Digital Works Podcast

We're back! A conversation with theatre producer and digital product manager, Eva Liparova about the 'hyper reality opera experience' that she worked on with the Royal Opera House last year. This was a fascinating conversation which explored remote creative teams, technologists and theatre practitioners working together, creative uses of new technologies, how you design audience exp...

We sit down with Robin Cantrill-Fenwick, CEO of Baker Richards, to discuss the findings of their Culture Restart audience sentiment tracker . We explore how audiences are feeling about returning to in-person cultural experiences (whenever that may be), emerging insights around pricing and distribution of digital content, segmentation models, and consumer psychology.

A conversation with one of the Directors of Storythings, Matt Locke. We discuss digital audiences, attention patterns, formats, shifts in behaviour, and loads more. Matt has held senior positions at Channel 4 and the BBC, been a curator of a gallery, set up and run digital art programmes, and attend Glasgow School of Art in the early 90s. He has a fascinating perspective on content and audiences a...

In this episode I speak with award-winning cultural studies scholar, Dr Kirsty Sedgman. We talk about the audience experience - particularly within a digital context, theatre etiquette campaigns, excluded audiences, the democratising potential of digital, and how we understand the 'value' of cultural experiences. 

A conversation with Sadler's Wells' Head of Content & Audiences, Ankur Bahl.  We chat about structuring digital teams, spending time focusing on storytelling, choosing the right content approach for each platform, the initiatives Sadler's Wells has tried during lockdown (and how audiences responded), and their plans for the future.

We sit down with Linda Spurdle, Digital Development Manager at Birmingham Museums Trust to talk about their recent Cut, Copy, Remix project which came about after they opened up access to their image library. The Cut, Copy, Remix project saw them working with artists including Cold War Steve, the Black Hole Club to reimagine images from the Museums' collection. Linda is a brilliant interviewe...

Aled is Head of Membership Strategy at Condé Nast and has previously worked at the Guardian and ITN. He also founded the payment solutions startup, PayTogether. We talk about fostering a culture of innovation, risk taking, structuring digital teams, digital businesses and loads more.

We sit down with Opera North's Director of External Affairs, David Collins. We look at how strategic thinking that has been developed over recent years has underpinned how they have used digital to respond to the current crisis, keeping audiences engaged, retaining a connection to local communities, the nature of opera in the 21st century, how the organisation has arrived at a clear sense of...

A conversation with the Donmar Warehouse's Director of Marketing, Abby Corfan. We discuss what life has been like at the Donmar during lockdown, our discussions focused mostly on the two big digital productions the Donmar has been involved with; a reworking of Adam Brace's play, Midnight Your Time , and their involvement in the National Theatre's NT At Home initiative with their 201...

Featuring a conversation with podcast host, producer, consultant and writer, Hannah Hethmon. We look at the history of podcasting in the cultural sector, the elements of a good podcast, how podcasts could (and should) be approached by institutions, the unique relationship that can be achieved between a host and their podcast listeners and loads more. Hannah's book Your Museum Needs a Podcast:...

We sit down with MCC Theater's Artistic Director, Will Cantler, and Digital Marketing Manager, Molly Barson, to delve into their recent digital production of Alan Bowne’s Beirut starring Marisa Tomei and Oscar Isaac https://mcctheater.org/tix/beirut-benefit-play-reading/ .  They speak openly about what they learned working in this way for the first time, what worked (and what didn't) and...

A conversation with cultural fundraising consultant and director of Apollo Fundraising, David Burgess. We talk about the state of digital fundraising in the sector, inter-departmental collaboration, the importance of human connection, behavioural psychology and much more.

In this special 'live' recording of the podcast (a Zoom webinar with an audience of around 100 folks from around the world joining us) Ash discusses the sector's recent pivot to digital with One Further's Chris Unitt ( https://onefurther.com/about ). This conversation came about following Chris's recent blog post https://www.chrisunitt.co.uk/2020/04/questions-about-the-cul...

A conversation with Louise Cohen, Head of Digital Content & Channels at the Royal Academy of Arts. We talk about the importance of strategy, how to embed strategies across an institution. Louise's background as a journalist, storytelling, the expansion of the RA's digital capacity, the content projects she's proudest of and more. Louise's work on content strategy at the RA...

A conversation with the Victoria & Albert Museum's Head of Digital, Kati Price. We talk about the elements of digital success, Kati's work researching how digital teams are structured at cultural institutions, digital storytelling, Kati's career to date and much more. You can find more information about Kati and Dafydd's research on the Museums & the Web site https://mw...

This episode focuses on accessibility and inclusive design as we sit down for a chat with Robin Christopherson MBE, Head of Digital Inclusion at AbilityNet ( https://abilitynet.org.uk/ ). Robin is a really inspiring interviewee and has lots of insightful things to say about the impact of accessible products and services. Robin mentioned a number of initiatives during our conversation including; th...

We sit down for a chat with Head of Digital at the Audience Agency, Katie Moffat to talk about her career, her thoughts about the usefulness of a digital strategy, bridging the digital skills gap, what defines a digital mindset and more. Cas and Ash also discuss the recently announced Digital Culture Compass ( https://digitalculturecompass.org.uk/ ), Nesta's Digital Culture Survey ( https://w...

In this first episode we grapple with trying to be concise, talk about recent Ofcom research around how young people are engaging with the internet, Ash speaks with Mike Harris (former Tech Lead at the Royal Academy of Arts) as he reflects on his 2 years in the sector, Andy looks back on how digital has changed over the past 14 years and we talk about the importance of mobile experiences.