ASVA Events

Our next Members Meetup will be taking place on Wednesday 16 June, from 10am to 11.30am. This virtual networking event will focus on the reopening of the attractions sector since the relaxation of restrictions on 26^th April.

With much of the sector reopening again after a long period of lockdown, we will use this latest Members Meetup as an opportunity to bring the ASVA family of attractions together to share observations and insights on the challenges and successes of reopening. We know that there has been a lot of positive stories around reopening, particularly with regards to visitor and staff feedback, but we also know there have been many challenges, and indeed not all sites have been able to reopen yet. Join us at the Meetup to share your own insights and, of course, to ask any burning questions to ASVA and/or your peers.

We have a great line-up of presenters for the event as follows:

• Adam Christie – Head of Audience Insight & Visitor Experience at the National Galleries of Scotland. Adam will join us to share reopening experiences from the National Galleries, including how they have used audience feedback to help determine what was reopened and what changes needed to be made at the galleries with this latest reopening.
• Mike Benson – Director at the Scottish Crannog Centre. As well as sharing reopening challenges and successes from the Scottish Crannog Centre, Mike will also provide some additional inspiration to members regarding their hugely successful apprenticeship programme, which has been nominated for a Community Impact Award at the Museums + Heritage Award.
• Rachel Mackay – Manager at Historic Royal Palaces at Kew and Founder of The Recovery Room – Rachel has recently be nominated for Covid Special Recognition Award as part of the Museums + Heritage Awards, and we are delighted that she will be joining us at the Meetup to discuss the importance of community engagement as attractions reopen and how important this is going to be to the recovery of the sector.
• Kerry Donaghy –Respitality Scotland Coordinator at Shared Care Scotland – There has never been a more important time to support unpaid carers and ASVA has been delighted with the response from members to engagement with Respitality. Kerry will close off the event by sharing insights about the ongoing work of Respitality, the important role that attractions have played in supporting their work and how your attraction  can get involved. She will also provide an update on the ‘Respitality at Home’ virtual opportunities pilot, which a number of ASVA member attractions are involved with.

Following the short presentations there will be time for a facilitated Q&A session and for members to share their own views and experiences.

This is a networking event for all ASVA members and is free to attend.