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Tuesday 6 December

The Cloud – on technology as a remedy for cultural choice stress

1. Keynote: “The Cloud and the Crowd” – Gert Nulens (SMIT)

In what ways can digitization of the cultural sector both intensify and spread participation in culture? SMIT researcher Gert Nulens scans the broad horizon against which several processes capable of permanently changing the culture maker/culture taster relation are emerging. Terms like “recommendation engines”, “crowdsourcing” and “location based services” may still have an unfamiliar ring to many of us, but others argue that they are the cars of a train it would be better not to miss.

Gert Nulens is the e-culture coordinator for the SMIT Research Group of Vrije Universiteit Brussel

2. UiTid: Your personal guide to the leisure landscape – Luk Verhelst (CultuurNet Vlaanderen)

An explosive growth in leisure options combined with the proliferation of information resources could tip us over into choice paralysis and procrastination. How can we effectively use technology to help people interested in art and culture choose from all the available alternatives?The UiTid application analyses the user’s web behaviour to provide custom leisure recommendations. By applying a single profile to a network of different cultural sites, the program builds an increasingly content-rich database of user tastes and preferences as the foundation for a cultural recommendation engine.

Luk Verhelst is Director of Technology & Operations for CultuurNet Vlaanderen

3. Musical stepping stones in the library: Bib.fm – Johan Mijs (Bibnet) and Lotte De Bruyne (Ladda)

Bib.fm is a brand new music streaming service for the public libraries of Flanders, and is currently being tested in the library in Lanaken (see http://lanaken.bib.fm). The library’s catalogue provides access to its music collection as downloadable steams, and library members are allotted 10 listening hours of complete tracks and albums per month. The music is enhanced by extensive metadata from Aristo Music, a Flemish music company specializing in the creation of musical contexts. The metadata allows music-lovers to search for tracks by language, country, instrument, popularity, genre etc.

To evaluate the pilot project, Bib.fm commissioned Ladda, a centre of expertise in youth culture, to test the service on 10 young users in the age group 14 to 25. The study (seehttp://www.bibnet.be/portaal/Bibnet/Collectie/Digitale%20muziek/Bibfm/

yielded a good crop of opinions and was a working source of new visions for the project.

The project raises some interesting questions. Are libraries, and public cultural institutions in general, open to innovation? What role can public libraries play in the world of digital music? Could they bring about a broadening of people’s musical taste?

Johan Mijs of Bibnet and Lotte De Bruyne of Ladda report progress in the Bib.fm project.

“I don’t want to drown in all the choices.”

“You can rely on getting pure music, something you can’t be sure of with YouTube. Searching is better on bib.fm – you get less garbage.

Johan Mijs, team leader public services, Bibnet

Lotte De Bruyne, researcher, Ladda Centre for Youth Culture Expertise

The Crowd – on technology as a means for developing lasting relations with the public

4. Riding the wave of social networking – Martijn Verver (Headline Interactive, NL)

The Net is nowadays not just an information source but a place where we ourselves create, select and share information. Social media like Facebook and Twitter have helped us evolve from passive consumers into active participants. Many companies can testify that interaction with their target groups through social media results in a more intensive relation with their brands. But can we translate this effect to the cultural field? Are cultural institutions capable of riding the social networking wave?  Internet Strategist Martijn Verver believes that the social media, when correctly applied, can boost cultural participation and foster the development of a lasting relationship with the public.

Martijn Verver is an Internet Strategist for the Dutch company Headline Interactive.

5. The public as sparring partner – Karen vander Plaetse (Vooruit)

The hosts, Vooruit, like to stay ahead of the trend especially when it comes to public interaction. One of the first new strategies employed by the art centre was to dynamize their relation with the Flemish public through the Internet. Programme makers began doubling as conversation managers, and opinion statements by members of the public were soon embedded into the centre’s communications. The virtual audience proved to be as important and motivating to Vooruit as the physical public. Vooruit has meanwhile become a cultural hotspot on the Web.

Karen vander Plaetse is head of project marketing and a cofounder of Yesplan.

6. Experts and non-experts: what can they tell us? – Harry van Vliet (Cross-Media Lab, Utrecht)

Cultural assets for everyone. That could be the slogan for a strategy which is gaining a following in the broad sector of heritage: the strategy of making cultural assets that are normally hidden from view accessible to the general public. How can current digital technologies – especially the Internet and mobile phones – help us play into the changing position of a public which is evolving from passive consumerism into a collective knowledge and information repository? A revealing contribution on social tagging and digital storytelling in the museum sphere.

Dr. Harry van Vliet is a Lector at the HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and research head of the university’s Cross-Media Lab.

7. The public as co-creator – Bart Becks (SonicAngel)

Who decides nowadays which young musical artists will come to the forefront, and what sources can provide that upcoming musical talent? With their record label Sonic Angel, Maurice Engelen and Bart Becks place much of the responsibility for artistic success in the hands of the public. SonicAngel started out in 2009 and their motto is “Music, Empowered by the Fans”. In return for a SonicAngel Fanshare (10 euros), the user can not only download a copy of an album but also share in the profits. And that is not the end of the matter. Fans play a part in selecting artists and in the production and commercialization of their music. The groups are also part of the public. New media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and FaceBook give everyone a chance to be discovered. SonicAngel see their field of action as including both artists and fans, and thereby turn their public into co-producers and co-creators.

Bart Becks is cofounder and CEO of SonicAngel.

Wednesday 7 December

All Aloud / All Allowed – on the potential of technology to reach new target groups, including those who are hard to reach

1. Technology for cultural profit – Eric Goubin (Memori)

Information technology is a widely used aid to reaching a new public. Social media and digital storytelling make it easier – in theory, at least – to connect with the experiential worlds of non-traditional audiences and specific hard to reach target groups. But are these connections really effective? Isn’t there a risk of creating new barriers to surmount? Eric Goubin has devised a list of Dos and Don’ts to maximize the chance that the new access channels will be effective in reaching their target.

Erik Goubin works at the Lessius Hogeschool in Mechelen. He heads the Memori Research Centre, which specializes in innovations in communication and inclusion. He also lectures on governmental communication in the Communications Management and Journalism faculties.

2. Incluso Manual – Technology in relation to opportunities for cultural expression by socially vulnerable youth – Wouter Van Den Bosch (Lessius Mechelen/IBBT) en Jan Dekelver (KatholiekeHogeschool Kempen)

How can organizations who work with socially vulnerable youth reach their target groups? Are new digital tools, especially the social media, successful in reaching vulnerable young people? And if so, does this apply to their opportunities for cultural expression? The European Project Incluso brought together four pilot project partners, from Austria, Belgium, Poland and Scotland respectively, to study how social media could be applied in the day-to-day work of these organizations. They arrived at a hands-on multistage plan that offers valuable input to the wider artistic and sociocultural worlds.

Wouter Van Den Bosch is information architect at IBBT

Jan Dekelver is research coordinator ICT at Katholieke Hogeschool Kempen

3. Smart cards for boosting cultural attendance among all target groups – Frederik Bastiaensen (City of Antwerp) and Bart Temmerman (CultuurNet Vlaanderen)

The UiTpas (a pilot project of the Aalst region) and the A-Kaart (“A-Card”, Antwerp) both apply a combination of two well-tried formulae to cultural marketing: the loyalty card and the discount card. Integrating these two functions makes it possible to provide a special discount card for hard to reach target groups while avoiding stigmatizing side effects. Furthermore, a cultural organization can couple a promotional campaign to the use of the card and so retrieve vital marketing information.

Frederik Bastiaensen is Manager of A-Kaart.

Bart Temmerman is the Director of CultuurNet Vlaanderen.

4. Opera at the Cinema: new satellite technology for the distribution of artistic products in a commercial context – Karen Van Riet (Kinepolis)

Opera at the Cinema allows cinema audiences to enjoy live opera performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York live in high definition. Season by season, Opera at the Cinema is growing in popularity, and the Kinepolis Group is expanding the range it offers. Besides the live streamed performances, Kinepolis has recently added Monday matinee reprises, and in summer the cinemas now rescreen outstanding titles from the previous season. Kinepolis is in the process of diversifying its range to include other production forms such as ballet, theatre, popular music concerts, sport, documentaries, and soon also musicals. Opera at the Cinema not only attracts one-off visitors but is building up a regular following. Seasonal subscriptions are as popular as individual tickets. Does Opera at the Cinema reach an existing cinema clientele who would otherwise never attend an opera? Or does the audience consist largely of opera fans seeking new opportunities to enjoy their favourite productions?

Karen Van Riet is Manager of Marketing for Kinepolis.

A historical but (of course) high tech tour of Ghent (afternoon program - 7 December)

City Guides will conduct you on a tour of Ghent’s historic centre, pausing at several heritage organizations which are making strategic use of current technology. You can learn all about the plans for the new media centre called Waalse Krook, visit the Huis van Alijn, the city’s unique museum of everyday life, for a breath of 20^th century popular culture, and discover the innovative presentation methods being used for presenting historical exhibits at STAM, the city’s recently established heritage museum.

Between times...

... there is plenty to whet your interest.

– Tête à tête

There will be ample opportunities for encounters with congress speakers or fellow guests. We will place two rooms at everyone’s disposal for face-to-face conversations in quiet, comfortable surroundings.

– There’s an app for that!

In the short interludes between sessions you can delve into the vibrant world of software applications for portable devices. Bruno Koninckx from the Memori Research Centre (which studies areas such as digital media, e-government, advertising copywriting and journalism) will demonstrate a selection of fascinating, useful and content-rich apps.

Supporting programme

1 Introduction evening

On the evening preceding the conference, Monday 5 Decembers, we and our hosts Vooruit will extend a welcome to all our foreign guests and speakers. It will be an informal opportunity to make acquaintance with your fellow attendees and drinks will be on the house.

The introduction evening is free of charge but you must subscribe in advance.

2 International chat café

Belgian beers, a delicious buffet, an international crowd and distinctive surroundings – these are the ingredients for our second evening. We will descend on Huis van Alijn to review our first day of the conference in the convivial context of the museum restaurant. It will be an excellent opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas about new and innovative projects relating to the conference theme with guests from other countries. There will be guest tables for our British, Dutch, Spanish and Scandinavian participants, but everyone is expected to circulate.

The buffet costs 22 euros per person. Advance subscription is essential.

This two day conference is offered to you by CultuurNet Vlaanderen in association with SMIT and Memori with support of the Flemish Government, Grundtvig and Audiences Network Europe. 

VISIT THE WEBSITE TO SIGN UP TO THE CONGRESS

Subscription fees:

• Single day: 100 euros

• Both days: 180 euros
 

Need a hotel? The following hotels offer discounts for congress participants.

• IBIC Gent Centrum Opera (77 euros)

• Ghent-River-Hotel (129 euros)

• Hotel de Flandre (129 euros)

To benefit from these discounted room prices, please book your hotel through our online booking service.

CONTACT

Email: newaudiences@cultuurnet.be

Website: cultuurnet.be/new-technologies-new-audiences

Follow on Twitter:  #ETM_Ghent