New England Museum Association Conference Recap

The 2023 NEMA Conference brought hundreds of museum pros to the great state of Maine for three days of invigorating sessions and professional development.

Location and Venue

The 2023 NEMA Conference was held at the Holiday Inn in Portland, ME. Overall, we didn’t hear too many travel horror stories with the exception of folks who arrived on Thursday morning and encountered the season’s first snow squalls on the highway. Portland was an easy ride from many locations and is jam-packed with things to see, do, and eat - most within walking distance of the hotel.

Many reminisced about a past Portland conference where the rooms were overfilled for every session. In most cases, attendees could grab a seat and take in all the knowledge they could handle. The hotel staff did a great job with food lines and snack breaks and were friendly and helpful. We’re especially grateful for the Becky’s Diner suggestion.

It was also awesome to celebrate NEMA’s new executive director, Kayla Coleman, and the accomplishments of the NEMA staff in hosting another terrific gathering.

Your Mini-Marketing Plan

Thanks to the attendees for the Mini Marketing Plan Demonstration Station. We heard that this was very helpful for marketing and non-marketing pros alike to think about how to get a jumpstart on marketing planning no matter the skill level.

We’ll be creating a recording of the presentation and sharing this next month. In the meantime, visit the Handouts section of the NEMA website for a link to our presentation and the plan template.

We ran a session poll asking how many organizations have a marketing plan. If you are one of the “no's” on here and want to discuss creating a scalable and affordable plan, MuseumTastic can help!

We’re also looking to host a session with a few partners about ways museum pros can use AI to support their work. If you want to get a preview of using AI for marketing, check out our recent blog on this topic.

Historic Preservation and Community Engagement

The beauty of working in museums is that you can have lots of knowledge in lots of areas and be at -the-ready to share it! We had the chance for a last-minute sponsorship and to support the evening meetup about historic preservation and community engagement. David Moffat and Paul Wright, both from The House of the Seven Gables and with extensive experience at Historic Salem, Inc., gathered at Three Dollar Dewey’s for beers, a pretzel charcuterie, and great conversation about museums and preservation.

Learning from Others

We attended many useful sessions to help us better support client projects. It was great to hear about the outstanding museum education program that the Manchester Historic Association has been working on. From American Girl dolls to topical storybooks to hands-on activities, we were very impressed and inspired!

The Demonstration Stations were great this year! The ED of the Springfield Science Museum presented a demonstration station for “Astronomy for Every Museum” that could have been its own session. Jenny was so helpful and enthusiastic in helping people around the room - from a WWII museum to a history center - think about how astronomy could fit their work. Studio Robertson presented a short talk about brand strategy and Museum Insights shared some of their work around long-term planning efforts for clients.

Thursday’s strategic planning session presented by the Rokeby Museum and Old Stone House Museum was excellent. Both museums shared their process, challenges, and successes. It was especially helpful to see how a budgeted and no-cost plan worked for each organization. Friday’s “Demystifying Demographic Data” was a great look at the ways an organization can connect and then slice and dice demographic data to gain community and financial support.

Like any gathering of like-minded museum people, the best moments were the many conversations we had over drinks, in the exhibit hall, and around the area. It was great to enjoy hugs with old friends, offer teaching moments to new ones, and to connect with fellow IMPs and learn about their projects, successes, and challenges.

Needless to say, we’ve already saved the date for November 6-8, 2024 in Newport, RI, and hope you do, too!