The ASVA Scottish Visitor Attraction conference took place on 7-8 November and from delegate feedback, it seems that among those who attended, satisfaction levels were very high.

As the organiser, this is both reassuring and gratifying. This is the third year we have used Visitrac from Lynn Jones Research and the system allows us to directly compare the findings year on year, so from the start we could see what elements were scored highly by attendees and which needed to be improved upon.

However, what makes most interesting reading is the qualitative comment which really puts the ‘flesh on the bones’ and starts to get an insight into what attendees actually thought. This year for the first time, every speaker was mentioned more than once by name as being very relevant.

Certain elements always merit many mentions in dispatches – case studies being such an example and this year did not disappoint with a couple of thought-provoking and inspirational presentations on Rosslyn Chapel and Gulbenkian winner SS Great Britain. A typical delegate comment when asked which speaker/s were most relevant and why was “Case study speakers – informative and relevant learning points”.

This year we included three sessions on technology and judging by the number of comments they were all of enormous interest. The first speaker was Matthew Hare from ts.com who shared his knowledge on how best to use the internet to drive sales and he backed this up with some very interesting facts & figures.

David Guthrie of Vizibility followed this up the next day with some sound advice on how to make websites work more effectively. Recent research by the National Office of Statistics (2006) shows that the average British internet user spends 164 minutes online each day, compared to 148 minutes watching television. So there is a huge potential market but equally huge competition.

National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) launched a new podcasting service earlier this year called Podcurator, which is available for download from their website.

Emma Nicolson of NGS shared their experience of this innovation and why they undertook it. Crucially, they wanted to get more visitors to their shows, to transform the visitor experience and to raise their profile. But many delegates could see the possibilities for a wide application for this technology “… a new idea that could easily and cost-effectively be adapted for many things.”

Collectively, all three presentations generated great interest which shows a high level of awareness among delegates on the dynamic role that technology plays in communications. The challenge now is to see how many of these ideas that inspired at the conference can be put into practice and their effectiveness measured. This is the future.

Eva McDiarmid