ASVA Event

******ONLINE BOOKINGS FOR THIS EVENT ARE NOW CLOSED. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ATTENDING, PLEASE CONTACT HELEN HENDERSON ON helen@asva.co.uk *******

Pop Up, experiential, dynamic, interactive. People want experiences! What does it all mean beyond the buzz words?

People are at the heart of every great visitor experience. The greatest deciding factor of converting a four-star review to a five-star review on Trip Advisor is the use of a staff members name. Human connections create positive experiences.   So often, this is underestimated, or the routine of a job can create barriers to best practice.

This one-day, practical workshop is designed to boost a delegate’s ability to shape an experience and take ownership over the visitor journey. Delegates learn to artfully deliver the mission and vision of where they work in a way that makes their individuality shine. The results of getting this right are increased satisfaction scores both internally and externally and improved commerciality. Enabling your team to delight your visitors by putting value in service.

High standards are a non- negotiable in Scottish tourism. Send your teams on Complete Experience to improve their proactivity and empower them to go the extra mile for your visitors.

Content includes:

• The value of enjoying your work, and being proud of what you deliver
• Mission and Vision on the front line
• Who are our visitors?
• Moods Expectations and Wants of our visitors
• Guest Journey mapping and Moments of Truth (as they relate to experience)
• The importance of Attention to Detail
• Why service matters
• Call to action – make memories

This course will be delivered by the team from Complete Works. Using techniques that are trained through these courses, the team at Complete Works has made a significant difference helping attractions across the country exceed challenging income targets. Projects they have led at attractions such as the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh and the National Gallery have seen increases in visitor spend by multiple hundreds of percent. Through this training, you and your team members can learn to implement the techniques that will similarly wow your visitors and impact positively on your bottom line.

 

Please note, cancellation of a booking (by emailing info@asva.co.uk ) must be received at least 7 days prior to the event to be eligible for a refund. Bookings cancelled less than 7 days before the event, and non-attendance, will be non-refundable.

Delivered in partnership with Complete Works, the next in our exclusive ASVA members Industry Insights webinar series will explore how to maximise the opportunities presented by seasonal events. Events can be great fun; they are marketing gold and a chance to motivate your teams with something different, engage a new audience or tell a new story. But, before printing out another colouring-in sheet – take a moment to check if your plans are going to hit the targets you’ve set, make you a return on the time and effort you expend and be the best fit for the kind of experience you are passionate about delivering.

So often, we do an event to attract a new audience, and we deliver that, however it can get in the way of maximising secondary spend, especially memberships and donations – which sounds counterintuitive – until you delve a bit deeper. Getting the right ask, in the right place in the visitor journey for the new audience is key, as is understanding the long game in terms of success.  We can’t change the experience and do the same thing we have always done.

Join us for this event and get some tips on event creation before the Easter season. It will also offer the opportunity to network with other members to see what is happening elsewhere in the industry. Be inspired to go bigger and create something with real impact for your guests that delivers on your goals!

Key learnings from the event will be :

• How to add value to your guest experience seasonally, to drive repeat visits and audience advocacy
• How to make sure you are creating something that is uniquely you
• How to evaluate success and learn from it to improve

Complete Works has been driving revenue at visitor attractions through secondary spend (donations, memberships, F&B and retail) and ticket sales for more than 10 years. They  also run theatrical seasonal events in large corporate settings and visitor attractions.  This is a quick deep dive into their experience and how they get the results that matter.

Jump into 2024 with a solid plan for the seasons, and use these events to grow your audience, and drive revenue – so Santa can put you on his nice list.

About Complete Works: The Complete Works team; Bala McAlinn, George McLean and Alyce Paton, are actors and attraction managers – running amazing seasonal experiences across the UK whilst delivering formidable return on investment on commercial projects. Hot off the heels of Christmas, they may still be in elf and Santa costumes…

• At their largest experience client this Christmas they delivered 18 5-star reviews out of 19 Trip Advisor reviews with 16 staff across 19 days
• Across 6 of their Christmas 2023 clients, the average ticket price increased 239% during the event run
• They achieved a year 1 financial ROI of 403% over the Christmas period at the Natural History Museum

This ASVA  Industry Insights webinar will be taking place on Thursday 22nd February at 10.30am. Joining ASVA for this event will be Jack Ogston and Amy Gibson from digital agency Creatomatic for an in-depth look at Google Analytics 4. They will share insights into how to get to grips with some really useful features that can help assess, inform and guide your digital marketing activity. During the session, they’ll be looking at: Configuring events Conversion and Purchase tracking Tracking campaigns with custom URLs Creating custom reports and collections Important metrics to consider The session will be led by Jack, Creatomatic’s Digital Marketing Team Lead. As well as an Honours degree in Business Management with Marketing and a background in social and marketing, Jack has worked with Creatomatic clients since 2018 to help develop their digital performance. His work involves everything from SEO, Analytics and data interpretation to social and marketing strategy. As Creatomatic’s resident GA4 specialist, he’s also Google Skillshop Analytics certified. Following Jack’s presentation, Amy will then share suggestions, ideas and insights into how this information can be used to boost sales, guide strategy and inspire your online content, all enabling members to utilise data gathered to boost business. Amy is Creatomatic’s Business Development manager and has over 18 years experience in sales, marketing and business management. Following the presentations there will be the opportunity for a Q&A session. To make sure the session is as useful for members as possible, the Creatomatic team are keen to hear in advance from anyone that may have a GA4 related question. This will enable them to answer as many questions as possible and to also know what it would really help members to hear about. Anyone with a specific GA4 question should send it in to marketing@creatomatic.co.uk before 16/02/2024 and the team will do their best to include this in their webinar. About Creatomatic: Creatomatic are specialist digital partners for a growing number of clients in the tourism and hospitality industry and understand the importance of traffic, bookings and footfall. Making the most of your digital marketing activities has never been more important and the Creatomatic team are here to help members learn more about GA4, collect valuable data and maximise those marketing budgets.

 

In conjunction with VisitScotland, on Thursday 14th March we will be running one of our popular Be a QA for a Day workshops. This event gives those participating the opportunity to visit and grade another attraction as if they were a VisitScotland Quality and Tourism Advisor. Delegates will get a thorough understanding of how the QA scheme operates, what the advisors are looking for, and inspiration for positive changes that can be made to enhance the visitor experience at their own attraction.

The ability to conduct a ‘mystery visit’ is crucial to the course, so we don’t reveal the venue in advance. However, this course will take place at a venue in Central Scotland.

This event is a one-day workshop, giving those participating a thorough understanding of how the VisitScotland Quality Assurance scheme operates, what the advisors are looking for, and inspiration for positive changes that can be made to enhance the visitor experience at their own attraction.

Course aim
The day is led by an experienced VisitScotland Quality and Tourism Advisor, who will begin by giving an explanation of the grading process, including an overview of the grading visit and the scoring structure. This is a practical course which includes a mock grading visit to an actual visitor attraction. Following the visit, the group will then meet again to review the process and for further discussion.

The aim is to ensure that delegates attending will gain a greater understanding of the VisitScotland Quality Assurance scheme and be able to identify how they can improve the visitor experience at their own attraction. The course teaches attention to detail, the art of benchmarking, and gives insight into the inner workings of the QA scheme.

Taking part also provides excellent networking opportunities with industry colleagues. For further details on the course content please click here.

Delegate Info
To ensure the optimum experience for those taking part, numbers on these courses are limited to 12 delegates, with members being able to book 2 places per organisation. The cost is £120 per delegate (inclusive of vat). This event is exclusively for ASVA members.

Should you have any questions, please contact Helen Henderson, ASVA Membership Manager on helen@asva.co.uk

We’re delighted to once again be able to offer our acclaimed Exceeding Visitor Expectations training course, which is designed specifically for frontline staff at visitor attractions.

This result-driven, highly relevant one-day course has a proven record of success – many of Scotland’s leading attractions have already taken advantage of it to boost their business performance and competitive edge by enhancing the quality of their visitor offering.

Exceeding Visitor Expectations has been created and crafted to equip customer-facing staff with the specialist skills and insights they need to deliver the very highest standards of service – ensuring every visitor enjoys a truly outstanding experience. Developed in conjunction with VisitScotland, the content is aligned with its Visitor Attraction Quality Scheme, to enable participants to support their attraction in meeting and surpassing the standards of 5-star service, hospitality and friendliness that are measured during a quality assurance assessment. Key areas covered can be seen below, and more information can be found here:

• Identify what your attraction and the area where you work has to offer;
• Understand who your visitors are and what the need and expect;
• Meet, manage and, whenever possible, exceed visitor expectations;
• Welcome visitors from all sections of the community and provide an accessible service;
• Communicate successfully with visitors;
• Use product/ destination knowledge to provide information and advice in an inspiring way;
• Deal effectively with challenging situations;
• Act as an ambassador for your attraction and local area.

Renowned skills development expert Catherine Bowie of Communicate Consultants will lead the training. Catherine is highly experienced in coaching sector team members and providing tailored guidance to enable them to fulfil the potential of their roles, enhancing visitor engagement and satisfaction. This empowers staff, honing their communications skills and building their confidence to help them handle any situation and act as a great ambassador for your attraction.

Please note: Cancellation of a booking (by emailing info@asva.co.uk ) must be received at least 7 days prior to the event to be eligible for a refund. Bookings cancelled less than 7 days before the event, and non-attendance, will be non-refundable.

 

 

Join us at 10.30am on Tuesday 16^th January for the first ASVA Industry Insights webinar of the New Year! Kicking off 2024 in style, we will be joined by the gutsy creative agency – StudioLR, where they’ll be exploring the world of branding and campaigns.

In this webinar ‘Build a Brand Visitors Keep Coming Back For’, they’ll cover everything you need to know, including:

• What brands are and why they matter;
• The fundamentals of brand strategy;
• How to go about developing your business;
• And crucially, how to use creativity to attract new visitors.

You’ll leave the session armed with some quick tips and long-term thinking that will be applicable no matter your business or its size.

Who the LR they?
The talk will be led by Dave King, Head of Creative and Strategy at StudioLR. A big show-off (colleagues’ words!) who loves helping brands stand out, Dave is a regular conference speaker on brave creative work. He created D&AD’s Bravery Masterclass and delivers it worldwide to some of the world’s best agencies and in-house teams. A creative thinker with over a decade’s experience creating insightful workshops, stand-out strategy, and cut-through creative, Dave is a serial award-winner since including multiple Golds and Rising Creative Star at the Marketing Society, a global D&AD for Writing for Brands, and the Grand Prix at The Nods (twice).

StudioLR is the award winning gutsy creative agency. They’ve been grabbing organisations’ insides and making them interesting since 2004. From brand strategy through to creative campaigns, they work with ambitious marketeers and leaders to build standout brands and campaigns. Clients include Historic Environment Scotland, National Museum of Flight, The D-Day Story, OnFife and St James Quarter.

We’re delighted to once again be able to offer our acclaimed Exceeding Visitor Expectations training course, which is designed specifically for frontline staff at visitor attractions.

This result-driven, highly relevant one-day course has a proven record of success – many of Scotland’s leading attractions have already taken advantage of it to boost their business performance and competitive edge by enhancing the quality of their visitor offering.

Exceeding Visitor Expectations has been created and crafted to equip customer-facing staff with the specialist skills and insights they need to deliver the very highest standards of service – ensuring every visitor enjoys a truly outstanding experience. Developed in conjunction with VisitScotland, the content is aligned with its Visitor Attraction Quality Scheme, to enable participants to support their attraction in meeting and surpassing the standards of 5-star service, hospitality and friendliness that are measured during a quality assurance assessment. Key areas covered can be seen below, and more information can be found here:

• Identify what your attraction and the area where you work has to offer;
• Understand who your visitors are and what the need and expect;
• Meet, manage and, whenever possible, exceed visitor expectations;
• Welcome visitors from all sections of the community and provide an accessible service;
• Communicate successfully with visitors;
• Use product/ destination knowledge to provide information and advice in an inspiring way;
• Deal effectively with challenging situations;
• Act as an ambassador for your attraction and local area.

Renowned skills development expert Catherine Bowie of Communicate Consultants will lead the training. Catherine is highly experienced in coaching sector team members and providing tailored guidance to enable them to fulfil the potential of their roles, enhancing visitor engagement and satisfaction. This empowers staff, honing their communications skills and building their confidence to help them handle any situation and act as a great ambassador for your attraction.

Please note: Cancellation of a booking (by emailing info@asva.co.uk ) must be received at least 7 days prior to the event to be eligible for a refund. Bookings cancelled less than 7 days before the event, and non-attendance, will be non-refundable.

 

 

We’re pleased to confirm that our first in-person event of the new year will be one of our ever popular Be a QA for a Day workshops, taking place on Wednesday, 7th February (please note this date has been rescheduled from the event originally planned for 24th January).

The ability to conduct a ‘mystery visit’ is crucial to the course, so we don’t reveal the venue in advance. However, this course will take place at an attraction in the Dundee & Angus area.

This event is a one-day workshop, giving those participating a thorough understanding of how the VisitScotland Quality Assurance scheme operates, what the advisors are looking for, and inspiration for positive changes that can be made to enhance the visitor experience at their own attraction.

Course aim
The day is led by an experienced VisitScotland Quality and Tourism Advisor, who will begin by giving an explanation of the grading process, including an overview of the grading visit and the scoring structure. This is a practical course which includes a mock grading visit to an actual visitor attraction. Following the visit, the group will then meet again to review the process and for further discussion.

The aim is to ensure that delegates attending will gain a greater understanding of the VisitScotland Quality Assurance scheme and be able to identify how they can improve the visitor experience at their own attraction. The course teaches attention to detail, the art of benchmarking, and gives insight into the inner workings of the QA scheme.

Taking part also provides excellent networking opportunities with industry colleagues. For further details on the course content please click here.

Delegate Info
To ensure the optimum experience for those taking part, numbers on these courses are limited to 12 delegates, with members being able to book 2 places per organisation. The cost is £120 per delegate (inclusive of vat).

Should you have any questions, please contact Helen Henderson, ASVA Membership Manager on helen@asva.co.uk

The one-day Train The Trainer course is designed to equip delegates to deliver our popular Exceeding Visitor Expectations course to staff within their own organisations. It offers a great way of enabling larger organisations to train their staff in-house, making it more cost effective and convenient. The course is aimed at people who already have experience of delivering training. Therefore, in  order to ensure that the training is effective for both those taking part and member organisations, we would anticipate those wishing to train as Exceeding Visitor Expectations trainers to:

• have attended the EVE course as a delegate first
• have experience of delivering training programmes to groups, in particular on customer service topics
• engage with learners at all levels
• possess excellent written and verbal communication skills
• use a variety of techniques to deliver course content e.g. Group discussions, one-to-ones, participation, games/activities as well as audio visual equipment
• have a working knowledge of tourism and service sector businesses
• have a professional approach to training delivery

For any delegates booked to attend, we normally ask for a copy of your CV or an indication of your training/ mentoring experience for our records.

At your training you will receive information on how to access the course materials you will need when ready to deliver in house EVE workshops. However, please note that the per person cost for EVE workshop materials for each person attending your in house courses will be £30.

More information on the content of the standard EVE courses can be seen here.

Please note that cancellation of a booking (by emailing info@asva.co.uk ) must be received at least 7 days prior to the event to be eligible for a refund. Bookings cancelled less than 7 days before the event, and non-attendance, will be non-refundable. Bookings are open to ASVA members only.

Don’t miss this forthcoming webinar where the focus will be on looking at generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the tools that are already making waves in various industries.

Being held on Tuesday 20th June at 10.30am, this event will be led by tech expert Joshua Ryan-Saha Director of Traveltech for Scotland.

You’ll learn how generative AI including ChatGPT can benefit your visitor attraction by:

✔️ supporting customer service and accessibility

✔️ providing personalised visitor recommendations

✔️ crafting marketing campaigns

✔️ new forms of visitor engagement

Learn from real-life examples and gain practical steps on how to get started with generative AI.

Register to join us for this free online event exclusively for ASVA members.

With the current cost of living crisis and the pressure on disposable income, many attractions will be keen to ensure that they are delivering value for money for their visitors. However, this has to be balanced with need to generate a profit, essential for the continued success of your organisation. In addition, with the cost of energy rising and inflation still over 10%, it’s also vitally important that we ensure all areas of the business are as effective and efficient as they can be.

One area that can potentially become neglected is your attraction’s retail space and yet it can make a significant contribution to secondary income if the products, marketing and management are of the highest order.  Pressures on budgets and resources may mean that this area is overlooked, with products not being refreshed. Clearly, this is particularly relevant if the products have a ‘sell by’ or ‘use by’ date on them.  However, this can be just as important if the products are no longer on trend and not hitting the spot as far as visitors are concerned.

Join us for our webinar on Wednesday 14th June at 10.30am where we’ll be exploring how to ‘Maximise Your Retail Offering’. This webinar will be delivered by ASVA members Merlinsoft Ltd, and aims to ensure that you’re maximising the potential, the sales and the profitability of your retail space.

Leading the event will be Owen Gleadall, founder of Merlinsoft, who has been supplying Retail Management Systems now for the best part of 50 years, working with many well-known brands including Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Nike 1948 and Zara.  He has also written the definitive guide to retailing, as used by students of the National Retail Academy in Sheffield.  A free copy of this book will be available to all attendees for just the postage and packing costs.

Key learning points will be:

• Effective Stock Control
• Perpetual Inventory
• Appropriate Pricing Policies
• Ensuring Margins are Maintained
• Gross Margin v Mark Up
• Maximising Profitability
• Keeping more of the money you take!

If you have a retail space within your attraction and want to ensure that it is delivering the best Return on Investment, then this webinar is for you! Using the collective knowledge and experience gained from many years working in a diverse range of retail businesses, visitor attractions and venues, the hints, tips and suggestions you will get from this webinar could be priceless. Take a real in depth look at your retail offering and see just how you can improve what it’s delivering.  Often, improvements can often be made by subtle changes and tweaks, with secondary income rising if you have the ‘upsells’ your visitors are looking for. The gift shop is an essential part of the visitor experience and very often a significant contributor to revenue and profit if managed effectively and efficiently. This webinar will help you do just that.

About Merlinsoft – Merlinsoft started originally back in 1981 as consultants to the retail sector and commenced as system builders and suppliers in 1983, offering PC based retail management systems to the smaller, multi-branch retailers who were looking to keep up with their larger cousins but on much reduced budgets.  This business continued in much the same form until 1995 when they were approached by a large visitor attraction who wanted to use their retail technology for their new venue but also asked if it could also ‘sell tickets’.  At the time it didn’t but over the next few months Merlinsoft added this feature to the retail system and, since that date, have continued to upgrade and enhance the offering, adding many more features and functions over the years.  The main ‘claim to fame’ of the Merlinsoft system is that it’s not a retail system, it’s not an admissions and ticketing system, it’s actually a fully integrated Attractions Management Solution.

Raise your glass and kick off the summer season with ASVA at our Members Only Summer Drinks Reception! Join us at the unique Holyrood Distillery in Edinburgh on the evening of Thursday 22^nd June for a free networking event open to all who work in ASVA member organisations. From 6pm to 9pm, you’ll have the opportunity to mingle with fellow ASVA members in a relaxed and informal setting, as we come together to share ideas, meet new people, discuss the year so far and gear up for what is shaping up to be a busy summer season.

As you sip on an array of delicious drinks supplied by our hosts, you’ll also have the chance to explore the unique Holyrood Distillery, with staff on hand throughout the venue to engage with you and introduce you to the delights of this outstanding visitor attraction. With a maximum capacity of 120 attendees, this intimate gathering ensures ample opportunities for meaningful conversations and interactions with colleagues from across our membership.

And we are delighted to have Eastern Exhibition & Display on board as the sponsor of this networking event. Offering creative and practical solutions for any and all types of display, Eastern Exhibition & Display are experts in providing innovative and functional display solutions for a wide range of projects and are known for their exceptional support in branding events of all kinds. They are committed to making their customers’ vision a reality and are renowned for their on-time delivery of top-quality products.

Shevy Kapoor, Director at Eastern Exhibition & Display said:“Eastern Exhibition & Display are delighted to sponsor the forthcoming ASVA Members Summer Season Drinks Reception at the fabulous Holyrood Distillery that Eastern celebrated its 40th anniversary with in 2019. Most of all we are looking forward to meeting fellow ASVA Members and celebrate all things good in our vibrant Scottish Visitor Attractions sector.”

So, whether you’re a seasoned ASVA member or new to the community, this event is the perfect opportunity to expand your professional network, gain insights from peers, foster meaningful relationships and, of course, have some fun as we head into summer!

The Members Only Drinks Reception is designed to energise you for the upcoming summer season, and we can’t wait to see you there! Don’t miss this free networking event exclusively for ASVA members – mark your calendars for Thursday 22^nd June and join us at the Holyrood Distillery for an invaluable evening of networking, information sharing and relationship building.

An extra big thank you to Debs Newman and the super-welcoming team at Holyrood Distillery for giving us the opportunity to host this event at their wonderful venue!

Please note bar snacks will also be provided, but we would encourage members to make their own dinner arrangements pre or post event.

The dress code is strictly informal!