Three days devoted to nothing but catching up on what is happening in the midwest museum world and connecting with colleagues new and old. Sounds pretty good, right?
So you register, book your flight and hotel, and submit those vacation days. But you’re not quite ready yet. You look at the schedule for this year’s conference, Strong Roots and Thriving Communities, to see what sessions you might be interested in attending. Uh oh, there are a total of 46 sessions that you could possibly attend, and they all sound amazing. How to begin?
Those who are conference veterans know that attending a conference takes some forethought and planning. To help alleviate some of the stress, we decided to create a useful tool for this year’s conference.
Enter Curated Tracks…
Consider the Leadership track if:
You are interested in streamlining engagement, defining the roles of your board, and empowering your staff.
You want to learn how to use national standards, assessment programs, and advocacy, to showcase your museum’s achievements and advance its professionalism.
You want to discuss professional development and bridging that gap from front-line to middle management.
Leadership
July 12th
1:00 pm-2:30 pm
- Workshop: Chalk Talk Session 1
3:00 pm-4:30 pm
- Workshop: Chalk Talk Session 2
July 13th
11:00 am-12:15 pm
- Almost Magic – Using Project Management to Enable Board Leadership
1:45 pm-3:00 pm
- AAM – Achieving Institutional Excellence
3:15 pm-4:30 pm
- All Are Welcome: Staff Training for Inclusion and Ability Awareness
July 14th
10:45 am-12:00 pm
- Open Doors to Open Minds: Setting Aside Tradition and Its Effects on One Community
- Building Community in a Volunteer Program
1:30 pm-2:45 pm
- 360 Museum Leadership: Expand your skills as you rise through the ranks
3:30 pm-4:45 pm
- How to Build Stronger Museum Communities with Content Marketing
July 15th
9:00 am-10:15 am
- Good Trustee/Bad Trustee- Recruitment, Training & Responsibility
Consider the Collections Stewardship track if:
You are interested in discovering new ways to tackle collection conundrums through research, documentation, and best practices.
You want to learn how to use integrated collection management systems, capable of addressing the professional needs of disparate collection types.
You want to discuss how to better use your collections as resources in programs and exhibits.
Collections Stewardship
July 12th
1:00 pm-4:30 pm
- Workshop: Protection Planning 101
July 13th
11:00 am-12:15 pm
- Conservation Collaboration: Research, Exhibition, and Community Stories
- Fire – Your Greatest Threat
3:15 pm-4:30 pm
- Pricing the Priceless: An Introduction to the Antiques Trade for the Museum Professional
July 14th
10:45 am-12:00 pm
- Primary Resources: Using the Past to Help Shape the Future of Education
- Don’t Let Undocumented Collections Paralyze You: Practical Tips and Case Studies for Deaccessioning “Found in Collection” Items
1:30 pm-2:45 pm
- Out of the Silos: Integrating Collection Information
- Into the Vault: Integrating Collections Storage and Education
Consider the Community Engagement track if:
You are interested in connecting with your audience and your community through programming within the museum and outside of the physical museum space.
You want to learn how to creatively engage local and broader communities through, accessibility, collaboration, and dialogue.
You want to discuss ways to open up communication and create collaboration with other community focused organizations in your area.
Community Engagement
July 12th
8:00 am-12:00 pm
- Program Planning Workshop: Creative Engagement for People with Memory Loss
July 13th
11:00 am-12:15 pm
- Accessibility, Collaboration, and Dialogue: Implementing Audio Description at an Academic Gallery
- See Yourself in the Museum: Ideas for Connecting with Community
1:45 pm-3:00 pm
- Outside the Walls & Inside the Community
- Community Stakeholder Gamification: Focus Groups 2.0
3:15 pm-4:30 pm
- Making Connections: Authentic Community Engagement within Maker Experiences at the Science Museum of Minnesota
- Straight to the Source: Connect and Engage with Teens in Your Community
July 14th
10:45 am-12:00 pm
- Overcome Adversity Through Art
- Break the Fourth Wall: How to Create for Your Audience, with Your Audience
1:30 pm-2:45 pm
- Changemakers: Superhero in You! Workshop
- The Pantheon Project: Inspiring students to find beauty in the connections of art, music, science and dance
July 15th
9:00 am-10:15 am
- Hungry for Change: Mission-Minded, Socially-Just Museum Dining Experiences that Yield Equitable and Inclusive Mission
Consider the Exhibit Development track if:
You are interested in the use of new and creative ways to integrate technology into exhibits.
You want to learn more about developing exhibits in unique spaces and reaching a wider audience.
You want to discuss methods of motivating teams, creatively generating ideas and solutions, and moving projects forward.
Exhibit Development
July 12th
8:00 am-12:00 pm
- Workshop: Exhibition Label Makeovers
July 13th
11:00 am-12:15 pm
- Creative Ways to Move Ideas Forward in Experience Planning
1:45 pm-3:00 pm
- Mini-Workshop: What’s the Big Idea?!
July 14th
10:45 am-12:00 pm
- Break the Fourth Wall: How to Create for Your Audience, with Your Audience
- Exhibiting Curiosity: Building Critical Thinking with Museum Collections
1:30 pm-2:45 pm
- Making Mascots: Using Mascots for Museum Programming, Marketing and Kids Clubs
3:30 pm-4:45 pm
- What happens when you put a museum inside a Winnebago?
- Designing Children Spaces in Museums: Two Museum’s Stories
July 15th
9:00 am-10:15 am
- Rowing in the Same Direction: Building Consensus and Establishing Collaborative Project Teams