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We were back in Kilkenny last week, looking at more communities who we might work with on the Kilkenny LEADER Partnership’s Community Heritage and Cultural Interpretation Mentoring project. The project is developing nicely.  We held a lively Launch Meeting for community representatives at The Heritage Council’s headquarters to explain the project and what it offers. Hopefully by […]

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Interpreters can learn a lot from other forms of cultural communication – like Olympic opening ceremonies. So  what can we glean from Danny Boyle, the guy who created the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony?  This is what he had to say about the process of trying to introduce contemporary Britain to the world.. (If that link […]

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I am on the train on the way back from The Tourism Society Conference.  It was very good day, packed with information including a refreshing amount of numerical data based on real research and proficient number crunching. Obviously, I was looking out for things that might inform our work with heritage and countryside attractions and […]

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Heritage sites can be good, powerful and human places to encounter and understand the important people and events that have shaped a country’s past and present. I believe they have a particularly important  role for international visitors. I have been immensely blessed to work regularly in Ireland over the last four years.  I have fallen […]

8 ways to enjoy a heritage attraction

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There are lots of ways to have a great visit to a heritage site. There are many  types of good times to be found at old places, wild places, holy places, places of memorial, places of bloodshed, places of art, places of story.  There are different sorts of heritageand many different visits. Probably as many […]

How to stop new people visiting your heritage attraction

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We’ll all seen them, heritage attractions that seem to be trying to do the reverse of attracting.  They do things that will actively discourage visitors. If you want fewer visitors you could learn from their example.  (If, on the other hand, you would like more and happier first time visitors go straight to the end of this […]

Jargon-busting for writers: diving into ‘biodiversity’

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Last week’s post highlighted why jargon-busting is important – especially when we set about communicating with people outside our closed circle.  Our jargon words, our secret language,  separate us and give us our mantle of authority and expertise.  It can be hard   to realise that that mantle is often is a barrier.  Good writing for non-specialists […]

The value of community heritage: Kilkenny

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After 25 years in the business, I am still regularly inspired and delighted by the people and places that my work takes me to. And that was even before last week, when Peter and I went to Kilkenny. Recently (for example here and here and here and here) there has been a lot of discussion about what […]

Jargon-busting for writers: ‘ecology’

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Last week, I  asked my workshop participants to tell me what makes for good writing for the public.  One of the things they all knew is that we must use familiar words. No jargon, they said. Abandon the technical and specialist language.  Do not use words that no one, who is not like us, understands. Yes, […]

Two women in an exhibition – why we need to plan for diverse experiences at cultural attractions

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“I don’t get it, what does it mean?’ That’s a question I am pretty familiar with.  But this time it wasn’t me asking about The Matrix, the error message on my screen, or the  ‘WUU2’ text or equivalent from my daughter. This time it was overheard in an exhibition of contemporary art; in the Anthony Gormley exhibition in […]