Understanding and developing audiences

Audience development is an important part of planning process for heritage interpretation projects.  To appeal to the right audiences, we need to understand who they are and focus on how to communicate with them to provide an attractive visitor offer.

Do you know your key audiences and how to engage them in conversation?  Do you listen and reflect on what they say to make sure you help your audiences engage with your site / project and give them enjoyable and meaningful experiences?

Our workshop aims to help you determine who your audiences are and assist you in developing your plan for a successful audience engagement. We will use the newly developed galleries at St Fagans National History Museum as our case study and will explore the strategies and resources the National Museum of Wales staff employed to attract and develop new audiences.

Who is it for?

The workshop is intended for anyone working in the field of heritage interpretation, museums, heritage sites and organisations etc. anyone who wants to learn more about planning for and evaluating the success of audience development.

The day will include presentations and activities, and there will be an opportunity for the delegates to tour around the exciting newly developed galleries at St Fagans and discussing the developments with St Fagans Interpretation officers.

The day will provide inspiration and ideas that you can put into practice at your sites right away. There will be opportunities to discuss issues around audience development with other delegates and with the trainer.

Ruth Taylor Davies, who will lead this event, specialises in interpretative planning and content development. She has also lectured at undergraduate and post graduate levels in interpretation and heritage tourism; and was the secretariat for Dehongli Cymru - Interpret Wales for over 10 years.

Venue

St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff, CF5 6XB