Dynamo North East is leading a series of events and meetings bringing together senior figures from the region’s cultural, leisure and sectors and technology companies to explore how the greater use of tech could drive audiences and provide valuable audience data.
Laura Kemp, Cluster Engagement Manager for Dynamo, is heading the Innovation in Entertainment initiative which started with a gathering at The Alnwick Garden.
“Regionally, we welcome more than 64m tourists annually, and these visitors and those who attend regional cultural venues and attractions are changing in the way they want to be entertained. The way they use and interact with technology in their every day lives has raised expectations of their leisure-time experiences,” said Laura.
“In turn, the use of technologies opens up new ways to communicate with audiences and understand what they want and expect from leisure and cultural venues.
“These are areas that Dynamo are interested in, and we believe there are some great opportunities for venues and the digital sector to collaborate on developing innovative solutions.
“Alnwick Garden already has an app and the team there fully appreciates the opportunities that further development of technology could bring. Our first meeting looking at the opportunities was held at the Garden and those who attended explored the fantastic grounds using the app alongside a more traditional, offline trail.
“We then had an open discussion about what else could be done – how the experience could be improved and how technology could help.
“It was a really constructive meeting with exciting ideas and interesting suggestions being made. Our next meeting will be at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle and will follow a similar sort of format.”
Ian McAllister, Digital Marketing Manager at The Alnwick Garden, added: “We’re always looking to innovate, to explore new ways of working and new tools to spread the word so we were very interested in hosting the Dynamo event and listening to the delegates talking about their ideas and experience.
“We’re always looking to push the boundaries, striving to be different and to try things that have never been tried before so we welcome any ideas on how we can use technological advancements to improve the visitor experience.”
Dynamo has more than 150 members made up of IT organisations and employers, technology hubs, universities, colleges and local government. It works to grow the region’s IT economy through promoting the region as a hub for the enterprise IT sector and has a mission to increase collaboration, innovation, skills and awareness of the region’s IT economy.
