@Hannah_Museums

A little reflection on 2020 and the conferences I managed to attend from my living room, as I plan for 2021 and decide which conferences to book.

At the start of 2020 conferences were still very much in the swing, rewind back to February last year and I was enjoying Moving On Up in Liverpool, with an incredible view of the Albert Dock from the Maritime Museum. A totally different picture of what conferences in 2020 would soon be like. As I got on the train back to Newcastle I couldn’t wait for my next conference, how exciting?!

View of Albert Dock from Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool.

Museum Next Conference
A few weeks after Moving On Up the world started to realise the seriousness of COVID-19 and how quick it was spreading, as the world prepared to lockdown it became apparent that physical conferences were out of the question due to risk of contact with other people. The networking that we all loved came to an end… or did it? MuseumNext was due to happen in Edinburgh, at the end of February 2020 but with conferences being cancelled and it being deemed unsafe to attend large gatherings, Jim Richardson, founder of MuseumNext came up with a new way of connecting people, whilst bringing the conference to a digital platform.

MuseumNext was set up using Mighty Networks, which is similar to other social media sites, allowing participants to post status’ images, events and to also ask questions. Members are added to this network when they sign up to a MuseumNext conference, and the next cohort of members are currently being added to this network from the 2021 Digital Summit sign ups. If you sign up to MuseumNext’s Digital summit, as part of this community you will also get access to the 2019 summit and the ‘Future of Museum Storytelling’ conference.
You can book your 2021 Digital Summit conference place here

My Favourite 2020 Conferences:

1.Museums Association: Moving On Up 2020: Liverpool Merseyside Maritime Museum – This conference focused on confidence building and social media censorship amongst other things. #MOU2020

2. Museums Association Annual Conference, ‘World Turned Upside Down: Exploring the Future of Museums’ This years conference was free on Zoom to all members of the Museums Association and the content from this conference is now online for members to access whenever they wish. Click here

3.MuseumNext Disrupt :
Themes for this digital conference were Resilience, Challenging Convention, Make Change Happen and What’s Next?

4. Culture Geek 2020: Culture Geek is the sister conference to MuseumNext. It brings together people who are passionate about museums, galleries, theatres, festivals, publishing and film, as well as digital. This conference in particular was a lot of fun, it was hosted on Vimeo, which was refreshingly different from Zoom conferences, but I also enjoyed that it was a live conference.

My 2021 Conference List.
In addition to the conferences I loved in 2020, which I’ll definitely be attending again just as soon as there’s further details, I have added a couple of others to my list for 2021.

1. Shout About It 2021 28th January 2021: NEEMPG are back with their 2021 Shout About It event. This year we’re celebrating projects from museums, heritage, archives and theatre. Learn about the NEEMPG rebrand. Tickets are Free and available here

2. MuseumNext Digital Summit 22 – 26 February 2021: There’s the option to book as an institution, allowing unlimited members of one organisation to sign up to the conference. Click here for tickets

3. Moving on Up 2021 17th March 2021 : Tickets start at £25 for this event. I gained so much from the 2020 MOU event that I’ll definitely be booking myself onto this years day conference.

4. ICOM Working Internationally Conference 16-18 March 2021: This conference looks great for ICOM Members, regular membership is £89 – find out more about membership here and to sign up to the conference click here

Other Options:
Museum ID Conference ‘Representation, Solidarity and Social Justice‘ 7 October: Tickets are from £197 and available here

Museums Immersive Network 2021 ‘Future proofing Museums For a Post-Covid World: The Potential of Immersive Tech’ 27 January 2021: Register for your FREE Ticket

IGLAM Conference 17 August 2021: This conference is a grassroots conference. More information can be found here. Tickets vary from £20 – £100 based on income and need. You can book your tickets here

Heritage Volunteering Group Conference: Further info can be found here

Thank you to my Twitter friends for sharing some of your favourite conferences, some of which are included in this blog post.

There are additional resources on the MuseumNext Website for international event and conference inspiration for 2021.