Wider Reach – Visitor Research 101

Trainers: Pippa Smith, Handling the Past 

What will be covered?

In this event, consultant Pippa Smith will cover three things: 

• the different methods you can use to understand your current audience 

• how to research potential audiences in your local area using information freely available, including the Census 2021 results 

• ways to increase understanding of who is not currently engaging with your museum, including using your research to build a local area profile 

Who should attend?

Beginners and those wanting to refresh their skills – volunteers, trustees, managers and staff with an audience development role. 

Learning objectives

By the end of the session, participants will: 

• understand the different methods they can use to get to know their audience 
• feel confident in using freely available information to research potential audiences in their local area 
• know how to access the tools to build a local area profile to help them understand non-visitors 

Session preparation

In this session Pippa will be taking a close look at some of the steps outlined in this resource. You may want to read it before the session or refer to it afterwards. 

Please note: We require you to complete the full booking form in order to confirm your eligibility for the session. The main booking form questions will appear after you have been through the 'check out' process. If you do not complete this form we will be in contact and reserve the right to cancel your ticket if we do not receive a response.

MDSE is funded by Arts Council England (ACE) to support museums in the South East of England within ACE’s Accreditation scheme. The South East is defined as the local authority areas of:

• Bedfordshire (Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire and Luton Borough)
• Berkshire (Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor & Maidenhead and Wokingham)
• Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes
• Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
• Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock
• Hertfordshire
• Kent and Medway
• Norfolk
• Oxfordshire
• Suffolk
• Surrey
• East Sussex and Brighton & Hove
• West Sussex

We prioritise places on our training programmes for museums which are Accredited or officially Working Towards Accreditation. ACE publishes the official lists of Accredited and Working Towards Accreditationmuseums on its website. Where possible we will make places available for museums which do not meet these criteria but the number of places will vary depending on the event format.

London tickets

MDSE is working with Museum Development London (MDL) to deliver some of our training and development programmes.

If you are working or volunteering for a museum in London you are eligible to attend this session.

For full details of our programmes conditions, see our Terms and Conditions on our website

By booking a place on to a Museum Development South East training event, you are agreeing to the following terms and conditions:

• That you are from a South East museum which is in Arts Council England’s Museum Accreditation Scheme. Where this is not applicable you acknowledge that MDSE will facilitate your attendance if availability permits and that you or your organisation will pay any fees which may apply.
• It is a condition of receiving this ACE funded training that the online evaluation sent to the email address provided at the point of booking is completed by the specified deadline. This deadline is in the email notification unless a paper evaluation is specifically requested and submitted on the day of the training session.
• By booking a place you agree that you will make every endeavour to attend the event and you will give us at least 24 hours’ notice if you need to cancel your booking. If you repeatedly cancel your booking without sufficient notice you agree that we may exercise our right to remove you from future event bookings.

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