Hawaii Museums Association Conference 

Museums 2020: Vision & Visitors. Please join us for our annual conference! The annual Hawaii Museums Association Conference serves museum professionals working in Hawaii whose research and practice span more than 100 museums in Hawaii. Continental breakfast and luncheon buffet are included in the registration fee.

Conference session descriptions
Understanding & Engaging Museum Visitors, Keynote Speaker Wendy Meluch, Visitor Studies/Satisfaction Evaluator will give an overview of what we know about museum visitors and how we know those things.  Thanks to a growing body of research and evaluation, we have a lot of information about how visitors behave, and how to engage and support them.  The point of doing evaluation and visitor studies in our institutions is to see how well we are doing at using best practices in experience development.  Are we succeeding in engaging visitor and achieving our goals with them?  Of course, successful visitor experiences are at the core of our missions and a basis of institutional survival. This talk will address:  1) known information about visitors and what they need, 2) simple tools for evaluation and visitor studies that most institutions can handle in-house, and 3) when it makes sense to work with an outside expert.

What’s New & Changing:  Digital Initiatives at Home and Abroad, Karen Kosasa, Director, Museum Studies Graduate Certificate Program at U.H. Manoa with be the moderator of this panel discussion with graduate students from the University of Hawai‘i enrolled in Museum Studies, Historic Preservation, Library Information and Sciences, and/or Education programs.  They will present a review of new and ongoing digital projects in Hawai‘i and the continental U.S.  This survey will provide a glimpse of exciting initiatives in collections care, preservation, exhibition design, education, community outreach, and website design to name only a few areas of interest.  Presenters will explain how these projects are changing the ways we engage with museums, visitor centers, historic homes, and related places.  The Q&A session will provide an opportunity for audience members to ask questions, share information about their institutions’ digital initiatives, and voice excitement, concern, and skepticism about where these projects may be taking us.

Cultural Heritage Tourism & the Visitor Industry, Talk story with Kiersten Faulkner, Executive Director, Historic Hawaii Foundation and Kainoa Daines, Director of Sales, Oahu Visitors Bureau:  A significant majority of visitors to Hawai‘i include activities to places and activities that represent the stories and people of the past. These “heritage travelers” provide opportunities for preserving and interpreting the history and culture of the Islands, but also present challenges to retain authenticity and relevance. The panel will explore the benefits, opportunities, challenges and barriers related to heritage tourism. The session will provide an overview of what is cultural heritage tourism and demographics of this visitor; the relationship to historic preservation; and five principles of a good heritage tourism program.  The session will include audience discussion on what has worked, or not, at heritage attractions.

• Roundtable Discussions on topics such as: Public Programs, Volunteers/Docents, Social Media, Visitor Satisfaction, and Education.