Workshop Leaders were: 

• Sue Hayton (Chair) - Consultant: Download notes.
• Kate Oakley - Writer and Consultant Download slides.
• Francois Matarasso - Writer and Consultant Download slides.

This workshop was about demonstrating the value of our work in engaging new audiences in the heritage sector.  The title ‘Prove it!’ was challenging, with the speakers saying that it is impossible to do this in the field in which we work.  It’s about people and what influences them.  We can never prove with certainty an absolute link between cause and effect.

In particular, Francois highlighted the importance of recognising that many evaluations are likely to be for the benefit of us, the deliverers, in informing our future practice, rather than focussing on participants.  However, true engagement with our participants can lead to evaluation beyond the bolt-on, but instead become an integral part of the experience.  Instead of objectives being set at the beginning, rather they are owned, modified and measured by negotiation with participants from an early point in the project.

Kate introduced some further ideas on the aspects of social interactions that might be measured through the new ‘Generic Social Outcomes’ work, commissioned by MLA.  These are measures taken over a longer term, and they start to look at recording links made within communities based on communication with like-minded people, with different-minded people, and with those with power or resources.  This work still has a way to go in being tested out in real situations, but this introduction was tantalising.

The discussion following brought up some fascinating issues: One hot topic was around the crucial difference between evaluation and research, and the suggestion that if we had more research results to inform our work, perhaps we would not have such a burden of evaluation?