Fundraising through Social Media • D

Speakers: Lindy Hoyer, Omaha Children’s Museum; Dana Nelson, GiveMN.org; Josh Becerra, Monkey Island, Inc.

The connected age provides an opportunity to change the scope and capacity of fundraising. For children’s museums it is an opportunity to rethink fundraising entirely, help potential donors become more involved and to give more and in different ways than they have in the past. Panelists highlight the various social media outlets used to engage potential donors and share best practices for changing how we raise funds and shift interactions between givers and receivers through this new medium.

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Money & Power • F

Speakers: Jill Measells, Minnesota Children’s Museum; Marcia Avner, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits; Steve Horsfield, Salvation Army Harbor Light; JanetOgden-Brackett, Nonprofits Assistance Fund

This session will explore how revenue sources shape museum operations and impact a museum’s financial sustainability. Panelists will introduce three practical financial analysis tools that allow museums to conduct a sustainability exam.Gain an understanding of how institutional power can be used as a catalyst to change a museum’s financial sustainability.

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Marketing Public Relations Session: Uniting the Children's Museum Brand •M/PR

Speakers: Ruth Shelly, Madison Children’s Museum; Jennifer Farrington, Chicago Children’s Museum; Diane Kopasz, Association of Children’s Museums; Debbie Gilpin, Children’s Museum of Phoenix; Beth Fitzgerald, The Magic House, St. Louis Children’s Museum; and Anthony Lawson, Duke Energy Children’s Museum

Delivering clear messages about a children’s museum confirms its credibility, connects target prospects emotionally, motivates key audiences to act and ensures their loyalty. Understand how to keep on message, what ACM and leading children’s museums do to
improve messaging, marketing and branding and the payoffs for doing so. This session features four museum case studies and provides participants a forum to discuss how ACM can make visible and promote the value of children’s museums.

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Social Media 201: Beyond Basics • M/PR

Speakers: Samantha Moy, Minnesota Children’s Museum; Kylee Breems, Minnesota Children’s Museum; Kate McRoberts, Evantage Consulting; Dan Beranek, Target Corporation

You’ve heard the buzz about sites and tools such as Facebook and Twitter -- but are they worth your time and investment? Presenters will give a brief introduction to some of these tools and share best practices, advanced uses of these tools and success stories. Areas to be touched upon include: offering discounts through social media -- dos and don’ts; crisis communications; attracting visitors through word-of-mouse; building relationships with members of your local media, like-minded organizations and museum members; and realistic ROI expectations.

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Get Your Social Media in Gear • M/PR

Speakers: Nicholas Viggiano, Please Touch Museum®; Silvana Pop, Please Touch Museum®

The rise of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., has changed the way individuals communicate, offering new avenues for organizations to market and sell their products and services. These social networking sites can be a children’s museum’s dream marketing tool. But what really works for children’s museums in the vast world of Web 2.0? This idea swap will offer best practices while attempting to debunk social media myths. Learn from one children’s museum’s social media efforts about how to make the most out of your social media initiatives while keeping your marketing and branding efforts intact.

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Emerging Museums Pre-Conference

Concurrent Round — Operating a Children’s Museum

Speakers: Laura Foster, Please Touch Museum®; Ronald Street, NorthStar Museums; and Julie Van Blarcom, Delaware Children’s Museum

What questions should you ask to establish a successful museum? How do you estimate capital vs. operating costs? Does your museum plan to have event packages? Will the institution offer food and retail services? If so, who will manage these services? Panelists answer these questions and will provide a sample business plan to help participants set up a successful museum operation.

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Emerging Museums Pre-Conference

The Who, What and Whys of Opening a Children’s Museum

Speakers: Rebecca Lindsay, MindSplash; Shari Buckellew, Children’s Discovery Museum

You have a dream and the passion to create a children’s museum, but how do you translate them into concrete vision, mission and value statements for potential funders and the community? Who do you need to make this happen? How do you reconcile the need
to satisfy the social, cultural and educational needs of the community with a business plan that will sustain the museum? Panelists answer these questions and guide participants through the tough economic feasibility considerations you need to address.

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Professional Perspectives • E/E

Speakers: Reb Haizlip, Haizlip Studio; Allen Boerger, Roto Studio; Ronald Street, NorthStar Museums; and Cheryl Bartholow, Argyle Design, Inc.

Moderator: Eliza Ward, Association of Children’s Museums

In this sponsored session, organizations share their knowledge and expertise. How do you start the planning process for a new museum or exhibit project? Roto Studio will offer exhibit design and fabrication budget ratio guidelines and tips on when to keep exhibit development in-house and when to seek a partner. Haizlip Studio will present a case study of the step-by-step process involved in creating a new children’s museum, from concept to master plan and beyond. NorthStar Museums will discuss the five biggest mistakes children’s museums make when planning new construction and how expert project management can help avoid lost time and money. Argyle Design will discuss strategies to stretch design and fabrication budgets without losing creativity and impact.

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Creating Small Traveling Exhibits • E/E

Speakers: Kathleen Krafft, Sciencenter; Robin Burlingham, Sciencenter; Diane LaFollette, Museum of Discovery, Arkansas’ Museum of Science & History; Amber Stevenson, Minnesota Children’s Museum

Explore the challenges and successes associated with developing and managing small traveling exhibitions. Museums of all sizes share their insights on the costs and benefits of developing exhibits and offer first-hand information regarding the importance of investing in research before embarking on a small traveling exhibit project.

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How the Brain Wants to Learn: Cognitive Science Informing Interactive Exhibit Design • E/E

Speakers: Sari Boren, Wondercabinet Interpretive Design; Michael Connell, Ed.D., Institute for Knowledge Design, LLC;
Brad Stefl, Children’s Discovery Museum (IL)

The brain makes inferences about an exhibit’s subject matter from the structure or design of the exhibit, not just from the exhibit content. The design of interactive exhibits can work with or against the brain’s learning agenda, so invest early and wisely in your exhibit design. Panelists will translate cognitive theories into a practical explanation of interactive exhibit design based on current research and using case studies from various domains. Participants will actively work on design problems in groups.

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Nature Play: The Environmental Connection • E/E

Speakers: Susan Goltsman, MIG, Inc.; Marilee Jennings, Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose; Cheryl Robinson DeWelt, Madison Children’s Museum

Creating immersive nature play environments for young children is both a growing trend and essential for healthy child development. The session will begin with a variety of spectacular case examples that intimately connect children and parents to nature. The facilitated workshop that follows will engage participants in structuring an exhibit and program for their museum. The workshop will help select the activities and the supporting environments, staffing, operations as well as visitor and organizational issues that must be considered to be successful. Participants will work with a designer and a museum director on an exhibit and/or program that could be implemented in their museum.

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Addressing Childhood Obesity • E/E

Speakers: Shannon Johnson, Creative Discovery Museum; Susan Garrard, Mississippi Children’s Museum; Gail Ringel, Boston Children’s Museum; Tanya Andrews, Children’s Museum of Tacoma; Shari Buckellew, Children’s Discovery Museum

Obesity is a serious health concern for children and their families. Exhibits in children’s museums are addressing this national epidemic in interesting and creative ways.Get the latest information about how open and emerging children’smuseums are working to alleviate the obesity problem through the development of core and traveling exhibits that encourage healthy lifestyles. Children’s museums of all sizes will benefit from this helpful information.

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Learning to Lead • L

Speakers: Ingrid Anderson, Portland Children’s Museum; Susan Choate, Portland Children’s Museum

New leaders are often faced with many challenges. Join this interactive, train-the-trainer session where we use hands-on activities as an opportunity to dialogue and problem solve the challenges of providing leadership. Prepare for an interactive, fast-paced workshop that will address effective communication, leadership styles, creating followership and dealing with difficult people.

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It All Starts with Getting Governance Right • L

Speaker: Karen Coltrane, Children’s Museum of Richmond

How do we get the board to stop picking exhibit colors and move the organization forward? This session will explore the appropriate roles for both the board and CEO/staff, providing information sources, guidelines and best practices for organization governance. The
discussion will include examples of governance that work (and some that don’t) with the majority of time dedicated to audience questions and discussions of your specific challenges.

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Museums, Libraries and 21st Century Skills • L

Speakers: Marsha Semmel, Institute of Museum and Library Services; Tammie Kahn, The Children’s Museum of Houston;
Henry Schulson, Creative Discovery Museum

This session will focus on a recent IMLS report, Museums, Libraries and 21st Century Skills, and an accompanying self-assessment tool that addresses the critical role museums and libraries can play in promoting 21st century skills. The report and tool provide insights about theObama administration’s education reform priorities, as well as needs identified by the formal education and corporate sectors, which can assist museums in evolving their role as core community learning institutions.

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Evaluation as Investment • L

Speakers: Barbara Wolf, Ph.D., The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis; EleeWood, Ph.D., Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and The Children’sMuseum of Indianapolis

Are you prepared to respond to the ever-changing needs of your exhibits and programs? An investment in the skills and know-how of evaluation can help you get there. The purpose of this interactive, double-session is to present examples of exhibit evaluation findings in family learning and provide attendees with opportunities to practice basic evaluation skills to conduct simple exhibit and environmental studies. Using common scenarios from museum life, attendees will identify and practice strategies to design
appropriate evaluation studies, receive a packet of materials with best practices in research as well as valuable resources for further skill development.

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Creative Program Development to Rigorous Project Management • P/E

Speakers: Gail Ringel, Boston Children’s Museum; Mary Ellen Munley, MEM & Associates

Two seasoned leaders will take participants through a step-by-step process of initial concept development, program and proposal development to the ultimate goal of effective project management. Among the questions to be considered: how to know if a project is successful; how to integrate project management from the get go; how to develop goals to measure results; and why, how and when to adjust projects mid-course.

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InterActivity 2010 Keynotes

Each year, ACM delivers nationally-known keynote speakers to InterActivity. To bring these inspiring thought-leaders to you, ACM often works with a speakers bureau, arranges for speaker travel and provides hotel accommodations. We know listening to these keynote speakers greatly impacts children's museum professionals, and we hope to extend this experience to those members who were not able to attend InterActivity 2010 by offering MP3 recordings of the live speeches.

• Instant Gratification: Download Now -- Dan Pallotta , author of Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential and founder of Pallotta TeamWorks, spoke about how nonprofits can grow by challenging conventional wisdom on Friday, May 7, 2010

• Instant Happiness: Research reveals that when individuals spend money for gifts for friends or charitable donations, they get a boost in happiness. Make a voluntary donation ($1 or $100 or something in between) to ACM's Impact Fund via PayPal and receive :
  
  

  • Johnnetta Cole, Ph.D., anthropologist, director of the National Museum of African Art and former Spelman College president, speech on strengthening diversity and inclusion from Thursday, May 6, 2010

  • Peter L. Benson, Ph.D., president & CEO of Search Institute speech about sparking positive development in children and the long-term benefits of doing so from Saturday, May 8, 2010; and

  • An extra zip in your step from supporting ACM's efforts to bring more inspiration to InterActivity 2011.

    To Get Instant Happiness:

    

    
    

    1. Click" Donate" above.

    2. Make a secure donation using PayPal.

    3. After you donate, a button on PayPal will appear. Click the button to access the keynote files.

    Listen and enjoy!

    Have an keynote speaker suggestion for InterActivity 2011? Email Korie Twiggs, Program Officer, Education.

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