Open Forum

Can anyone point to any resources for creating self-guided tours for visitors? We have a sculpture garden as well as an exhibit space with traveling exhibitions, so I am looking for something that can be updated regularly. One company I was referred to is Guide-by-Cell but I don't know any one who has had direct experience with them. Any input on best practices when compiling tour information, services or technology you have used in the past, or any other details would be very useful. Thank you! 

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Katie Edwards
Director of Marketing & Development
The Society of the Four Arts
Palm Beach FL
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We have Self-Guided Exploration Pages that are designed for students on field trips but you might find them useful as an idea.  http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/education/classroom-resources/self-guided-exploration-guides  I also think the Museum of Science in Boston has a cool approach of designing your own version http://www.mos.org/field-trip-activity-sheets.
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Jennifer Matlock
School Programs Manager
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Monterey CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2015 03:16 PM
From: Katie Edwards
Subject: Self-Guided Tour Resources

Can anyone point to any resources for creating self-guided tours for visitors? We have a sculpture garden as well as an exhibit space with traveling exhibitions, so I am looking for something that can be updated regularly. One company I was referred to is Guide-by-Cell but I don't know any one who has had direct experience with them. Any input on best practices when compiling tour information, services or technology you have used in the past, or any other details would be very useful. Thank you! 

------------------------------
Katie Edwards
Director of Marketing & Development
The Society of the Four Arts
Palm Beach FL
------------------------------

I have been developing a self-guided tour for use on tablets using Power Point. There are several programs out there which can covert Power Point files to HTML5, which can run on any browser on any platform. Please let me know if you would like to see an example- I would be glad to send. ------------------------------ Frank Hollingshead ------------------------------ Volunteer MCRD Museum Historical Foundation San Diego, CA Frankah@cox.net
Original Message: Sent: 03-19-2015 03:16 PM From: Katie Edwards Subject: Self-Guided Tour Resources Can anyone point to any resources for creating self-guided tours for visitors? We have a sculpture garden as well as an exhibit space with traveling exhibitions, so I am looking for something that can be updated regularly. One company I was referred to is Guide-by-Cell but I don't know any one who has had direct experience with them. Any input on best practices when compiling tour information, services or technology you have used in the past, or any other details would be very useful. Thank you! ------------------------------ Katie Edwards Director of Marketing & Development The Society of the Four Arts Palm Beach FL ------------------------------

One of our group is just finishing developing a self guided multimedia tour for Newport Mansions in Newport, RI. The software was donation to Newport. It is basically a platform to create Apple and Android apps that offer state of the art visitor experience (audio, picture, voice), revenue generating tools (donations, gift store, sponsorships, tickets) and visitor engagement (social media, analytics). The platform is already developed from the charity funds. So, there is no cost there. There may be some cost for tech support and cloud renting. You will need to provide them with pictures and text. Please let me know. 

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Snehal Shah
Action Data Systems, LLC
Barrington RI
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-20-2015 09:56 PM
From: Frank Hollingshead
Subject: Self-Guided Tour Resources

I have been developing a self-guided tour for use on tablets using Power Point. There are several programs out there which can covert Power Point files to HTML5, which can run on any browser on any platform. Please let me know if you would like to see an example- I would be glad to send.

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Frank Hollingshead
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Volunteer
MCRD Museum Historical Foundation
San Diego, CA
Frankah@cox.net

Hi Katie,

We've been using Guide By Cell for many years now (I think like 7 or so) in our exhibition spaces, as well as our outdoor sculpture exhibition. It took about two years to build momentum, but now our visitors look for the prompts specifically because they love hearing from the artists. Guide by Cell is very easy to update and the back-end is super intuitive, plus you get to save the audio files as part of your archives, which can be a really great resource I think. I know they offer more than just the audio tour, but we've just been limited on time to implement any of their other products. 

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Kristin Bueb
Exhibition Coordinator and Registrar
Arvada Center for Arts & Humanities
Arvada CO
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2015 03:16 PM
From: Katie Edwards
Subject: Self-Guided Tour Resources

Can anyone point to any resources for creating self-guided tours for visitors? We have a sculpture garden as well as an exhibit space with traveling exhibitions, so I am looking for something that can be updated regularly. One company I was referred to is Guide-by-Cell but I don't know any one who has had direct experience with them. Any input on best practices when compiling tour information, services or technology you have used in the past, or any other details would be very useful. Thank you! 

------------------------------
Katie Edwards
Director of Marketing & Development
The Society of the Four Arts
Palm Beach FL
------------------------------

Our Vice-President, Lisa Ellis, organizes a biennial exhibition called "Sacred Threads."  She used Guide-by-Cell for their exhibition and was very pleased with both its ease of use and reasonable cost. 

She had each artist use their own phones to self-record themselves talking about their art.  Visitors could easily listen to the artists' recordings by calling the designated phone number on their cellphones and typing in the specific number assigned to that artist.

She said that the majority of the visitors to her very popular exhibition were walking around listening to the recordings.  The cost was only $99/month during the time that the exhibition was up.

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Martha Sielman
Executive Director
Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc.
http://www.SAQA.com
Storrs Mansfield CT
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2015 03:16 PM
From: Katie Edwards
Subject: Self-Guided Tour Resources

Can anyone point to any resources for creating self-guided tours for visitors? We have a sculpture garden as well as an exhibit space with traveling exhibitions, so I am looking for something that can be updated regularly. One company I was referred to is Guide-by-Cell but I don't know any one who has had direct experience with them. Any input on best practices when compiling tour information, services or technology you have used in the past, or any other details would be very useful. Thank you! 

------------------------------
Katie Edwards
Director of Marketing & Development
The Society of the Four Arts
Palm Beach FL
------------------------------

One of our group is just finishing developing a self guided multimedia tour for Newport Mansions in Newport, RI. The software was donation to Newport. It is basically a platform to create Apple and Android apps that offer state of the art visitor experience (audio, picture, voice), revenue generating tools (donations, gift store, sponsorships, tickets) and visitor engagement (social media, analytics). The platform is already developed from the charity funds. So, there is no cost there. There may be some cost for tech support and cloud renting. You will need to provide them with pictures and text. Please let me know.
------------------------------
Snehal Shah
Action Data Systems, LLC
Barrington RI
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2015 03:16 PM
From: Katie Edwards
Subject: Self-Guided Tour Resources

Can anyone point to any resources for creating self-guided tours for visitors? We have a sculpture garden as well as an exhibit space with traveling exhibitions, so I am looking for something that can be updated regularly. One company I was referred to is Guide-by-Cell but I don't know any one who has had direct experience with them. Any input on best practices when compiling tour information, services or technology you have used in the past, or any other details would be very useful. Thank you! 

------------------------------
Katie Edwards
Director of Marketing & Development
The Society of the Four Arts
Palm Beach FL
------------------------------

It depends on your budget and staffing.  Services like Guide-by-Cell are good but can be expensive.  You can also have an App created but this could also get very expensive a good app could cost $15,000+ and there could be additional cost for updates.

I have created Mobile web tours for our exhibitions.  The cost for us is cheap because I am also a web designer/developer. But it is a lot cheaper to hire a web designer/developer then it is to have an App made ($3,000 to $8000 depending on the project).  Plus mobile web content can be updated easier faster and at a much cheaper cost.  Also with a mobile web site it can be built in a way for to view on a home computer (Responsive web site).  The only issue I found so far is with audio, audio has to get downloaded when played so there is a delay when someone presses the play button.  This delay depends on if they are on your WiFi or using 3G or 4G internet connection. 

My next project that I am working on is to use a tablet that is fixed in front of an object where visitors can interact with the tablet to find out more information about the object.  This would included more images, additional information from the curator, audio and video.

If you have any other questions please let me know.

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Raymond Stivala
Manager of Web/Multimedia Development
The Newark Museum
Newark NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2015 03:16 PM
From: Katie Edwards
Subject: Self-Guided Tour Resources

Can anyone point to any resources for creating self-guided tours for visitors? We have a sculpture garden as well as an exhibit space with traveling exhibitions, so I am looking for something that can be updated regularly. One company I was referred to is Guide-by-Cell but I don't know any one who has had direct experience with them. Any input on best practices when compiling tour information, services or technology you have used in the past, or any other details would be very useful. Thank you! 

------------------------------
Katie Edwards
Director of Marketing & Development
The Society of the Four Arts
Palm Beach FL
------------------------------