A real life experience that none of us want to see – a digital upgrade followed by a dip in donations on one of your biggest revenue driving platforms: the online ticketing flow. Charlie and Kate will share a human approach to responding in a crisis, with practical tips, revenue driving techniques and personal skills used to overcome and improve how donations are received through the ticketing flow.

Venue hire can be a headache if it’s not set up properly – fragmented systems, unclear packages, and a whole lot of faff. Discover how Shakespeare North Playhouse have turned things around, creating a streamlined, profitable, and efficient venue hire offer that still delivers top-notch quality. James will share insights from a rebrand of catering and hospitality, the systems that were tightened up (utilising software such as YesPlan), and how they make sure every event lands just right, leaving the drama for the stage!

What makes a space both commercially successful and culturally relevant? This session will explore how successful Retail and F&B spaces drive secondary spend by aligning experience, design, product, and storytelling with brand identity and audience needs. James will explore how understanding customers and avoiding short-term compromises protects authenticity, as well as how flexible, evolving spaces can adapt to shifting behaviours, sustainability goals, and operational demands — staying relevant, profitable, and true to their brand while celebrating what makes them unique.

Wild Republic Retail worked closely with the BBC Live Events team to design and set up shops at the BBC Earth Experience in London and Melbourne. This was an immersive experience featuring the best of Sir David Attenborough’s film footage. Jeremy will share challenges and learnings, with all merchandise ranges and shop fits going through stringent approval processes for sustainability and recycled materials, ready for the shops to be operated.

In 2025 Kiplin Hall opened a new visitor centre in an old stable block, allowing the shop, café and admissions to be moved out of the main hall. It also allowed a change to the
visitor journey, securing the pay barrier and moving the café and retail outside it. The move has seen café taking double (up to £300k) and the shop taking quadruple (up to £40k) versus 2024 figures, and all of this off a visitor uplift of 20% (+4,000) over the previous year. James will discuss the reasons for the move, challenges along the way and how the new centre has had a massive positive impact on operations and visitor experience, providing a whole new level of sustainability for the organisation and widening options for the years to come.

Join Alexander to explore how drinks tasting events can unlock new revenue streams, attract corporate partners, and sell out audiences with wine, whisky, gin, and beer experiences. Discover how heritage venues are using tastings to engage new audiences; boost revenue with high-ticket tastings, sponsorships, and repeat bookings; and to forge powerful partnerships, aligning with corporate clients for exclusive events.

Museums and galleries play a dual role in the image rights world – owning images of works that can generate income, and also licensing images for their own publications and
materials. This session will look at ways to create revenue opportunities from your digitised collection whilst ensuring artists and estates are treated fairly; clear rights confidently, reducing risk and saving valuable time; and streamline processes to provide efficiencies in time and cost with one central point of contact.

Built in 1395, The Crooked House is one of the world’s most photographed homes. Today, it’s home to two ‘Crooked Men’ – husbands Alex and Oli Khalil-Martin – who share its 600-year story through award-winning immersive experiences, attracting worldwide visitors and building a ‘Crooked community’ of over 60,000 supporters. Alex and Oli will share learnings and advice on how to deliver stand-out visitor experiences and reap the rewards of doing things differently.

Royal Armouries pivoted its IP and Licensing business in 2020 to become Royal Armouries Entertainment, originally an image library and now providing comprehensive IP solutions to some of the world’s biggest entertainment brands including Hasbro / eOne Dungeons and Dragons Movie, Square Enix (Final Fantasy) and Doom. Adam will discuss how to reposition a cultural business exploring internal challenges, the impact of new technology including AI, and how this work connects with the UK government’s sector plan combining the efforts of the cultural and creative industries to develop IP into one of the UK’s biggest international exports.

Hampton Court Palace is in the middle of what staff are affectionately calling ‘Scaffold Season’. Like many heritage attractions, a build up of Covid-delayed projects has meant a lot of work happening at the same time, threatening huge impacts on the visitor experience, visitor numbers and the bottom line. This session will discuss how visitor attractions can remain open and viable during major works, including maintaining a positive visitor experience despite disruptions, using conservation works as a storytelling opportunity to engage audiences, and implementing flexible ticketing and pricing strategies.

The National Trust for Scotland has developed a core range of property bespoke collectables over the past three years. This range development has resulted in collectable category sales doubling against pre-pandemic levels. Alex will explain this approach to this category development through customer focus, operational logistics, themes, product selection, suppliers and partnerships.

The team at Castle Howard are the current holders of the Cultural Enterprises Award for Marketing Campaign of the Year! When it comes to Christmas, they are top of the pops, and in this session Abbi will share their approach to growing an audience and building a world class reputation. It’s true that Christmas can bring out the best and the worst in people, so buckle up to hear the highs and lows of what it really means to be an award winning Christmas experience.

In Spring 2025, Birmingham was officially awarded World Craft City status, a globally recognised mark of distinction celebrating Birmingham’s rich heritage in jewellery and metalwork, its unique community of skilled makers, and its ongoing commitment to craft, innovation and excellence. Rebecca will discuss the culture and heritage of the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, what the award means for craft and culture in Birmingham and the UK, and how it can benefit not only Birmingham, Jewellery and Allied Trades, but organisations and companies across the UK.

This panel session will look at hot topics in publishing along with different examples of publishing across the sector – from those without any publishing on staff through to big organisations.

In this session, Lucy will show how museums can unlock growth by flipping a common mindset: from what do we want to say, to what is our audience actually interested in?
Drawing on experience at national museums and her recent work as a consultant on the Good Food Shows where a shift in campaign approach led to a major uplift in results, Lucy
will share how simple changes can drive deeper engagement and increase income. Learn how to reframe thinking and create events that speak to people on a human level — resulting in more impact and better conversions.