News

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We have just completed the Northern Ireland – Embrace a Giant Spirit Experience Development Toolkit for Tourism Northern Ireland . This is the last in a suite of attractive resources for the launch and run-out of this important new experience brand. High quality, beautifully designed materials have been vital throughout the development and run-out of […]

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Developing a refreshed approach to storytelling that integrates the on-site and digital visitor experience with the brand values.

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Susan writes: The Local Perspectives on Different Histories: an open exchange for best practices in Memory Work seminar brought together extraordinary people, mainly from central and eastern Europe. Being with them was an inspiration. I was there, as a heritage interpreter, to help the group consider the future of the personal memories and how memories […]

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Sculpture of Yeats

  Susan writes: The Yeats Society, Sligo is close to my heart. It was one of the first places I worked for as a Fáilte Ireland mentor, well over ten years ago. Sligo is a beautiful county; everything I had ever dreamed Ireland would be. I love poetry and although then I probably only knew […]

Northern Ireland – Embrace a Giant Spirit at the World Travel Market

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Now it can be told. For almost all of this year we have been working under wraps on the next big thing for tourism in Northern Ireland, a new experience brand for the next ten years. On 4th November 2019, those wraps were pulled off at the World Travel Market in London.  Northern Ireland – […]

Ireland’s Ancient East mentoring

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IAE Storytelling Toolkit

Towards the end of last year, we were appointed by Fáilte Ireland as heritage interpretation and visitor experience mentors to 25 attractions in Ireland’s Ancient East. The attractions had all been awarded capital grants for new interpretation, primarily for international audiences.  This is part of running out Ireland’s Ancient East, Ireland’s latest major tourism proposition. […]

Tourism Masterplan for the River Shannon

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Framework document cover page

The River Shannon – the Mighty River of Ireland – runs through the Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands and through the character, folklore and identity of Ireland. When SLR were commissioned to develop a Masterplan for unlocking the sustainable tourism potential of this beautiful, wild and (mostly) serene river and its environs, we were part of the team […]

TellTale Training in Europe: Lithuania and Slovenia

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People listening to a presentation

After a year focusing almost exclusively on the next generation of experience tourism for Northern Ireland, it’s made a pleasant contrast to be back on the road, travelling further afield in Europe this autumn. We feel fortunate to have been invited back to three countries that we have much affection for. Firstly, Lithuania, for our […]

New Forest Connects training programme

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We have loved helping to deliver the training element of the Interpretation Plan that we wrote for the New Forest: Our Past, Our Future Landscape Partnership. The Plan identified modern communication skills as essential to conservation bodies, particularly in a much-visited National Park in densely populated southern England. It proposed a diverse training programme with […]

Welcoming Karolina Želvė to TellTale

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Karolina standing on a rocky outcrop with views over the Peak District stretching into the far distance

We are delighted to be hosting Karolina Želvė from Lithuania at the TellTale office. She is spending two weeks with us, studying how an independent heritage interpretation and visitor experience consultancy works.  She has recently set up a similar enterprise in Lithuania. Having met us when we visited Kaunas at the end of last year, Karolina asked to […]

Norway Regional Parks Conference keynote

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leviathan backbone and ship sculpture on a beach

Sometimes this work brings us the most amazing opportunities.  Visiting Arctic Norway is high on the list for ‘best things we have done in the course of business’. It is a fabulous place.  Participating in a national conference on ‘Visitor Experience in Norway’s Regional Parks’ enriched the experience. It not only bought us into contact […]

The English National Park Experience Collection

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Covers of three English National Park Experience Development Frameworks

We have just delivered the Experience Development Frameworks for the English National Park Experience Collection, a new international tourism proposition for England’s National Parks. These fine looking documents (designed once again by our good friends at The Way) set the direction for the Experience Collection which will be launched internationally later this year. There are nine […]

New Toolkit – Sharing the Wild Heart of Ireland

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Smiling Irish teenagers on a windy day

  As our final contribution to the Tourism Interpretation Masterplan for Ireland’s National Parks, we have just completed a new toolkit.  Sharing the Wild Heart of Ireland: Interpretation guidelines for Ireland’s National Parks is an internal document for National Park staff in the six National Parks. It gives step-by-step advice on how to use the national and […]

Tourism Interpretation Frameworks for Ireland’s National Parks

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a spread of the framework documents

  It’s been a lot of work and we are delighted with the final versions of the Tourism Interpretation Frameworks for Ireland’s National Parks. This is TellTale’s main contribution to a major Tourism Interpretation Masterplan for the National Parks that we produced in partnership with SLR Consulting, with design by The Way. The Tourism Interpretation Frameworks […]

Minister praises new Storytelling Interpretation Toolkit for Ireland’s Ancient East

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IAE Storytelling Toolkit

It is exciting to see top level endorsement of the new Storytelling Interpretation Toolkit that we produced for Ireland’s Ancient East.  It is not every day that a government minister talks about heritage interpretation – let alone about a TellTale project!   The Irish Minister of State for Tourism, Patrick O’Donovan said: “Bringing history alive is […]

Storytelling Interpretation Toolkit – possibly our favourite job ever

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For a company called TellTale, writing a toolkit on Storytelling Interpretation is just brilliant.  Writing for Ireland’s Ancient East, a tourism proposition based on stories, is even better. We are very pleased with A Toolkit for Storytelling Interpretation. It brings together the lessons we learned from mentoring the first 25 attractions in Ireland’s Ancient East […]

New Forest Connects Training Programme

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We are now helping to deliver the training element of the Interpretation Plan that we wrote for the New Forest: Our Past, Our Future Landscape Partnership. The Plan identified modern communication skills as essential to conservation bodies, particularly in a much-visited National Park in densely populated southern England. It proposed a diverse training programme with […]

Interpret Europe Conference in Mechelen, Belgium

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As usual, the Interpret Europe conference was a highlight of our year. We always find this diverse gathering of committed, thoughtful and fun heritage professionals immensely rewarding and energising. This time the conference was in Mechelen, Belgium and had the rather ambitious theme of ‘The Future of Europe’.  Many of us felt this seemed far […]

Working nearer home: South West Peak Interpretation Plan

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Another partnership, another landscape, another Interpretation. Once again it is totally different.  In this instance, the key issue is not building recognition, but of managing recreation pressure and local interests in part of Britain’s most visited National Park. Happily, the partners represented a range of interests and, as usual, our consultations involved them working in […]

TellTale on tour

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Susan Cross driving the camper van

We have taken off for the summer. For the next five weeks we’re touring Ireland in a camper van. But this is no picnic (although, to be fair, it will involve some of those) and it’s certainly not a holiday. We have been awarded large and important contracts in Ireland so we need to relocate […]

Interpretation training at the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha

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TellTale were delighted to deliver a week of training in interpretation planning for the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar.

Great Lighthouses of Ireland win Silver Award

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CONGRATULATIONS! The Great Lighthouses of Ireland project has won the Silver Award in Irish Responsible Tourism Awards . TellTale are delighted to be part of this project which is demonstrating that – to individual people, to communities, to local economies (especially in remote rural areas).

Getting people talking about the Churnet Valley

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    Interpretation was a relatively small part of this ambitious and wide-ranging Landscape Partnership Scheme which focused largely on repairing and improving landscape features, habitats and access and included considerable work on and near canals. We helped the Partnership publicise its work through a recently launched website and a leaflet for local people. This […]

One book for all at Wetland Centres

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The Wildfowl and Wetland Trust had been unhappy with their guidebooks for years.  Over the last few years they have as an organisation learned a lot more about their different visitor segments and what they need.  They have made lots of changes in what they provide – and we at TellTale have been delighted to […]

TellTale Training at Tower Bridge, London

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Susan CRoss trains staff in writing for overseas tourists at Tower Bridge.

Writing for international tourists requires all the usual sharp writing skills and then some more. Our training helped staff at the internationally recognisable Tower Bridge, one of London’s top attractions, to communicate with their global audience.

Headlands to Headspace – Morecambe Bay

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We are going to be getting to know Morecambe Bay a lot better over the next few months as we will be doing not one but two projects there. We are delighted to be working with Minerva Heritage on developing an overarching Interpretation Strategy for the Morecambe Bay Area for the Headlands to Headspace Landscape […]

The Secrets of the Sands Landscape Partnership

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We have produced many Interpretation Plans for Landscape Partnership Schemes (LPSs), usually as part of the Development Phase for Heritage Lottery funding.  It may sound repetitive, but in fact each landscape, and each Partnership, is distinctive and different. For instance, building recognition of the Bedfordshire greensand landscape was a priority in the Audience Development and […]

World Heritage Sites in Italy

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We’ve had a ‘holiday’ and notched up visits to five (or maybe six) UNESCO World Heritage Sites at Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast, Parco Nazionale Cilento y Vallo de Diano, Veila and Paestum.  All were wonderful and all reminded us of the need for entry level interpretation that is appropriate for global visitors at sites with […]

Landmark grant to secure New Forest’s future

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We were delighted to hear that the New Forest’s unique heritage, landscape and wildlife for future generations has received £2.8m, thanks to the National Lottery. The grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) will fund a visionary project to restore lost habitats, develop traditional Forest skills and inspire a new generation of people to cherish […]

Communicating nature conservation

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Today Peter is in Sheffield talking to the Chartered Institute of Ecologists and Environmental Managers. He is talking about the importance of communication skills and how they should be seen as essential to the environmental profession. He is talking to a group of professionals who care, usually passionately, about the value of ecology. He will make the case that we need […]

Audience Consultations in Bedfordshire

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TellTale partners Resources for Change have been undertaking community consultations in the ‘Secrets of the Sands’ landscape area and nearby Bedford and Milton Keynes to discover how much people know about the Bedfordshire Greensand Ridge. This research is part of our work with the Secrets of the Sands Landscape Partnership Scheme. The results of this […]

InHerit Pilot Heritage Interpretation Training Course

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Course participants gathered in the entrance hall at Eltham Palace, London

Susan recently facilitated a pilot workshop for the InHerit project that brought together trainers and participants from nine European countries.

Winners of Best Heritage Project 2015

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Staff and volunteers of the Royal Air Force Museum celebrating their win with Martin Kemp, crowded around a plane

Many congratulations to everyone at the Royal Air Force Museum, winners of Best Heritage Project in the National Lottery Awards 2015 for the ‘First World War in the Air’ gallery. A well deserved win and a tribute to a transformative project that was a worthy beneficiary of HLF funding for increasing access to heritage. We […]

Helping to interpret the Secrets of the Sands

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We are delighted to have just been appointed, in partnership with Resources For Change, to carry out the Audience Development and Interpretation Planning work for the Secrets of the Sands Landscape Partnership.  This will feed into the Partnership’s  Heritage Lottery Fund Phase Two bid. We are looking forward to working with the Bedfordshire Rural Community […]

Interpretive Master-plan for Cork’s Maritime Heritage

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We have completed a master interpretive planning study for Failte Ireland to guide the development of Cork City and Harbour as a signature visitor experience based on maritime heritage. We worked with historians, attraction managers, transport providers and other visitor facing business to produce a plan based on shared stories and collaborative working.  

Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust Centre Guides

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We’ve just finished work on a new centre guide for the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge. The guide has been totally re-vamped and modernised with the use of more colour and interaction. It is much more lively and a major step forward for the centre. The designers at Smith & Milton Bristol have done […]

Penwyllt Visitor Experience Plan

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We have almost completed working on a Visitor Experience Plan for Penwyllt in the Brecon Beacons National Park, which we have worked on with our close associates The Tourism Company, looking at how to use interpretation to improve visitor experience at this key early industrial site. Work has involved consultations with local people who have […]

Audio recordings for the Churnet Valley

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Peter recently spent some time interviewing 16 Delivery Partners from the Churnet Valley Living Landscape Project about their work on the project and their personal experiences of the Churnet Valley. We are now working on using the results of the audio content to produce project pages for the new website and a leaflet for the […]

National Lottery Awards 2015 – Vote now for The Royal Air Force Museum

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We are very excited to hear that The Royal Air Force Museum’s First World War in the Air exhibition has been shortlisted for the National Lottery Awards 2015, which is fantastic news! As the exhibition spans both London and Cosford, it is an award that is relevant to both public sites and the Museum as […]

Interpret Europe Conference Kraków

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Series of interpretive panels at Kazimierz Dolny in Poland displaying artwork

    This was, quite possibly the best conference we have ever been to.  Interpret Europe conferences are always very good. They have become an annual event for us, an important way to build and strengthen our network of contacts across the continent.   More than 120 lively, thoughtful and committed heritage communicators came to Krakow […]

Exploring Bialowieza Forest

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Trees in Bialowieza Forest, Poland, a UNESCO natural world heritage site

As holiday makers, we experienced at first hand the importance of local people in helping visitors make the most of their time in the new place. The friendly and helpful staff at our Stoczek 1929 http://www.bialowiezastoczek.com accommodation and the expertise and knowledge of our local nature guides Arek and Mateusz http://bialowiezaforest.eu helped to make this trip exceptional. […]

Time out in Poland – Part 2

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Visitors at Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp in Poland taking photographs

More than 120 lively, thoughtful and committed heritage communicators came to Krakow to share ideas and reflections at the Interpret Europe Conference 2015

Time out in Poland Part 1

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Buildings in Old Krakow, Poland

Susan and Peter have been visiting UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Poland

Visitor Experience Plan for Penwyllt

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Sheep grazing next to remains of silica brickworks in Penwyllt

TellTale has just started work on a new project with close associates The Tourism Company working on a Visitor Experience Plan for Penwyllt, one of the most fascinating areas of Brecon Beacons National Park.

Great Lighthouses of Ireland Launch

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Former Lighthouse Keeper Gerald Butler and a young girl, Sarah (6)

The interpretive approach for Great Lighthouses of Ireland launched on the 20th May 2015. Featuring twelve lighthouses in stunning coastal locations Great Lighthouses of Ireland will offer unforgettable experiences and create a deep appreciation of the role of lighthouses, past and present, and in the maritime and seafaring story of the island of Ireland. We […]

Humour and European heritage

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Book cover for 'Companion to European Heritage Revivals' edited by Linde Egberts and Koos Bosma

Susan was invited to attend a knowledge transfer seminar, organised by Cradles of European Culture: Francia Media and CLUE Research Institute in Amsterdam, and to run a workshop on Humour in heritage dissemination. This was a really stimulating and enjoyable event, which included other sessions on circular storytelling and an in-depth look at gamification.

AHI Judges Training

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The AHI has launched a new awards scheme recognising high quality heritage interpretation in the UK and Ireland.

Lighthouse Storykeeper’s Training

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Lighthouse Storykeeper at the lighthouse training at Hook Lighthouse, Co. Wexford

TellTale has been working as part of the Genesis team to develop Great Lighthouses of Ireland as a signature visitor experience. Susan is producing a toolkit of resources and support for the lighthouse storykeeper’s. She also ran a very successful two day workshop for storykeeper’s from all the lighthouses at Hook Lighthouse at Co. Wexford, […]

More mentoring across South and East Ireland

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Susan and Peter have been back in Ireland providing mentoring support on behalf of Fáilte Ireland. Between them, they visited the Jameson Experience, Fota House, the Titanic Experience, Blackrock Castle and the Lifetime Lab. They had very enjoyable and productive sessions, (especially Peter whiskey tasting at the Jameson Experience!), working with staff to help them […]

Churnet Valley Speaks: Community Audio Project

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We are gathering local people’s experiences and stories about the Churnet Valley and what makes it so special in The Churnet Valley Speaks audio project. This is part of the wider Churnet Valley Living Landscape Project. During the last month Peter has recorded project partners talking about their work and what it means for the […]

Mentoring across South and East Ireland

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Susan has visited a number of attractions across South and East Ireland recently to provide mentoring support on behalf of Fáilte Ireland. Susan has been to Hook Lighthouse, Killruddery House and Gardens and Cavan Watermill and thoroughly enjoyed her time with these attractions, working with staff to get the results they want and helping their […]

A new TellTale website

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We have just launched our newly designed TellTale website! Our design is now much more responsive and provides a seamless user experience across mobile, tablet and desktop. Screen sizes are always changing so we wanted to make sure our site could adapt to any screen size. The site is now a lot cleaner and easier […]

Interpretive master planning for maritime Ireland

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We are creating interpretive strategies and plans for two new coastal ‘signature visitor experiences’ in Ireland. One focuses on lighthouses in Antrim and Donegal, the other at the maritime heritage of Cork city and harbour.

Training and mentoring in Kilkenny

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Susan Cross leading a training and mentoring session

Twenty three enthusiastic people, two lively trainers, one of the best hotels in our favourite Irish city and trip to the brewery thrown in – we love our work!

Interpretation Strategy for New Forest project.

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The New Forest is a complicated place. Balancing the traditional land management which dates back to medieval times, with the pressures and demands of modern recreation requires sensitivity, understanding and a robust interpretation strategy.

Visitor experience study visit to Portsmouth

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Old steam sailing ship at Portsmouth Historic Dockyards

Susan has just led an intensive study tour to Portsmouth focusing on how maritime heritage can be used to create great visitor experience.

Staff changes at The Steps

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After three years we bid fond farewall to Anna Flanagan, our supremely efficient administrator at the end of April. This week we welcomed her replacement, Claire Grabowski.

Bridging gaps in interpretation and visitor management

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We have been busy on a wide range of projects so far this year.