Update  23rd October 

It has been almost a month since we kicked off the Data Accelerator with the first workshop. We were joined by a hugely diverse group of arts, culture and heritage organisations from across the county: Three Choirs Festival; Meadow Arts; Herefordshire Wildlife Trust; Sidney Nolan Trust; Hay Festival; Abbey Dore Deanery; Dancefest; Cider Museum; The Apple World; Storyspace and  About Face. 

Our facilitators Sophia Woodley and Katherine Reid, from Golant Media Ventures helped us draw out the key issues, opportunities and challenges around data. We shared stories, frustrations and successes; we learnt about new ways of looking at data, audiences and visitors and came up with a longish list of 'things we want to do next'. 

That to do list has quickly manifested into a series of training webinars on Google Analytics and Customer Relationship Management Systems ; one to one advice calls and a forthcoming  'Data as Culture' one day training workshop in November. This is not just any training, this is an interactive and fun workshop exploring the idea of data storytelling, through a mix of paper-based activity and the use of tailored online data analysis tools. 

We are hugely grateful to all our Data Accelerator participants. They have embraced the ethos of the programme, are developing data skills within their own organisations and managing to fit in additional training in between. All this before Christmas!  

In addition to the above, we are developing research case studies with Borderlines, Sidney Nolan Trust, 2 Faced Dance and The Apple World , a joint project with the National Trust and Hereford Cider Museum. 

We will share some of those stories in our next update. Contact mary.burton@brightspacefoundation.org.uk for further information.