One of Englands leading cultural entrepreneurs and adviser to Arts Council England , Paul will provide us with a hands on experience on how to drive cultural change and citizen engagement.

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Established in 2012, the Music, Arts and Culture Trust has been the catalyst, developer and promoter of cultural activities within Sunderland and elsewhere.

It brings together people with ability, talent and ambition who share a vision for the future where the arts, music and culture flourish.

It seeks to encourage people of all ages and all backgrounds to participate in cultural activities such as playing an instrument, learning to dance, act or sing or creating literature or poetry. 

The Centre for Cultural Value is dedicated to strengthening the cultural sector through research and evaluation, aiming to build an equitable, confident, and sustainable sector that enriches lives. 

The term "cultural vitality" refers to the overall health of a community's cultural life, and the Centre is developing a "Cultural Indicator Suite" to measure and understand this vitality, which involves looking at cultural activity, participation, diversity, access, and infrastructure.

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Stephen will give the audience an enlightening overview of key change to how audiences are chaging and reacting to culture!

Culture is a vital element of our city, of which we are very proud, and probably the reason why we were chosen as European Capital of Culture in 2017!

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In order to strengthen our cultural engagement, we asked ourselves the  question: how broadly and to what extent does cultural and leisure life in Aarhus Municipality create value for the individual citizen and Aarhus?
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AI is a key challenge for cultural organizations going forward, both nationally and internationally. 

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Fayrouze will give us a provocative and inspiring overview as to the benefits and challenges of AI for cultural venues,

The imapct on AI for the culture sector is huge and provides a solid basis for challenging big-tech!  

Dutch cultural organizations from across the sector use  the Cultural Target Groups Model, a tool used to better understand audience groups and promote broad cultural reach.

This model helps improve inclusivity and diversity in cultural offerings. It is an important tool in programming and marketing events and cultural activities. In addition to mapping the audience, more and more cultural creators are looking to take a deeper dive and also measure their impact.

Rotterdam Festivals, together with cultural organizations, gathers insights into the experiences and effects of cultural activities.

Working with evidence based customer analysis across multiple sectors such as airports, public sector, tourism, we've discovered the special needs and requirements the cultural sector  needs to address. Culture is holistic and needs to be treated as such. 

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Terje will take us through a groundbreaking economic impact report generated for and on behalf of the Seks Kommune Samarbejdet.

Audiences Norway have for the past years been working actively on developing a communal platform where the shared aggregated audience data has been made available to all participating cultural organizations.

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Erik will give an insightful and fascinating talk about the experiences and the benefits this has provided - for both the cultural organizations and the municipalities, in driving citizen cultural engagement.

We believe culturetech plays a key role in the development of cultural collectives and we believe that collective action is the future norm rather than the exception.

Scaling solutions that address culture-clusters just makes good economic and artistic sense as we can see with organizations like Leeds City Council and the theatre cluster De Doelen in the Netherlands.

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Digital transformation is organizational transformation and tech is the oil.

Formerly IBM's European Data Solutions Manager, Frederik provides insights and results from an 18 month pilot conducted in Region Skåne on behalf of Kulturforvaltningen and with the Audience Agency.

The goal was to evaluate the digital skills and potential for sharing data collectively for the 14 largest cultural organizations including Malmø Opera, Malmø Live, Malmø Teater and Skåne Danse Teater. 

Culture Central is a collective, and Collective voice for the cultural sector in the West Midlands region of England. 

As a membership organisation and sector support body, it convenes, challenges and connects the cultural sector to create opportunities through culture for the people and places of the West Midlands. Culture Central’s priorities and programmes focus on cultural innovation, capacity building, equity & opportunity, placemaking, and advocacy, connection & ecology. 

Kulturplanner helps cultural institutions unlock the potential of their audience data by consolidating it from ticketing systems, CRMs, and other platforms. 

Many organizations collect data, but it often stays siloed, limiting insight and engagement. We give institutions a holistic view of their audiences, enabling smarter strategies, aligned teams, and meaningful connections. By turning scattered data into actionable insights, Kulturplanner supports stronger visitor relationships, increased engagement, and more effective audience development across venues and departments.

Audience Insight or box ticking?

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How can we gather audience insight that helps transform our organisations and our relationships with audiences, but at the same time fulfil the needs of our funders and stakeholders?

How can we compare audience data and trends across organisations, cities and countries in a way that is helpful for cultural organisations on the ground AND policy makers?

Katy will provide provocations on these issues, arguing for a collective approach to audience insight, and suggesting some of the ways in which data collection and analysis methods will need to change.

The Audience Agency and the Turing Instute in the UK are  creating a common language for comparing data across venues, producers and regions.

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Oliver will share insights in to how we can develop sector-wide benchmarking to understand audience behaviours and programming gaps.

easy-connect helps arts and culture organisations reach people where they spend most of their time: on their phones. 

Today’s audiences expect seamless, personalised digital experiences. Our digital engagement apps bring everything together in one tool — real-time ticket booking, tailored recommendations, social and community features, and direct push or in-app messaging.

By lowering barriers and making access effortless, easy-connect turns audiences into loyal ambassadors and enables organisations to build vibrant communities of arts lovers.