“Re-united, and it feels so good…”
In my six years at the American Museum of Natural History I counted 40 presentations I delivered, primarily at conferences. I adore museum conferences. Sorry, I should be clear. I can’t STAND sitting still in a room for a panel – I get the heebie jeebies. It’s not you; it’s me. That’s just not the ideal way for me to learn. But I love the spaces in-between – hanging in the hallways, the karaoke nights, the Twitter backchannel, the moments before a session kicks-off – anywhere I can to make direct human connections. And when I went to the Girl Scouts I had to leave all of that behind.
This week, thanks to my client Games For Change (more on that later), I got to attend not one but TWO conferences: MCN and Culture Geek. And because they are now all remote, I can fit two in within one week, which is amazing.
MCN (the Museum Computer Network) had always felt like my people: museum designers, and educators, and techies, who feel comfortable with the affordances of technology and want to advocate for the most effective, efficient, and equitable way to distribute its benefits.
On Tuesday I went to the elegantly named: Educational & Interpretive Media + Media Production & Branding SIGs Meetup. Over 100 people gathered in Zoom to provide informed and thoughtful critiques of works in progress. It was a very supportive and smart space. I look forward to returning.
Today I will be helping to facilitate a session called: Big Questions for Museums and X Realities: A Virtual Town Hall. Organized and led by Michael Haley Goldman (director of future projects, USHMM), Robin White Owen (President, MediaCombo) and Camille Tewell (Manager of Digital Learning, North Carolina Museum of Art), this session will explore XR from the angles of ethics, equity and access, educational impact, and financial sustainability. And rather than be a series of presentations, it will be a working session, with the room broken into small groups to hash out and report back on topics. That’s where I come in, as one of the small group facilitators. That’s my kind of session!
Mostly I wondered where, in our Covid-era virtual gatherings, were the in-between spaces. Would they feel robust enough for me to get what I came for? The answer, in fact is, yes, there are multitudes. Each session, of course, has its Zoom-chat-based backchannel – not great but adequate; enough for me to see an old friend and send them a directly 1:1 to say hi. But then there’s the Slack Channel. And the LinkedIn group. And the Basecamp (I had forgotten about Basecamp!). I’ve enjoyed getting involved in them all, especially seeing channels like #mcn2020-gaming, #mcn2020-con-hustlecrew (Thanks Koven!), and #mcn2020-cooks.
Tomorrow, for the first time, I will attend Culture Geek, run by the good folks at MuseumNext. First I will attend Adam Clarke’s “The story is more important than the pixel,” which is a games-based learning session with a strong focus on Minecraft and PS4’s Dreams (side note: I am about to meet Adam in just a few minutes to catch up in our Oculus Quest 2s, perhaps playing Beat Saber). That will be followed by hearing from my former AMNH colleague, Catherine Devine (now at Microsoft), presenting “Digital Twins in Museums”, about the Internet of Things.
Now, if I can only properly calculate Greenwich Mean Time to make sure I don’t miss them! And as always I will be looking for those spaces in-between to make connections. Maybe I will see you at a conference like this soon? If you see me first, please be sure to say hello.
