Masterclass 5: Relevant Forever: Business models and (digital) tools for sustainability

Workshop
Theodorus Meereboer, The Netherlands

How to engage your audience and stakeholders with innovative value creation by developing new propositions, products and processes. Participants will be more effective in involving their visitors and stakeholders for the social and societal innovation, in which their museum could take the lead, by building sustainable business models around these developments.

E30 Foundation created this workshop based on best practices and research

Introduction
Digitization, (online) globalisation and new media have offered many opportunities and challenges. It changed the way we connect, interact, participate and co-create and it caused or at least boosted social innovation. Now there is a growing need for ways to rethink both the museum as a cultural and social institution and the accompanying revenue models. We think of the museum as incubator, as the ethical mind in a broad discourse on meaning, purpose and information overload.
By doing so, we will be able to build sustainable museums, personal and truely social museums. Museums that will not only safeguard our heritage, but make this heritage relevant on the long term for the community in which the museum co-exists. Aside from the museum itself, the museum of the near future will have a great influence on societal change, urban planning, cohesion in diversity, and ways to solve problems of inequality and the need for literacy. Therefor the identity, positioning and marketing of our museums need to go hand in hand with our efforts for stunning exhibits, authentic interpretation, enthusiastic crowd-sourcing, empathic outreach, inclusion, engagement…
Sometimes the challenges of change are overwhelming. Trusting a possible business model isn’t always easy. Is your museum ready to abandon outmoded thinking and start the proces of new value creation together with your visitors, stakeholders and partners?

Your invited to share your insights, inspiration and experience, ask really difficult questions about strategy and revenue models, communicating heritage and community mnanagement and work with us on the innovative business model for your museum.

For whom is the workshop?
Museum directors, curators, marketing-communication managers, fundraisers, heads of digital department… everyone who can and should be involved. Discussing en innovating the purpose and mission of your museum and the business model that will support the efforts will involve anyone who has to deal with your audience, your stakeholders, your finance, your museum strategy.

Goal of the workshop
The participants will be more effective in engaging their audiences for the social and civil innovation wherein the museum can take the lead. Participants will learn why is it important to build long term relationships for the purpose of the community. Once they’ve experienced in the workshop how to use, analyse, innovate and implement business model tools, they will be able to define a sustainable business model for their efforts, know why friendraising can lead to future fundraising and how a social media strategy can help to achieve the targets you dream of. In addition, they will learn how to use hands-on tools that will help them to generate new business models.

Workshop attendees will

  • Comprehend why business model innovation is changing organizations and communities
  • Understand the difference between innovative participation, product development & business innovation
  • Know how to use the BMICE toolbox, including the Pitch Tool and the Fit & Viability Check
  • Be inspired by surprising and evocative examples
  • Adopt an innovative mindset
  • Gather insights and skills for their own actual cases

Get inspired by examples and walk away with the innovative mindsets that will enhance your performance.

The workshop in short (half-day) (± 3 hours)

  • introduction (30 minutes)
    • examples of crowdsourcing, participation, social inclusion and other innovative ways of making our heritage relevant by engaging audienced and the business models accompanying these efforts.
    • what is a business model and what is it good for? The business model canvas and the translation for the heritage sector
    • why we need to think about making heritage relevant and how it will effect our community: the Social Engagement Tool
    • Choosing 5 cases in 5 minutes
  • your case (20 minutes)
    • describe an issue your museum is facing when engaging both audiences and stakeholders and the way finance and funding (or the lack of money) is involved; in less than 5 minutes
    • working on one of the 5 cases in small groups.

SHORT BREAK (10 minutes)

  • plenary session with the outcomes of the cases with brief feedback on the general issues (30 minutes)
  • the business model canvas in a nutshell (20 minutes)
    • how to use the canvas
    • how to innovate your business model
    • tricks and handson tools to evaluate and enhance your business model
    • setting course
  • the Social Engegament Tool (SET) (20 minutes)
    • New insights on ideation, concepting and participation
    • explaining the SET board and the steps in working  with this tool
  • From friendraising to funding (20 minutes)
  • Closing session: more inspiration and museums as incubator (20 minutes)

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