Workshop: From one crisis to another: reconnecting with your audience
As the sector slowly emerges from the pandemic, it has had very little time to draw breath before facing an unprecedented cost of living crisis. How can the sector position itself best to continue to attract visitors and vulnerable communities? Is it business as usual or should we be taking a long, hard look at what we do and how we do it? How do we build resilience to face future crises? This workshop is being run jointly with Chas Bishop, National Space Centre.
Biography
Linda is responsible for managing the International Centre for Life, a £90m science village in the heart of Newcastle. It brings together a University medical research institute, two National Health Service clinics, biotechnology businesses, a popular science centre and education facilities on a single site, all with the aim of enriching lives through science.
Linda is a past President of the Association of Science and Technology Centres, the body representing over 650 science centres globally and is currently Chair of its Global Task Force. She was the first European to be elected to the role. She has also served on the Ecsite board and is a former Chair of ASTC.
She is a governor of the Laidlaw Schools Trust, a multi-academy trust that manages a number of schools in the West end of Newcastle and in Sunderland, many of which serve children in severely deprived areas. She was recently appointed to the governing body of Newcastle University and, is also, a trustee of the Heart of the City Partnership, which is charged with safeguarding and promoting Newcastle’s medieval quarter. Previously, she was a non-executive director of the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust and an executive member of NE1, the Business Improvement District Company for Newcastle. In 2016 she was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire) by the Queen for services to science and science education.
Linda's career before the world of science centres was in regional development and urban regeneration, where she was involved in the creation of major high profile waterfront developments, helping to bring in £1 billion of investment. Before that, she ran her own marketing consultancy and in her early career, worked for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the multi-national company, Procter and Gamble.