Weeknotes #7
Welcome back. I hope you’ve managed to wade through all the emails last week from organisations you’ve not interacted with for many years telling you they were not going to be open on Monday.
This week the Digital Culture Network got together for two days in London. It was a chance to catch up with all the new starters, including Nicola Barratt, our new Social Media Tech Champion (on her very first day), and get some skills training.
Some of the Digital Culture Network team. From right to left: Dean Shaw, Sadie Abson, Nicola Barratt, James Akers, Rose Marfleet, Andy Leitch, Laura Harris, Hansel McKoy, Katherine Brown and Ollie Couling.
We’re all at different confidence and ability levels when it comes to in-person and online presenting, so our second day was all about presentation skills training. It was run by Karen Witchalls-Plunkett and Rachel Kepinska-Smith who brought great energy throughout the day and made us wish we had double-barreled surnames. We covered the theory and structure of presenting, body language and behaviour, voice and tone, and got to practice these as went along.
There were some great takeaways from the training (I love a good framework and template) and I’m planning to write a bit of content on my top thoughts from this, other training/reading I’ve had in the past, and my experiences at the Digital Culture Network.
London
Whenever I get down to London I try to squeeze in as much as possible when I have some free time. Top things this week were:
Novelty Automation
A mad arcade of satirical home made slot machines. This was brilliant and right up my street. I won $1billion, got frisked, had my foot manipulated by a chiropodist, and had a packet of raisins critiqued whether it was art or not.
The Dream at Novelty Automation
Seven Dials Market
This food hall in Covent Garden is such an amazing space and used to be banana warehouse. I went here specifically for Yum Bun. I can’t get enough.
Seven Dials Market
The British Museum
The museum is right by the current Arts Council Office (who are moving in with the BFI), so I popped in to see the Sutton Hoo hoard. It’s the focus of the 2021 film The Dig and was great to look through the amazingly intricate objects and learn about the burial ship. I’m definitely going to geek out and get a metal detector for my 40th.
Great gold buckle. Image: The British Museum
I also visited Green Park to see the tributes to Queen Elizabeth II. There were some lovely messages.
Webinar of the week
On Thursday I attended Supercool’s webinar on Strategic SEO for arts and culture where Kate Mroczkowski was joined by Josh Hearn from ethical digital marketing agency, Climbing Trees.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a jargon-heavy topic and quickly slips into being very technical. Josh did a great job of simplifying the terminology and outlining the areas which should prioritised. I think the recording will be shared next week here and worth a watch.
If you need help with SEO, at the Digital Culture Network we have the wonderful Hansel McKoy, our Search Engine Marketing Tech Champion, here for you. If you work in Arts and Culture and are based in England you can get FREE 1-2-1 support. Book a chat in now, he’s great.
“Hansel was great. He was super clear and pitched his demonstration and advice at the right level for my colleague and I. Gave us plenty of great tips to take away with us, and taught us some fundamental points on SEO.”
Lancashire Encounter
Rewinding to the the weekend, I got to experience some of the Lancashire Encounter Festival, which runs every year in Preston.
Highlights from the day were Prof Clive Chandler’s Punch and Judy show, The Birley Annual Exhibition, Jason Singh’s Hidden Music of Trees and Folk Dance Remixed with Step Hop House.
Next week is my webinar on Why are you measuring that? which is part of Leeds Digital Festival 2022. Come along, I’ve practiced and everything!