On February 28th, I went along to TedXOxford, my first Ted anything event! Of course I am familiar with the Ted concept – I’ve not been living under a rock – but not intimately familiar, and I have always found the videos I’ve encountered online touch and go. Go, yes I have found many stimulating, […]

Earlier this month I attended the Museums Computer Group Spring Event which looked at innovation, particularly in terms digital activity within museums – what does innovation mean (for museums, for funders), how can innovative projects contribute to our core museum activities, and how can we encourage innovation within our organisations. I took the opportunity to […]

This month I had the pleasure of attending (and speaking at – you can read about my talk here) at the Museums Computer Group’s spring event, ‘Innovation: the Emperor’s New Clothes‘, at which we were exploring the cult of innovation and its impact on museums. Attended by around 50 delegates, including museum professionals, funder and […]

Whenever I travel, whether for work or pleasure, I always make a point of tracking down local capoeira groups and joining a training session or two. While my core game and style come from my regular training with my group – Abolicao Oxford Capoeira – it is so valuable to go along and learn from […]

This year, I was fortunate to be able to attend the Museums and the Web conference for the second year running. This is the largest digital conference for the museums sector, but it is difficult to wrangle attendance as it is in the US, this year in Chicago (you can read about the rest of […]

On Friday we had drinks in the court of the Museum of Natural History to celebrate the launch of free public Wi-Fi across all four of the Oxford University Museums. An informal event, the drinks were simply an opportunity to thank everyone who worked on the project, both officially, and the myriad people who contributed […]

Known as the rooftop of the world for its extreme elevation, and also renowned as the home of Buddhism, I was very excited to visit Tibet as part of my big trip to China. I have to say that nothing about my time in Tibet disappointed. The landscape is breath-taking and the culture fascinating. It […]

We took a flight between Xi’an and Chengdu, from where we took a cab to the Flipflop Lounge Hostel. This place was great. The rooms were small, but it had a fantastic bar and social area for meeting people, local and foreign, and had a very welcoming and friendly atmosphere. As soon as we arrived […]

A short flight from Beijing and we were in Xi’an. First thing we did to get our bearings was head to the wall, where you can hire a bike and cycle around the top of the old wall. It was a great way to feel like we had arrived in the city and get a […]

The Great Wall In the morning of our third day in Beijing we made our trip to the Great Wall, which we did as part of a group organised by our hostel that we booked the day before. The coach from the hostel left at 8am, and stopped at several hostels before heading out of […]