Without margin there is no mission delivery in any sustained way, collections care not to the standard the public expects, limited or no programmes for schools that cannot pay full price, limited investment in audiences not yet through the door, fragile resilience to absorb a wet August or a delayed grant decision. The attractions that have understood this most clearly are the ones now using commercial income, deliberately and unashamedly, as the engine of more mission, not l

For a long time, museums and the wider visitor attraction sector have treated commercial activity as a slightly awkward parallel business. The shop is over there. The cafe is run by someone else. The venue hire diary is the responsibility of whoever happened to inherit it. When budgets get squeezed, commercial is asked to bridge the gap. When budgets are healthier, it is largely ignored.

Fundraising activities play a vital role in supporting and sustaining visitor attractions. These efforts are instrumental in ensuring...

As we near the end of the year I wanted to share a brief post to thank my clients and wider network of support for making the last year...

An early lesson I learned after entering the world of Science and Discovery Centres was that if you want to encourage visitors to return...

I have the good fortune to meet with the former CEO of the Franklin Institute, Dennis Wint, many years ago, c.2009. I’d asked Dennis if...

Having worked in and with visitor attractions for almost twenty-five years, now feels as good a time as any to consider some of my lessons