The 2nd annual Greater Philadelphia Visitor Services Conference for professionals in the Visitor Services field, will be held at the Please Touch Museum on Monday, October 7, 2013. Register by clicking here.
These panels, comprised of two tracks, will focus on a range of topics from best practices in the visitor services sector to understanding your audience to cross training departments. The symposium is being organized in response to the limited professional development opportunities for front line staff and in museum hospitality as a whole.
To best accommodate Visitor Service professionals’ schedules there will be a morning session held from 8:15am-12pm and an afternoon session from 12:45pm-4pm. Each session (morning and afternoon) will encompass a networking component. There will be different topics discussed in both the morning and afternoon sessions.
Agenda
Morning Session
8:15am-8:45am – Networking
9:00am-9:50am – Welcome & Keynote
9:30am-10:15am – Session I
-Hannah Howard, Volunteer and Special Project Coordinator, Pennsbury Manor State Historic Site: Shifting Mindsets
-Jessica Sharpe, Director of Visitor Services, Philadelphia Museum of Art: Topic TBD
10:20am-11:25am – Session II
– Conor Hepp, Director of Visitor Services, Penn Museum: Visitor Services Departments as Organizational Subcultures
-Patrick Wittwer, Manager of Visitor Services, Please Touch Museum & Nicole Krom, Manager of Audience Engagement, Fleisher Art Memorial: Hiring Practices
11:30am-12pm – Morning Closing Roundtable/ Q&A
12:15-12:45pm – Lunch (BYO – if staying for afternoon session)
Afternoon Session
12:45pm-1:15pm– Networking
1:20-1:40pm– Welcome & Keynote
1:45pm-2:30pm – Session I
-Dan Corti, Director of Visitor Services, Barnes Foundation: Uncomfortable Visitor Experiences
-Marilyn Torres, Director of Visitor Services, The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University: Topic TBD
2:35pm-3:20pm – Session II
-John Orr, Executive Assistant, Chemical Heritage Foundation & Nicole Krom, Manager of Audience Engagement, Fleisher Art Memorial: Staff Engagement
-Jay Bazzel, Director of Communications, The College of Physicians: Topic TBD
3:25am-4:00pm – Closing Roundtable/ Q&A