I’m an interpretive planner and visitor experience consultant, and when I start a new project with a client, we spend a fair bit of time identifying goals. We often start with a blank-slate, blue-sky approach: “So! What are we trying to achieve here?” But the more I do this goal-setting business, it occurs to me that in our line of work, there’s only so many […]
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The Art of Constructive Feedback
I had an opportunity to revisit my old stomping grounds this spring: I gave a keynote presentation to Alberta Parks interpreters in Kananaskis Country, where I began my career in 1982. It was a wonderful, nostalgic experience, and it really brought back to me the value of the training I got from that organization. So much of what I know about family programming, theatrical programming, […]
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The Dying Art of Interpretive Evaluation
Anyone who has worked in interpretation for a while will tell you that evaluations are expensive—they take time and cash and a lot of expertise. Half the battle in any evaluation is just asking the right questions, and it’s amazing how hard that really is. But there are a couple of kinds of evaluation that are dead easy, cheap, and low-stress. And I’m amazed at […]
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Evaluating Your Information Centre
Does yours rock? We’ve all been there: the very sad information centre. The staff are surly, the brochures are gone, the washrooms are horrifying, and everything digital is out of order. And I hope I can say we’ve all visited the opposite end of the spectrum. I did, recently. I walked into a clean, uncluttered, attractive information centre stocked with high-quality maps and brochures, and was […]
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Making Standards Your Own
This is the third instalment of a presentation I made at the Montreal NAI/IC Conference in May, 2015. You can find part one here. Be prepared for a little conflict when embarking on a standards exercise. There are a few strong lessons I learned from the evaluation project, and I have applied them since to other initiatives. First, be prepared to open a can of […]
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Quantifying Sparkle, Part 2
Defining standards for personal interpretive programs This is part two . You should probably start with Part One, here. A few years ago, I was approached by one of the premier interpretive facilities in western Canada. The director of visitor experience had just hired a new manager of interpretation who was young and brilliant. With the change in management, she wanted to set a baseline and document […]
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Quantifying Sparkle: Standards in Personal Programs
Defining Standards for Personal Interpretive Programs I’ve had the opportunity, over the last few years, to do a great deal of traveling. I’m up to 54 countries and counting now, though my time in each has been tantalizingly brief. And as I travel, I manage to attend quite a few interpretive programs. I think it’s interesting to see the different interpretive styles and standards out […]
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