This past week a few of my colleagues from the McMaster Museum of Art and I attended the 2019 Museums and the Web conference in beautiful Boston, Massachusetts. It was my first time, and I thought it might be useful to put together a few first-timer tips based on my experience.
1. Pace yourself
It’s a big and fantastic conference! The actual conference-proper was Thursday-Saturday, but Wednesday had workshops and Tuesday a wonderful field trip to the museums at Harvard. This is a lot! It can easily be overwhelming, so check out point #2 below.
2. Go with a plan
There are lectures, papers presented, workshops, lightning talks, exhibitions, demonstrations…. So much to do and see! Checking out the schedule ahead of time (posted on the Museums and the Web website) will really help you decide what your ultimate goals are. Many papers presented were from folks in the middle of the pilot projects at their intuition. Some were from MA and PhD students, presenting their theses. Others were very step-by-step practical guides, and some were very frank with challenges, failures, successes, and tips.
3. See the sights
Museums and the Web moves around to a different location each year; 2018 was Vancouver, 2017 was Cleveland, and this year was Boston. The city has so many cultural institutions to visit, not all of which are included in your conference schedule, but which may offer very valuable learning opportunities. Hot tip: really make sure you read through all the perks included in your registration. Too late I found out that the Isabella Stewart Gardner admission was included with my conference badge (though I ultimately don’t mind giving them my admission fee. It’s an amazing place!)
4. Do the tour
As this was my first Museums and the Web I’m not sure if they have a field trip every year, but if they do, I’d say consider going! There was a cap of 30 people for the trip, so make sure you sign up early if you’re interested. This year we visited several museums at Harvard, each of which offered incredible demonstrations of educational approaches and programming that they’re doing.
5. Divide and conquer
There is nearly endless sessions to attend; in many instances there are several happening at once, so you need to make a choice. If you can swing it, go with a colleague (or make friends with someone and share notes!) That was you can “attend” multiple sessions, all without the help of Hermione’s time-turner.
6. Stay on top of Museum and the Web’s twitter feed while you’re there
Helpful details are shared; you might even catch a glimpse of yourself on the feed! Because there’s so much happening this is an option to keep you dialed in.
7. Consider sessions that aren’t directly related to your area
It’s awfully hard to choose what sessions to attend; sometimes they sound incredibly connected to what you do, and others sound like they’re not! But this is a suggestion to go to those left-field-sounding sessions. Frankly, sessions that are directly related to what you do might just duplicate info you already know, whereas you may get some incredible gems in the most unexpected places.
