The outbreak of COVID-19, is massively challenging organisations and individuals, personal and professional lives globally. Travelling exhibitions are strongly impacted and disrupted by this unparalleled crisis.
Exhibitions which are in transit or about to be installed suffer from last minute cancellations, while those which are on now and about to open are turning into ghost spaces as large and increasing numbers of temporary closures of cultural and experience institutions are gradually occurring worldwide.
As the virus unfolds throughout the world and events are cancelled and travel gets banned, project teams and potential partners can no longer follow the usual practices for the development of collaborations on travelling exhibitions.
In this context of uncertainties, it is all the more so important to emphasise social interactions and find ways to humanise communications. It is essential to continue dialogue and share ideas, to collectively build resilience and get together through this unprecedented crisis.
We share here ideas to support international communications and open a space for discussion and brainstorm on continuous dialogue management in our community.
It is essential to continue dialogue and share ideas, to collectively build resilience.
Meeting teams and partners
A variety of resources can effectively enable international communications and remote collaborative work. Video conferencing becomes an even more essential resource in this context, to really convey our communication, not only with voices, but also with postures and expressions. And now could actually be a moment to really take the time to meet that partner on the other side of the world, as we somehow have to pause and do things differently. A selection of easy to access and to use tools is presented here in collaboration with Culture Connect.
Infographics kindly contributed by Culture Connect
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Real time media for distant meetings and presentations
Video conferencing solutions provide tools to create virtual meeting rooms for face to face and group video meetings, screen sharing and video recording.
Zoom and Whereby propose an easy direct access for video meetings with no login and no download required for participants. The organiser creates a virtual room by setting up and sharing a custom URL with participants. Connect unlimited attendees for 40 minutes with the Zoom FREE option. Connect up to 4 participants for an unlimited time with the Whereby FREE option.
Skype is a free video meeting service downloadable on user device, which can connect up to 50 participants. A Skype account is required for each attendee and for the organiser. The service is available on desktop and mobile.
Google Hangouts offers easy video meetings to Google users. Users can send invitations to connect up to 25 participants. A free Google account is required for each participant and for the organiser. The service is available on desktop and mobile. Google is making the premium version of its workplace video chat tool free until July, to help businesses and schools work remotely during the coronavirus crisis (more detail here).
Microsoft Teams offers comprehensive video conversations and collaborations to Microsoft users. Users can send invitations to connect up to 300 attendees. A free Microsoft account is required for each participant and for the organiser.
Project management tools
Collaborative project management tools offer workspaces to share ideas, brainstorm, collaborate on documents and send files:
Slack: create discussion channels, share ideas and documents (free, premium versions available)
Padlet: create and collaborate on content (premium only, 30-day free trial)
Beautiful.ai: design, collaborate and share presentations easily (free, premium versions available)
Monday.com: manage a distributed team in one central place (premium only, free trial available)
Miro: build and develop ideas with distributed teams (free, premium versions available)
Ideaboardz: gather inputs, reflect and retrospect with distributed teams (free)
Google Docs: collaborate on one unique document at the same time (free)
Knowledge management dedicated tools facilitate the sharing of documents with team members or partners:
WeTransfer: no account required to send files up to 2GB with 7-day storage
FromSmash: no account required to send files with 14-day storage
Dropbox: 2GB of free space to store and share files
Google Drive: store and share your documents, up to 15GB
Working around time zones
Time converters can be used to check time differences and propose accurate meeting times:
24 Timezones
World Clock Meeting Planner
Miranda App (app available for download from your mobile device)
Email schedulers, often proposed with messaging systems, make it possible to send messages to international partners at a relevant time.
Cultural institutions have also been developing new ways to engage remotely with audiences, which can be a great inspiration for travelling exhibits communication.
Visiting exhibitions
How can cultural specialists looking for future exhibitions get a good idea of proposed experiences without visiting the physical productions? Nothing can ever replace the real experience of a physical exhibition, but narratives, collections, educational content and experience assets can be well explored remotely through secondary materials and platforms. In an intrinsically global industry, cultural producers always develop communication material and resources which provide peers with essential information on travelling exhibitions. Cultural institutions have also been developing new ways to engage remotely with audiences, which can be a great inspiration for travelling exhibits communication. Visiting exhibitions from home is made possible with these resources.
Exhibition proposals
Proposal presentation documents: the most common way to explore a potential exhibition is the review of presentation material proposed by producers. Comprehensive proposals include full narrative outlines, audience information, collection lists, education and media packs and photography.
Video discovery
Promotion or exploration videos: designed by exhibition producers to introduce or share the experience, presented on their websites and on platforms.
Live online presentations: live streams of open exhibitions, when institutions are still open or reopen, can offer a live visit with local colleagues and curators.
Online collections and explorations
Online exhibitions and VR experiences: exhibitions are reproduced digitally to be shared online, either as photographic explorations or with 3D spatialization and virtualisation. VR can offer virtual tours with full spatial perception, enabling a more sensorial encounter with displays. In China an exhibitions portal where cultural institutions share projects online was created as a response to the crisis. Art Basel has created a “viewing rooms” digital event to propose an alternative to the cancelled Art Basel Hong Kong fair.
Exhibition Apps, audio guiding stories and games: sharing access to some curated mobile device content.
Teo opens the video gallery, a virtual visit page with videos of exhibitions from international producers. Producers are encouraged to share their VR, gaming, video content in this special section of the website to facilitate exhibition discovery. Coming soon.
Solutions are coming together and more will come, to help us brainstorm remotely, share ideas and crowdsource resources at a larger scale and level.
Informing and brainstorming with the community
Diversity is our strength. In these challenging times, the wider and higher level of communication is even more essential to stir creativity and support members of the community professionally and morally, and to collectively build resilience. In our very proactive and creative industry, solutions are coming together and more will come, to help us brainstorm remotely, share ideas and crowdsource resources at a larger scale and level.
Crisis communication
Organisation updates: keeping the community posted on ideas, challenges and achievements through the channels of producing and hosting organisations when possible. Some organisations have even designed a dedicated webpage, such as GES. Monitoring the situation via listening tools such as media feeds help remain aware and gather useful information.
Forums for discussion
Community forums are proposed by major networks. For example, the Travelling Exhibits Network of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) just created a Linkedin group, and Ecsite, the European network of science centres and museums, launched a LinkedIn peer-to-peer exchange forum and a series of online drop-in sessions for their members.
Teo support: we are here to listen, channel key messages and dialogue with the community. We welcome ideas from industry professionals and invite them to share articles, updates and questions in the Teo journal.
The travelling exhibitions industry is facing unprecedented disruption. All stakeholders of the very unique value networks of the touring world are confronted to uncertainties and challenges that are complex to tackle individually. Continuing international dialogues on travelling exhibitions is a key challenge our community is trying to tackle. Finding new ways to communicate with peers and partners, to explore exhibitions and to collectively reflect on the situation can contribute to build collective resilience and prepare our community for future challenges.
Share ideas and experiences
Tell us about your experience of the crisis and how it is impacting your travelling exhibition activities.
Contact Teo
Sources
Art Basel. (2020, February 20). Art Basel launches Online Viewing Rooms. Retrieved February 16, 2020, from https://www.artbasel.com/stories/online-viewing-rooms-announcement
Ciecko, B. (2020, March 2). How Museums and Attractions are Preparing and Responding to Coronavirus. Retrieved February 16, 2020, from https://cuseum.com/blog/2020/3/2/how-museums-and-attractions-are-preparing-and-responding-to-coronavirus
Whiddington, R. (2020, February 14). Virtual Tours and Gamification, China’s Museums Pivot Content for Coronavirus. Retrieved 16 February, 2020, from https://jingtravel.com/virtual-tours-gamification-online-exhibitions-chinas-museums-coronavirus/
About the authors & contributors
Teo is the global resource for the international touring exhibitions community. Created for hosts, producers and suppliers of international touring exhibitions, Teo is a global living resource for sharing best practices and fostering new international collaborations in the world of travelling exhibits.
