On Friday 28th April, ASDC brought together twenty-five CEOs and senior directors from member organisations for the first in-person awayday dedicated to networking and strategic alignment. Representing both museums and science and discovery centres, the event took place in the beautiful new event suite at Thinktank, Birmingham’s Science Museum.
ASDC was keen to create a space for all manner of discussions for those in leadership roles within the network: varying from the crucial and immediate pull of financial challenges, towards opportunities for horizon scanning and collaboration on shared strategic priorities, be that carbon reduction, new ways of working, equity and inclusion or workforce and impact.
Sara Wajid, Co-CEO of Birmingham Museums Trust, provided the opening keynote, and set the scene with an honest reflection on what challenges are keeping CEOs up at night in 2023, as well as acknowledging the moments of joy and success … why we may be sleeping far better than in recent years!
Building on the opportunity to share strategy and purpose, Ben Ward, the CEO of Wonderseekers, shared their transformational journey over recent years up to the launch of their new strategy. Alongside Shaaron Leverment, Chief Executive of ASDC, this session got delegates on their feet and in discussion on the purpose, values, and unique gifts this charitable sector contributes to social good. Several participants found these exercises particularly useful for their own strategy refresh and review.
Chas Bishop, CEO of the National Space Centre, led a session on the costs associated with ageing buildings and estates, and how we might consider a more collective approach to surfacing common interests such as those relating to our journey towards net zero. And with collaboration firmly at the forefront of the day, we were delighted to be joined by Sharon Heal, Director of our sister network at the Museums Association providing insights on current work, campaigns and how together we might advocate for museums and science centres collaboratively as ASDC and the MA work in closer alignment than ever before.
There is no doubt that taking a day out of work to travel and meet in-person is a difficult – sometimes impossible - ask. Therefore, ASDC continues to run regular communities of practice (including CEO breakfast meetings) as monthly online forums. We are also excited about our upcoming annual opportunity to meet again at the ASDC National Conference in Belfast, re-igniting some of the provocations and celebrating progress within our theme of ‘The Power in Purpose.’
In addition, feedback to date from the CEO awayday has been unanimous that we should aim to support further in-person opportunities for CEOs to step away from operations in-house and take valuable and necessary time to ‘look up’ and ‘look out’ across the sector. So please watch this space for future opportunities for the leaders in our sector to both share challenge and surface solutions from the great wealth of knowledge and practice from colleagues across this diverse network.