders in the field. Ross also convenes and chairs England’s Inclusive Tourism Action Group comprising leading accessible tourism stakeholders.

Ross was appointed Disability and Access Ambassador for Tourism by the UK Government in January 2022 and regularly speaks at industry events, most recently including 1st UNWTO Conference on Accessible Tourism, World Travel Market, ITB Berlin and Destinations for All World Summit.

Anna is Co-founder and Director of Partnerships at Smartify, a global guide to art and culture. Partnering with the world’s cultural heritage organisations, Smartify empowers people to connect with the world’s creativity.

Anna is also a Trustee of Tate, the youngest ever trustee of a UK national museum. She is also Trustee of Hope in Haringey. Anna was listed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2019 and Apollo Art Magazine’s 40 Under 40 list in 2021. She sits on the UK5G Creative Industries working group and Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC).

Have you ever seen a vision for the future of your industry or noticed an alarming gap that you could create a solution for?

Or have you ever found yourself wanting to create change to best suit the needs of everyone, but felt frustrated in your attempts, or didn't even know where to start or even how to get your stakeholders to buy into it?

In this episode we speak to prominent innovators and change makers, on how best to create impactful and enduring change. First guest is internationally renowned human centered change and Innovations specialist, Matt Marsh.

Matt's early roots lie in the behavioural sciences and was a studio director for the award-winning innovation firm, IDEO, as well as innovation envoy for the UK’s Design Council. He has over twenty-five years of experience providing the creative, empathetic and progressive leadership that helps organisations change, transform and innovate successfully. Recent clients include Barclays, Lloyds, Vodafone, Microsoft, the NHS, Virgin Atlantic and Guide Dogs.

His first book, “People-Shaped, Tales and Tricks of a Human Centred Designer” details his approach to change and have assisted organisations in a range of industries.

Our second guest is Dr Nicky Longley, an inspiring leader and very people passionate. Dr Nicky Longley is a consultant physician in Tropical and Travel Medicine at HTD and Associate professor in travel medicine at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Nicky has trained in London, Uganda and South Africa and played a key part in a project creating better access to the NHS for Asylum Seekers. The project came about during Covid, we'll talk more in depth about it's start, challenges and the outcomes on the episode.

Set against the backdrop of the prolific rise of AI and the pace of technology and innovations continuing at a pace, what is the best way to get to genuinely innovative and creative solutions? In this episode we delve into how design principles, and creative storytelling as well as new technology have been used in transformation projects, both large and small.

Our first guest, Will Reddaway, Head of Innovation at East West Railway is helping drive organisational and cultural change by challenging the status quo in strategic innovation leadership and our second guest is Tim Murdoch, Co-Founder of Waymap, a former Vodafone innovator and current Business Development Lead at Cambridge Design Partnership. His career has seen him bring people-centred innovations to the masses across various industries.

In this episode we discuss innovative projects they’ve both worked on including Waymap and Vodafone’s M-PESA project. M-PESA is Africa's most successful mobile money service and the region’s largest fintech platform, providing more than 51 million customers across seven countries with a safe, secure and affordable way to send and receive money, top-up airtime, make bill payments, receive salaries, get short-term loans and much more all over SMS-text – and this is BEFORE smartphones!

Will shares learnings from working on the Crossrail project and how he’s using that as an industry baseline, with plans for East West Rail, to be the new tidemark for the industry.

We discuss what innovation really means, what it looks like, who needs to be involved, and why it doesn’t always have to be complicated. We also discuss the challenges and blockers for innovation as well as solutions and the impact some are already having.

Finally we discuss the future of their respective industries and how technology and AI for example is already affecting and can help shape the future of innovation.

A truly interesting and inspiring conversation!

Happy customers means happy business right? So, how do you make sure that the customer’s voice isn’t lost in the maelstrom of all the moving parts of your business? A common failing across multiple sectors and industries and in this episode we discuss how you can overcome it.

Joining our hosts Emily and Oli from Mima is our first guest, Derek Bishop. He's a  a world-renowned expert in culture change and employee experience, and director at Culture Consultancy. They design and align organisational cultures to elevate business performance through creating strong leadership and high-performing employees based on a sense of purpose, core values and the right behaviours.

Our second guest is Andrew Dickinson, a hugely experienced Head of Train Service delivery, having worked in the industry for nearly 20 years, currently the Service Delivery Director at KeolisAmey Docklands.  

We discuss what culture is, the impact it can have on businesses, what 'good' and 'bad' culture can look and feel like, and also discuss in depth projects including a project Andrew has led on partnering with Transport for London (TfL) and The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) to trial NaviLens, an app designed to help blind or partially sighted customers navigate stations. 

Join us as we find out how to put the customer at the heart of your business and create a step-change in performance by changing your business culture.