Recap: Association of Midwest Museums Annual Meeting in Des Moines!

We loved being in Iowa a few weeks ago for the Association of Midwest Museums Conference! We had a wonderful time in Des Moines: the weather was beautiful (a nice getaway from the storms we were having in Chicago!), and we were able to check out the charming downtown area and do a little exploring in the local shops, galleries, and cafes. And of course, the highlight of our trip was being in the Exhibit and Resource Hall meeting all of the people who stopped by our booth! We had great conversations with museum people from all over the Midwest and made some new friends. It’s always a welcome treat to be able to share our accomplishments, as well as our challenges, with people from the museum world.

We consistently heard from people who were looking for a new way to engage their visitors and offer interpretation when staff may not be available. Many were from smaller institutions that needed an affordable way to share additional content, and they loved hearing that having their own beacon based mobile app was an option.

On Saturday morning our Chief Curatorial Officer, Nancy Harmon, presented a workshop demonstrating how attendees can create their own beacon based mobile app with the Encurate Content Management System. It was the last day of the conference and we wanted to end on a positive (and fluffy) note, so she demonstrated creating an app for the fictitious “Adorable Animal Museum”. She showed what it looked like to use our Do-It-Yourself Content Management System to create points of interest, interest area tours, and an interactive map in just a few minutes! All of the attendees were actively engaged and gave great feedback. They loved seeing how easy it is to build their own mobile app with Encurate.

As always, it was fun to see the growing enthusiasm and need for mobile apps in museums and cultural spaces. If you weren’t able to attend the conference, reach out to us today by clicking the ‘request a demo’ button on our homepage to schedule a demo just like our workshop! We are excited for where the future of museums and mobile apps are headed, and hope to continue helping museums solve the problems and challenges they are facing!