Just pause for a moment to think about it: When entering a quaint museum, one would expect the usual display cases filled with dust and faded placards; however, interactive touchscreens respond to your every gesture and might transport you via sound experience into several different periods across history with content being delivered on the fly as the sight comes in response to your interest. Isn’t it nice? But when you operate a smaller venue with a tight budget, you might wonder whether these new technologies are worth the investment or are the bells and whistles that will sometimes bother you.
The truth is that cutting-edge visitor engagement technology is no longer the big man’s playground. Instead, many smaller venues now in America have come to see the right technology investments as being tools that can be used to transform the visitor experience while also being a real return on the investment. Let us look into whether that huge leap makes sense for your venue.
What the Modern Visitor Expects
Today’s visitors are leaving the portals doors in with smartphones in their pockets and a Netflix queue waiting at home. Instantaneous interaction, custom-curated experiences, catered to their needs were the very familiar thing to these visitors. In no way should your old historic house museum create competition with Disney World; this does mean that static displays with one-size-fits-all tours might make visitors want something extra.
The modern audience especially the younger crowd expects the engagement to go further than exhibitions. They want to be participants, explore, and create meaningful connections with content. Visitors are willing to stay longer, tell others, and come back for another visit when the engagement process allows them to feel that they have an active role to play in the making of their own experience.
Technology Landscape for Smaller Venues
Great news is that engagement technology today is more accessible and affordable than ever. You don’t have to shell out millions to wow people. Right from the simplest interactive displays based on tablets to the more sophisticated ones such as augmented reality applications, audio tours, and sensor-triggered multimedia, you may find everything you need.
Many venues report that these member installations and touch hall of fame can be tailored to their budgets and spatial limitations and that through enhancing visitor satisfaction, lengthening duration of stay and positive word marketing, their investments are worth the can of paint.
Think about what may befit an indoor venue size, audience, and respective pan. For instance, a smaller-sized art gallery may just go for an application providing audio commentary and interview with the artist, while a kids’ science center would rather have more returns on interactive hands-on exhibits for exploration and informal education through play.
Measuring Real Return on Investment
And if we are to consider whether advanced technology is worth the price tag, it will not be enough to just look at the initial expenditure. Never forget the possibility that ticket sales will increase, visitors will spend more time at the venue, customer satisfaction scores will improve, and better online review scores are all on the cards. Many a smaller venue now has technology to help them attract bigger competition amongst local attractions and entertainments.
Monitor the metrics that count for you.
- Increasing return visitors?
- Improving teaching outcomes?
- Drawing in youngsters?
Each type of technology will bear its unique influence on any of these targets; thus knowing what you want to focus on will assist you in making the best PhD decision about investing.
Lastly, remember about operational benefits! These digital interactive solutions are so carefully designed with corresponding hardware that might reduce staffing for some of the functions, collect data that proves useful concerning visitor preferences and behavior, or even present opportunities for generating revenue via premium experiences or strategic partnerships.
Start Small and Grow Big
You don’t have to change everything about your venue overnight. Many smaller venues get their start with pilot programs, or even a single interactive installation, to test the response of visitors and gain insight about what best serves their visitors. This way you will be able to refine your strategy whilst increasing the expertise of your staff, and begin to document a track record of achievements to build upon when larger investments are made.
- Consider collaborating with a local university, technology company, or partner venue to share costs and resources.
- There are organizations that offer grants for cultural institutions that want to adopt technology, and many tech companies are eager to partner with venues to test new products.
Focus on implementations that enhance rather than detract from your venue’s unique character. The most successful deployments feel like a natural extension of your space, bringing value to what you already have rather than fighting against it.
Make the Decision That Best Fits Your Venue
Ultimately, whether or not advanced visitor engagement technology is good or bad for smaller venues isn’t the question. The real points to consider are the alignment of particular technologies with your venue’s mission, fulfilling the needs of its audience, and its financial realities. The most expensive system would never help if it were not in the interest of the visitors or would strain the budget beyond sustainability.
Have you asked any egg burner questions? What about those questions that seem to dwell on the audience before the visitor experience? Where would you rather lose someone? Which are the ones most asked? Such questions and answers would aim you toward technologies that solve real problems and engage real human interest.
One more time for memory: Technology should only serve as an amplifier for your storytelling and should never replace storytelling. Major venues utilize advanced technology systems to build a bridge between their visitors and the content-the systems that unite local people with their histories, artists with their expressions, and scientists with their discoveries.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
The fastest-changing area in the visitor engagement technology space has many openings being created for venues of all sizes. If you plan to invest, start with clearly defining your goals, researching options within your budget, and, lastly, speaking with other similar venues about their experiences so far.
What technologies grabbed your interest for the venue? Have you ever experienced success with interactive installations or digital engagement tools? Feel free to share your views and experiences here; this will contribute to the growing strength of the venue community through joint learning from successes and failures.
