On Sunday, Beyond Cell Phone Tours: Exhibit Facilitation with Mobile Devices reviewed interim results, including lessons learned, of 21-Tech, a three-year project in which institutions are using free or low-cost mobile apps in combination with hands-on exhibits as a way to extend and deepen visitor engagement. The project, largely funded by an IMLS 21st Century Museum Professionals award, is led by Children’s Museum of Houston in partnership with OMSI, Sciencenter, New York Hall of Science, and Lawrence Hall of Science.

21-Tech’s goal is to lengthen, deepen, and extend learning with personal mobile technologies (smartphones and tablets). The project uses only existing exhibits and mobile applications—no new content is being developed. Facilitation using mobile application was meant to meet visitor interests and advance hands-on activities, not replace them. If an application was too engaging and drew people away from a physical exhibit, its use was discontinued. A list of applications and hardware recommended by the project partners can be found here.

Panelists shared their experiences integrating mobile technologies into facilitation, including the challenges of training floor staff to use the devices in an effective way. The project website has a Gallery Facilitation and Training section that includes lessons learned and best practices.

Evaluation is ongoing, and Cecilia Garibay, Garibay Group, was able to share some early findings. The project has found that connections between mobile apps and the exhibits they are supplementing have to be tight for facilitation that switches between mobile technology and physical components to be seamless. Hardware and software must be easy to use. An application should not be so compelling that it takes away from activity on the floor, and ones that engage adults work best for engaging whole groups. Overall, the groups studied were highly engaged with the physical exhibit, the mobile apps, and the facilitator. A small percentage of visitors were unengaged, and that appeared to be related to group size. In larger groups of visitors, one person was more likely to step back.

For more information, visit 21-tech.org.

(Recaps written by Kenzie Moore, COSI membership processing associate and ASTC 2012 communications volunteer)

Teens Teach Space: Engaging Youth in Planetarium Programming
Museums are relying more and more on a teen/youth-based volunteer pool, but how do you make sure that both the teen and the center are getting the most out of the partnership? Two presenters from space centers in the U.S. shared with ASTC attendees their biggest takeaway points from their recent years involving teens in planetarium programs. Important details for institutions just beginning to wade into teen- and youth-focused involvement? Teens need more support and training to get the requisite presentational skills, the adults working with teens need clear scaffolding of what is expected of them in a leadership or cooperative role, and teens frequently benefit from having a chance to practice their roles. The key takeaway for centers with an established youth program? Give teens a chance to shine. Give them a voice in the scheduling of programs they’ll be involved with, get their feedback about what kind of programming or hands-on activities they’d like to do. It’s their center too.

Membership Best Practices Roundtable
It’s no news that members are an important part of any successful museum, but some of the ideas flying around the room today were certainly new ways of approaching those members. From installation payments instead of yearly payments to in-depth tracking of the unique ways each member uses their membership, the roundtable featured newly established practices, a few tales of development missteps, and a healthy dose of reminders to not reinvent the wheel. Members are special, and should be treated as such, but moving forward, shouldn’t we take every chance to personalize our approach to groups of similar members? Just how big of a role do the benefits play in a member’s perceived value of their relationship which your institution? (Hint: a big one.)

Bring the Noise: Doing Demonstrations with Sound
A demonstration doesn’t have to be expensive, and it doesn’t have to be something you can only do in the safety of your home base. A series of glasses filled with varying levels of water. A popsicle stick with string, paper, pencil erasers, and a rubber band. A cheap, corrugated plastic tube. Any of these can be turned into a quick, cheap, hands-on demonstration appropriate for in-house or outreach efforts. You can acquire these simply supplies just about anywhere and what you can’t find in a store, you can order through science supply services. Noise demonstrations can be interesting, budget-friendly, and very interactive. A Slinky makes the invisible (sound waves) visible. PVC pipes, ethanol, and a lighter can make a fascinating visual display while coaching kids through observations about wavelength and pitch. If you’re really gutsy, you can even buy a bullwhip to show what happens when you break a sound wave. Just, please, for your safety and the viewers’, watch the training videos.

What does it take to make a science center sustainable, adopted by its community, and defended by its community? In Born of Place: The Key to Institutional Sustainability, a panel composed of Don Weinreich, partner, Ennead Architects; Sarah George, executive director, Natural History Museum of Utah; and Eric Siegel, director/chief content officer, New York Hall of Science, explored the proposition that a cultural institution’s success depends on its ability to define, understand, and root itself in its community. Museums can be a safe place for dangerous dialogue

George shared perspectives gleaned through the exploration, development, and founding of the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City. She mentioned the importance of developing constituencies by reaching out to schools, the business community, elected officials, donors, and electors. She also discussed the effectiveness of having others in the community speak on your institution’s behalf, particularly business leaders and key officials. Being ready for surprises, listening to those around you, and avoiding overpromising and/or raising expectations unrealistically are also lessons to be learned.

An institution must partner with its constituencies and develop programs and buildings that sustain relevance and grow increasingly vital over time. Siegel also discussed the renovation and reconstruction of the New York Hall of Science’s facility in Queens, New York, as some of the core buildings were built for the 1964 World’s Fair.

Both the Natural History Museum of Utah and the New York Hall of Science partnered with Ennead on their construction needs. Weinreich shared step-by-step explanation and analysis of the processes Ennead followed in the construction of a wholly new museum for NHMU and the reconstruction needs of New York Hall of Science. The insights he provided gave a much clearer picture into the full scope of these processes, from interview and presentation of ideas through to execution.

On Sunday morning at ASTC 2012, attendees learned about strategies for using outreach programs that complement onsite exhibits and activities during Engaging Communities Outside Our Walls, Bringing Visitors In. Panelists shared how their science centers have used outreach programs to increase awareness of their centers, build relationships with people who have yet to visit, and establish themselves as an integral part of the community.

Steve Snyder from The Franklin Institute talked about their efforts to take science out to people where they are even before those people have come to the science center. Making digital connections is an important part of their plan—the center has, for example, begun offering Discovery Camps online as well as onsite. Their goal is to establish relationships through outreach and increase recognition of their brand and resources so that for many, actually visiting The Franklin comes later rather than an onsite visit being visitors’ introduction to all the center has to offer.

Eric Meyer described how Explora’s outreach programs have allowed them to reach new audiences and increase support for further outreach and school field trips. Projects such as holding family science festivals and sending outreach exhibits to libraries and community centers in rural areas have raised awareness of the center’s programs. That increased exposure has led to increased support and funding from communities for both school field trips and outreach programs.

OMSI has been successful in reaching new audiences through nontraditional outreach, including Star Parties held in spring and summer at two Oregon state parks. Tim Hecox described the benefits of the program to all involved: the program is free for attendees, the state parks see increased parking revenue those nights, and both OMSI and the astronomy clubs that volunteer to run the programs gain exposure for other programs they offer.

Catherine Paisley from Ontario Science Centre (OSC) shared several ways the center has worked to reach new and diverse audiences in Toronto. The center participates in several community festivals each year, including the Word on the Street literacy festival where their booth promotes science literacy. They also participate in a program that allows families to check out one-week passes to OSC from libraries in neighborhoods identified as “at risk,” as well as the Institute for Canadian Citizenship’s Cultural Access Pass program, which gives new Canadian citizens free admission to cultural institutions across the nation for one year.

Michelle Kortenaar talked about Sciencenter outreach programs that have helped to boost onsite program participation. At Community Science Nights, participants are given free passes to visit the center itself. Staff have also found that afterschool enrichment drives attendance for Sciencenter’s summer camps.

All of the panelists stressed that onsite attendance, while a benefit of outreach, has not been the primary focus when designing outreach programs. Rather, the focus has been on building relationships and establishing strong community ties, which in turn, can encourage more people to visit the center.

Is your museum admission the right price for your market? With today’s challenging economic climate and our heavy reliance on admission revenue, pricing strategies are a key business decision. How can you increase revenue without undermining attendance? In Saturday’s session, Pricing Trends, Considerations, and Tradeoffs in the Current Marketplace, panelists Stephanie Ratcliffe and Hillarie Logan-Dechene from The Wild Center; Jason Drebitko, ConsultEcon; Lara Litchfield-Kimber, Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum; and Maureen Henderson, TELUS Spark discussed how to determine when to change admission prices, what considerations factor into deciding to make a change, and best practices for implementing admission price increases.

Drebitko began the session by listing seven important pricing considerations for science centers: the overall value of the science center experience; whether a center is resident- or visitor/tourist market-oriented; competition and relative value of the experience; benchmark ticket prices of competitors; cost of living in the area; type of ownership/operation (private nonprofit, public, etc); and general economic conditions.

Other panelists shared their experiences in considering and implementing changes to their centers’ admission and membership prices. All stressed the importance of knowing your audience in order to both maximize revenue for the center and value to visitors. Tracking ZIP codes of visitors, monitoring online review sites, and surveying visitors can help a museum understand who it’s visitors are, where they come from, and how they feel about the museum experience. Logan-Dechene talked about the benefits of having a committee that encompassed all museum departments consider price increases. One strategy employed when they did increase prices was adding value, making general admission tickets two-day passes. Litchfield-Kimber suggested institutions review pricing every time budgets are reviewed and to try not to raise all prices at once. Henderson shared her center’s experience in dealing with strong blowback against price increases that began primarily on blogs. She emphasized the importance of being prepared to engage community members in positive ways on social media and training frontline staff to engage positively with visitors unhappy about changes. She also cautioned against knee-jerk reactions, encouraging centers not to change pricing again immediately, but to give the new pricing plan a bit of time to see if it will be successful or not.