MCG Museums+Tech 2026 — Using our spaces for authentic interactions

Something that unites and affects all museums is place. Some museums are sited where they are to help tell the story of the place they are in, occupying the sites of former works or heritage buildings. Others are designed to tell our stories to the people in and around the place they are in, such as many of our cherished local museums. In doing so they often tell the stories of that community, and offer the chance to foster a sense of belonging and see our society reflected to us. This can often be vital in areas where the safe space of the museum place allows a break from the outside world, a chance to connect with each other. Our museums can act as spaces for interactions with the collections, society and each other. 

Yet digital has vastly affected our sense of space, and naturally that means museums as well. In our lives we are frequently involved in communities no longer bounded by place: a quick look at where your Instagram friends actually are in the world is a good example. What does this mean for museums, both for themselves and the stories they tell? How has the intersection of digital into the museum space changed our interactions?

How does this affect ‘who’ the visitor is, their demographics and what a meaningful ‘museum visit’ or interaction is? Is there such a thing as a ‘digital only visitor’ and what weight does that carry for a museum? What about the museum itself, can this be truly removed from the physical space?

As that interaction between people and the museum reflects our digital era, what about authenticity? Screens are ubiquitous, do museums offer a break from staring at them? Can digital enhance the authenticity of the experience? Does the wealth of extra potential data available for an item on display enhance our connection with it? Where can we create new authentic connections? How are we pushing the boundaries of what an interaction is? Is it looking, touching, talking or something else? 

Bursaries for Early Career Professionals

We at the Museums Computer Group are incredibly grateful to the Art Fund for providing bursaries to this year’s conference. Through the bursaries, the Art Fund will support up to 10 Early Career Professionals (ECPs) to attend and participate in the conference. Both the MCG and Art Fund are passionate about supporting those who are new to the sector to connect, network and learn together. For more information about this opportunity, please visit our website.

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Programme

With special thanks to Numiko, Manifesto and Substrakt for sponsoring this year’s Museums+Tech conference.

9:00 – 9:50 Registration

10:00 Welcome address

10:10 Session 1: The power of the personal – augmenting our experiences

• Sponsor Talk: Numiko (10 mins)
• When Visitors Can Ask Anything. Eamon Byrne, Tell me AI, and Graham Davies, Amgueddfa Cymru
• From Curious Conversations to Conversational Agent Design: Learning Conversational Interaction Patterns from Dialogic Heritage Tours. Tianxiao Wang, PhD Researcher, Imperial College London
• The Perfect Blend – human led, digital assisted experiences. Noah Burrows, Head of Client & Visitor Experience Innovation, ATS-Heritage
• Digital as a Doorway: What museum learning can teach us about access and authentic engagement. Katya Provornaya, Communications & Participation Manager, GEM

11:30 Keynote TBA

12:15 Lunch & Museums Computer Group AGM

13:00 Session 2: Built in – understanding and creating impact in our spaces

• Sponsor Talk: Manifesto (10 mins)
• Here’s Looking at You: Observations of Digital Interactions at the Weston Library, Oxford. Emily Fildes, Digital Engagement and Website Manager, Bodleian Libraries
• Rethinking content management on gallery displays at Bristol Museums. Mike Ellis, Founder, The Museum Platform
• Saving Time, Improving Accessibility: Using AI to Produce High Quality Audio Descriptions. Paul Goddard, Lecturer, University of the West of England and Cardiff University
• Why Place Still Matters: Creating Authentic Interactions in a Digital Age. Theresa Macaulay, Digital Experience Producer, Science Museum Group

14:30 Break

15:10 Session 3: The Virtual Place

• Authentic Access to a City’s Memory. Tristan Roddis, Technical Director, Cogapp
• Building the University of Bristol’s Virtual Museum. Stephen Gray, Head of Research Support, University of Bristol
• What do audiences want from a collections website in the age of AI? Alix Geddes, Senior Content Analyst and Beth Downs, Content Analyst, One Further

16:15 Closing Session: MCG List Live

• MCG List Live
• Sponsor talk: Substrakt (5 mins)

16:45 Chair’s closing address

17:15 Post-conference drinks

• Sponsored by Substrakt, venue TBC