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In many ways, the BBC is a series of collaborations more than anything else
and I think that the...
We believe we've got a lot to gain
but also maybe some things to offer in this partnership.
We're incredibly interested in how arts bodies and others
are going to use the digital Space.
And we'd love to share what we've learned
but also, I hope, learn from all of our partners
through these seminars and workshops
about how we can, all of us, get better at connecting with our audiences
and with the public at large in the digital Space.
Audiences are relating to the world in a completely different way.
Most audiences want to relate through digital media and digital channels.
You've only got to look at the success of Facebook and Twitter
in communicating new communities, creating new groups of people,
to realise that the arts have got to communicate in that way
and I think there's a real thirst for it.
It's not undervaluing the live experience, it's just adding to it.
The arts is about risk and taking risk
and that's one of the big things that digital has allowed us to do.
It's allowed us to, kind of, really enhance the idea of word-of-mouth
and encourage people to look at video, to try things,
to go on Facebook and talk about their experiences.
Certainly for an art form like ours where it's very, very hard to convey
the amazing things that happen on stage with words,
it's really exciting to be able to see the range of the work that's there.
For me, the key thing about digital is it's a wonderful opportunity
because it completely disrupts
the relationship between artist and audience
and it potentially places both audience and artist
in a much more creative relationship with the arts organisations.
But I think it's massively beneficial
in terms of being able to empower more creativity,
more engagement, more learning,
and ultimately more great art.
I think there's lots of potential for new ideas and new projects
where the digital realm and the virtual realm
and the real world all interface and coincide.
It's an amazing moment and there's so much potential and so much possibility
and you can augment the experience that people get
from your materials, from the things that you love,
through any number of digital avenues.
It doesn't mean throwing it away
and digitising it and only having it on a computer.
That's not what this is about.
I think it actually builds interest in the live show.
People talk about it to their friends.
There's a real sense of it making a bigger ***
by appearing on other platforms.
So I think it all reinforces it
and I think it's actually a great way to get people to the show.
One of the great things that the internet does
is create an abundance of access.
And if you've got more access, you get more knowledge
and then you get more interest.
So our experience has been that the internet
gets more people engaging and gets more people coming to the venue.
Digital has been the key thing behind our audience growth.
We've seen audiences double in the last five years
and that's largely been down to digital allowing us to reach more people.
I'm incredibly challenged by how we're going to engage with all of this
so this is a great event cos we have to collaborate
if we're going to make sense of it for ourselves and for our users.
I think this event is really good because it brings together
people from the technology sector and the cultural sector
to start those conversations and that's really important.
I hope people see today as the beginning of a conversation.
I think one very clear thing is that no one has the answers here
but there's a lot of energy and skills on both sides
and what I most got out of this was a sense of mutual learning.
The broadcasters have things to tell the arts sector.
The arts sector definitely have talents, skills, insights
that we just don't have.
and I think that's where the chemistry will come from.
You've got to stay relevant, is the key thing.
And I think that it will be difficult
for most organisations to really stay relevant
without fully embracing digital as part of their portfolio.
We're all learning, we're all experimenting.
And it seems to me that most arts bodies, my guess would be,
will end up figuring out that they've got nothing to lose
and potentially quite a lot to gain from joining this partnership.
Captions by internetsubtitling.com