2017: The Year of Listening

Audio has long been part of the museum offering, yet in the past few years we’ve seen an explosion of audio media technology, pushing it from the fringes to mainstream. Podcasts, audiobooks, audio guide apps, Soundcloud, and audio-only devices like the Amazon Echo. These platforms and formats have enormous potential to change the way institutions reach out to and interact with the public.

In this workshop, you’ll get an overview of the state of the audio industry, from both a technology and content perspective, and explore the different ways that cultural institutions can best be taking advantage of this burgeoning art form.

Designed for digital media experts, curators, non-profit professionals, content creators and marketers, in this talk we’ll cover four main areas: podcasting, audio guides, accessibility, and community storytelling. You’’ll learn about:

– The technological innovations that led to the current audio renaissance
– How institutions can use audio to build long-term relationships with new and returning visitors
– Best practices around creating and distributing audio in all formats
– The types of audio that have the greatest impact and success
– Everything you ever wanted to know about producing, distributing and promoting a podcast
– Creating community based geo-located audio guides to increase foot traffic
– How best to be using audio to improve accessibility
– Tools and practices of community storytelling for increasing local engagement
– An overview of all of the digital audio tools available today
– Numerous examples of institutions that are already using audio to engage in unique and original ways

If you’re currently working on an audio project or contemplating starting one, there will be a discussion period where we can address specific obstacles and challenges as a group.

Optional: Take the Cleveland audio tour on the izi.TRAVEL app before the workshop as we’ll be using that experience as part of our discussion.