The Visitor Studies Group: Championing excellent visitor experiences
Call for proposals 2025
We’re delighted to share our Call for Proposals for VSG Conference 2025.
The theme is: Valuing Audiences: Measuring, Responding to, and Understanding Audience Values and Experiences.
Continuing conversations started at the 2024 conference, we want to explore the topic of value. This influences how visitors choose to spend their time, development opportunities or disposable income, and the value that they place on their time, money and experiences at our organisations.
We welcome input from all those who can address the theme in a creative, collaborative and/or meaningful way to share their own experiences of using a variety of approaches and methodologies in research and evaluation both now and in the future.
The conference will be held at the London Transport Museum on Friday 2 May 2025. Further details about the programme, venue, and pre-meet social to follow.
This year, we’re collecting proposals via Google Form submission. We’re also offering 20 minute sessions with the committee to discuss your idea, should you want to, between 1pm and 5pm on 16 December 2024. These are bookable via Calendly.
All information can be found in this PDF; if you have any questions or need assistance please drop us an email!
We look forward to your explorations of the theme!
Upcoming Events
AI in visitor research: possibilities, questions, concerns Tuesday 19th November, 1.30-2.45pm An introductory explanation of the opportunities that AI currently offers the visitor researcher, to begin unpacking the considerations necessary when beginning to utilise machine learning or language processing tasks to generate insights or share them with colleagues and others. We’ll look at the topic… Continue Reading
Join the Committee!
Share your experience and expertise, take on a new challenge, develop skills and join a supportive team supporting the museum and culture sectors. We are currently recruiting for Committee members to assist with VSG Comms and Events. Do you have ideas you’d like to share? Can you commit a small amount of time each month?… Continue Reading
Join our first ever Freelance and Agency Researcher Advisory Board!
Are you a freelance evaluator, audience researcher or a member of a small research agency? We are looking for people working in freelance roles to support the VSG by joining our new advisory board. We recognise that our current committee does not reflect the sector, and that extra-role time commitments might be more of a… Continue Reading
2024 VSG Elections results!
At elections held in the run up to the VSG AGM on 10 May members voted to approve three proposed amendments to our Constitution , designed to assure the resilience of the VSG. These amendments were proposed by the outgoing Chair were developed following a governance review and trial of a new committee structure. They also… Continue Reading
2024 Conference Programme announced!
We’re thrilled to share the full programme for this year’s conference The cost of culture: measuring barriers affecting the visitor experience. This year’s conference is on 10 May with a pre-conference meet up to the London Transport Museum on the afternoon of 9 May. Each evening will also include an optional social to continue the conversations… Continue Reading
2024 Mentorship Programme applications open!
We are pleased to announce the next iteration of the Visitor Studies Group Mentorship Programme. This informal mentorship programme supports emerging audience researchers and evaluators and anyone who has had audience research responsibilities recently added to their role. First created by long-standing VSG members who want to give something back to the sector, this is… Continue Reading
2024 Conference tickets on sale!
Tickets to our annual conference on 10 May at ISH Venues in London are on sale now! The early bird discount of 20% will be available until 25 March so book early! The theme of the conference is The cost of culture: measuring barriers affecting the visitor experience. Book your ticket here . In recognition of… Continue Reading
VSG Committee – May 2024 Elections
You heard it here first – there will be a May election! No, not that election, the election of the 2024 VSG Committee which will take place this year to ratify existing committee members into their positions and elect new faces to replace outgoing members who have served their term as committee members. There are five… Continue Reading
VSG Mentorship Programme recruitment
Are you an experienced in-house or freelance audience researcher working in the Cultural Heritage sector in the UK? Are you interested in becoming a mentor to support colleagues tackling audience research and evaluation projects? We are recruiting new volunteer mentors for the 2024 VSG Mentorship Programme. This informal initiative enables experienced visitor studies professionals to help, guide and be a friendly ear for others in… Continue Reading
Save the date! Events 2024
We have a suite of events, socials and networking opportunities this year, free for all VSG members. Most events will be open to non-members as well for a fee, check booking links for details. Tea with VSG dates – Zoom 21st February, 1-2pm – Topic: the use of incentives. Book here 17th April, 1-2pm – Topic… Continue Reading
Call for proposals! VSG Conference 2024
** Please note the deadline for submission has been extended to EOD 25th January** We are seeking proposals for our 2024 conference on Friday May 10 at ISH Venues in London. The topic is The cost of culture: measuring barriers affecting the visitor experience Britain is in the middle of a cost of living crisis… Continue Reading
Call for Stories – VSG Newsletter
Do you have an exciting story or news to share with VSG members? We are now sending out VSG Newsletters to members every quarter, and we would like to hear from you. If you have an interesting story or trending news about visitor studies, please get in touch
What is in store for VSG 2023-2024?
This September marked the start of a new term – get to know the Committee here . Our wonderful outgoing Chair from 2020-2023 Jen DeWitt led us through a year of listening at the end of her term and as promised, we have been reflecting on VSG’s next steps. We are very excited to share the… Continue Reading
On Sale now: VSG Conference Open for all: working towards inclusive practice
Tickets for the 2023 VSG Conference, Open for all: working towards inclusive practice are on sale via Eventbrite here> View the full Conference Programme here> View the Conference Schedule including detailed timings for the day here> Join delegates from the UK cultural sector and beyond to connect, share and reflect on experiences of developing inclusive visitor studies practice.… Continue Reading
Mentee Applications now open
Continuing with the last few years successful Visitor Studies Group Mentorship Programme, we are pleased to announce that we are continuing this offer for 2023 to support emerging audience researchers and anyone who has had audience research responsibilities recently added to their role. First ideated by long-standing VSG members who want to give something back… Continue Reading
Key Dates for 2023
We’ve got a busy year ahead, here are the key dates you need to know: Mentorship Programme w/c 9 Jan – applications for mentees opens 10 Feb – mentee applications close Conference 18-19 May – Open for all?: Working towards inclusive practice In person at ISH Venues and online, tickets coming soon 16 Jan –… Continue Reading
VSA training event
Surveys 101 WorkshopTuesday, January 10, 2023 | 1:00 pm ET, 10:00 am PTPresenters: Stephen Ashton, Ph.D., Director of Audience Research and Evaluation, Thanksgiving Point Kari Ross Nelson, M.A., M.S., Research and Evaluation Associate, Thanksgiving Point Description: Back by popular demand! Surveys are one of the most widely used and flexible tools used by evaluators. In… Continue Reading
Conference Bursary
In line with our efforts to be a more inclusive community, each year the Visitor Studies Group offers at least one bursary to support attendance at our annual conference. For our next conference (2023) we will be offering two bursaries. Each covers one full (two-day) ticket for the conference plus £100 towards travel and priority… Continue Reading
Call for Proposals now open!
The call for papers for our 2023 conference “Open for all?: Working towards inclusive practice” is now open. The conference will take place 18 & 19 May and will be hybrid – in person at ISH Venues in London, with an online component. The VSG annual conference brings together delegates from the cultural sector and beyond… Continue Reading
Mentors Needed
Are you interested in helping other audience researchers and evaluators as a mentor?We are recruiting new mentors for the 2022-2023 VSG Mentorship Programme. This initiative enables experienced professionals to support, guide and be a friendly ear for others in the sector. Volunteer mentors will be part of a small collective of mentors and the role is… Continue Reading
Virtual Event – Like herding cats: Coordinating evaluation across multiple areas
Wednesday 9th November, 4-5pm Join us for tea as we discuss the challenge of evaluating programmes or projects which involve multiple partners, sites and activities. Such projects can be fraught with difficulty and contention as well as opportunity to support wide-scale change. Kate Measures and Jen DeWitt will begin the session drawing on our experiences… Continue Reading
WE’RE GROWING! VSG COMMITTEE OPPORTUNITY
The Visitor Studies Group is managed by a committee whose role is to: set the strategic direction for the Group oversee the annual programme of activities represent the Group professionally at conferences and workshops encourage partnership working with like-minded organisations within the UK and from overseas meet four times a year to ensure the needs… Continue Reading
2021 Virtual Event Series Programme
Join us for a Visitor Studies Group conference with a twist! For 2021 we have created an online event series taking place throughout May bringing together practitioners from the cultural sector and beyond to discuss a variety of themes. We want to explore, discuss, and discover different techniques that we have used in the past… Continue Reading
Big data toolkit
As part of the VSG 2018 Conference, ‘Big Data, Big Opportunities’, delegates were invited to contribute ideas to a ‘Big Data Toolkit’. We have compiled notes collected from the conference into the toolkit, which we are sharing with VSG members. This includes examples of ‘big’ and ‘bigger’ data used in the sector, examples of ‘big… Continue Reading
Conference reflections
This year, the Visitor Studies Group were happy to be able to offer a bursary to assist one person to attend our conference. Louise Treble of Glasgow Museums was the deserving recipient and through the bursary was able to attend the full two day conference. Louise has kindly summarised her experience of the conference: As the… Continue Reading
Conference 2017 – Storify
For those of you who were not able to attend our 2017 conference, ”Measuring up”: ways of capturing social value and more intangible outcomes’, held in March, check out our handy Storify: https://storify.com/visitorstudies/visitor-studies-group-conference-2017 Thanks to all who tweeted and joined in the conversation over a thought-provoking two days!