24-27 May 2021

Speakers

Keynote Speaker: Christoper Woodward, Director, Garden Museum
Christopher Woodward has been Director of the Garden Museum since 2006. He was previously Director of the Holburne Museum of Art in Bath and Assistant Curator at Sir John Soane’s Museum, London.
Association Chair: Caroline Brown, Head of Commercial Services, British Library
Caroline previously worked as a teacher followed by a 16 year stint in the wine business before joining the cultural sector in 2005. After eight years as Head of Commerce at Royal Museums Greenwich, she joined the British Library and is also Chair of the Association for Cultural Enterprises.
Blue Anderson, President, Museum Store Association
Blue started her retail career at Nordstrom stores, before working with a natural history museum in California, then opening a brand new museum store and finally taking up her current role at Columbia River Maritime Museum, Astoria. Blue is President of the Museum Store Association (MSA).
Victoria Ball, Illustrator / Designer, University of Edinburgh Gift Shop & Visitor Centre
Victoria has been running her freelance business alongside a successful online shop for over five years now, having graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2016. Her practice specialises in architectural drawings and typography.
Abby Bird, Communications Manager, Black Country Living Museum
As creator of BCLM’s viral TikTok account, with nearly a decade of marketing experience, Abby is convinced that getting social media right is one of the most strategically important things a museum can do, and that engaging young audiences is the key to futureproofing museums.
Perry Bushell, Perry Bushell Consultants
As a commercial consultant to the cultural sector, Perry is an expert on all elements of retail and catering. Currently working part time at the Freemasons’ Hall as Head of Trading, his recent private clients include the Old Royal Naval College, Wellcome Collection, Postal Museum and Winchester Cathedral.
Robin Cantrill-Fenwick, Chief Executive, Baker Richards
Robin Cantrill-Fenwick is Chief Executive of Baker Richards, a firm which specialises in equipping cultural organisations to achieve their commercial potential. Recent clients include English Heritage, National Galleries of Scotland, Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, The Roman Baths and the Zoological Society of London.
Ross Christie, Assistant Manager, University of Edinburgh Gift Shop & Visitor Centre
Ross looks after the digital presence of the Visitor Centre and Gift Shop including the online shop, social media and digital marketing. He also manages the non-clothing merchandise in the store as well as leading on design across the entire range.
Rachel Crewes, Commercial Director, Harewood House Trust
Rachel joined Harewood House Trust in 2018 with the enviable task of helping to re-imagine the concept of the country house in the 21st century. Rachel has successfully overseen the in-sourcing of retail and developed a number of new diverse income streams ranging from alpaca walking to a new programme of premium experiences and workshops.
Tom Dykes, Director of Digital, Association for Cultural Enterprises
Tom is Director of Digital at the Association for Cultural Enterprises, responsible for communications and digital content, including the Arts Council England funded Cultural Enterprises Academy. Based in London, Tom previously worked at the National Theatre.
Catherine Erdly, Retail Consultant, The Resilient Retail Club
Catherine has over 20 years’ experience working with product businesses of all sizes from high street names such as Paperchase, Laura Ashley and Coast to some of the most exciting new independent businesses. Catherine helps businesses grow their sales, manage their stock and build lasting businesses.
Sonja Feitsma, Retail Buyer & Merchandise Manager, Rijksmuseum
Sonja has been working in museums since 2010, first at the Van Gogh Museum before joining Rijksmuseum, where she is responsible for creating and implementing the strategic growth plan across all distribution channels including retail, wholesale, online and licensing.
Gina Fullerlove, Head of Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Gina is responsible for managing a diverse publishing list ranging from adult and children’s gift books to specialist academic titles and scientific journals. Previously she worked for Macmillan, Nature Publishing and Academic Press in the early days of digital publishing.
David Graveen, Managing Partner & Creative Director, Popcorn
Museum Nerd David Graveen is Creative Director of design and manufacturing company Popcorn, dedicated to the non-profit and specialty retail marketplaces. Popcorn partnered with Original Source to form the “Single Source” Brand, delivering an unprecedented range of services, products and best pricing to the museum retail community.
Stuart Hata, Director of Retail Operations, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
As Director of Retail Operations, Stuart is responsible for driving an award-winning multi-million dollar museum retail business and oversees merchandising, store operations, warehousing, product development, retail marketing, licensing, wholesale, and the online FAMSF store (shop.famsf.org).
Matthew Henderson, Product Development Manager, Beamish
Matthew is responsible for retail management and development at Beamish. Inspired by Beamish’s amazing collections, the range includes unique gifts such as the award winning Mr Kerrison’s Cold Cream. Matthew started at Beamish in 2011 as a volunteer and was named national VisitEngland Tourism Superstar in 2015.
Rory Hill, Visitor Services and Retail Manager, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
Rory is the Visitor Services and Retail Manager at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, where he has been looking after their award-winning publishing programme for the past two years. Prior to working in the sector, Rory was the manager of independent book shop The Book Hive for six years.
Gaynor Humphrey, Director, Best Years
During her 20 year career as a retail buyer, Gaynor has worked for companies such as Boots, Dixons and Disney before reaching the level of Buying Director. A chance reunion with a Disney colleague, Liz Cochrane, led to the start of Best Years, a company supplying original, design-led toys, working with a diverse range of fair trade co-operatives.
Louise Kirby, Director of Operations & People, The Deep
Louise is responsible for HR and all commercial activities at The Deep in Hull and has overseen its customer service to welcome over 8 million visitors since 2002. A champion of sustainability, service excellence, people development and accessible tourism, Louise delights in raising aspirations and achievement.
Dr Jamie Larkin, Assistant Professor of Creative and Cultural Industries, Chapman University
Jamie’s research interests include museum management, especially commercial activity and sustainability. He is co-editor of the journal Museums and Social Issues and consulting academic on the ‘Museums in the Pandemic’ project at Birkbeck, University of London.
Rachel Mackay, Manager, Historic Royal Palaces Kew
Rachel has worked in the museum and heritage sector for 18 years, currently managing Kew Palace for Historic Royal Palaces. She is passionate about enabling attraction operators to provide a great experience, and has created The Recovery Room to help venues recover from lockdown.
Declan McCarthy, Head of Publishing and Licensing, Ashmolean Museum
Declan McCarthy is Head of Publishing and Licensing at the Ashmolean, where he has been for more years than he would like to admit. The Ashmolean publishes 10-14 titles per year and projects are generally delivered with the use of freelancers.
Zak Mensah, Co-CEO, Birmingham Museums Trust
Now Co-CEO at Birmingham Museums Trust, Zak was previously Head of Transformation at Bristol City Council for the Culture & Creative Industries service. When not solving problems where people, culture and technology meet, Zak can be found spending time with his family or riding his motorcycle.
Anthony Misquitta, General Counsel, V&A
Anthony is the General Counsel and Secretary to the Board of Trustees at the V&A, specialising in commercial contracts, intellectual property, information and technology law. Alongside his role at the V&A Anthony is a Consultant Solicitor at Keystone Law, a virtual full service law firm.
Kingston Myles, Head of Commercial Development, English Heritage
Having joined English Heritage just before the Covid-19 lockdown, Kingston has been at the forefront of diversifying the charity’s commercial income streams and exploring new and exciting ways of generating income, in addition to its established retail and catering businesses.
Victor Oliveira, Director of Merchandising, Peabody Essex Museum
Victor has over 30 years’ experience working in product development, management, publishing, merchandising and creating retail experiences for Boston Museum of Science, ICA Boston, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum.
Brad Owen, Head of Commercial, Horniman Museum & Gardens
Brad has responsibility for the strategic development and operational management of retail, admissions, catering, venue hire and commercial events. Since joining the Horniman, Brad has overseen successful and sustainable growth across all commercial areas.
Susan Pacitti, Glasgow Museums
Susan has worked in publishing for 28 years, in a variety of editorial and rights roles, and has worked for various learned and professional society publishers. Prior to working in publishing, she was a bookseller and a library assistant.
Katy Raines, Founding Partner, Indigo
Katy Raines is one of the UK’s leading consultants on data-driven marketing for cultural organisations, having developed and led research and implementation programmes for organisations in the UK and Europe. She has a particular passion for using data to effect change and drive an audience-led approach.
Linda Ribeiro, Head of Business and Enterprise, Leeds Museums and Galleries
Linda works with teams to generate income at every opportunity and has successfully introduced a number of initiatives to ensure profitability. Linda is responsible for retail, admissions, venue hire and many other exciting revenue streams.
Emma Roberts, Tech Champion for eCommerce & Merchandising, Arts Council England
Emma specialises in eCommerce and merchandising and helps organisations with sales conversion, commercial strategies and consumer engagement. Emma has a wealth of knowledge on how to deliver focussed, profitable and innovative strategies that deliver results.
Ione Saroyan, Director of Merchandise Operations, New York Historical Society Museum and Library
Ione oversees all strategic and operational aspects of retail and wholesale for the New York Historical Society Museum and Library. She has been a member of the Museum Store Association (MSA) for more than 20 years, serving on the Board of Directors from 2015 to 2019, and as 2018-19 Board President.
Camilla Stewart, Head of Commercial Programmes & Collection Partnerships, Art UK
Camilla started her career working at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, before joining Art UK in 2005. She is responsible for generating self-earned revenue across ecommerce, subscription income and a commercial digitisation service.
Jane Storie, Head of Enterprises, Royal Opera House
Jane manages a portfolio of activities including sponsorship, licensing, advertising, catering, retail, venue hire and summer season. She leads a team that has tripled corporate income, delivered an 11% growth in Patron membership and contributed to a step change in Development income.
Rod Taylor, Chief Operating Officer, Royal Armouries
As Chief Operating Officer at Royal Armouries, Rod has led a major project to substantially improve the organisation’s business model and financial sustainability through new income streams. Rod was previously Deputy Director at the Hepworth Wakefield.
David Tibbs, Publishing Officer, Imperial War Museums
David graduated from the Publishing course at University College London in 2013. Since then he has gone on to work as a Publishing Assistant at Royal Collection Trust, and is currently the Publishing Officer at IWM in London, where he manages their in-house titles.
Tanja Vereyken, Shop Manager, FOMU Antwerp
Tanja has been Shop Manager at FOMU Antwerp since 2014, making the museum shop a commercial success. In October 2019 Tanja launched an online shop, one of the first online museum shops in Belgium. She has also introduced new concepts in the shop such as working with young creatives and Museum Shop Sunday.
Lydia White, Publishing Sales & Marketing Manager, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Lydia is responsible for managing the global distribution, sales, rights, publicity and marketing of Kew’s book list. She is also involved in the business development of new books. Prior to the publishing world she trained and worked as a biologist specialising in wood anatomy.
Laura Wright, CEO, Postal Museum
Laura is responsible for ensuring the Postal Museum fulfils its mission and is open to as wide an audience as possible while also remaining financially sustainable. Previously Laura spent eight years as CEO of Tate Enterprises, overseeing publishing, retail, licensing and product development.
Nik Wyness, Head of Marketing & Engagement, Tank Museum
Nik Wyness has led a digital transformation at the Tank Museum. With a passion for digital storytelling and a drive to “do it yourself”, his recent efforts have focussed on the development and monetisation of a global online community, using social media, Patreon and Shopify.

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