Runa Sabre, Director of Development at Wonderful Copenhagen, joined us at X. Festival to discuss ‘The art of innovation'.
Runa discussed how the culture has evolved and the cultural experiences in the post-pandemic mindsets.
Runa began by explaining three terms about how we can handle the current reality:
Runa discussed how the culture has evolved and the cultural experiences in the post-pandemic mindsets.
Runa began by explaining three terms about how we can handle the current reality:
Runa Sabre, Director of Development at Wonderful Copenhagen, joined us at X. Festival to discuss ‘The art of innovation’, working with culture to prepare for the future. Runa discussed how the culture has evolved and the cultural experiences in the post-pandemic mindsets.
Runa began by explaining three terms about how we can handle the current reality:
Runa refers to Taleb as an inspiration to think new and be inspired by the fact that the world is turned upside down to be stronger after the crisis. The change is so dramatic and dynamic that it requires the ability to adapt to change. This is a message to the cultural institutions and the tourism industry as a sector to not only survive but get better.
The speed of change right now is so fast. It requires us to get new data and insights on cultural visitors. For Wonderful Copenhagen, they decided to ask 4,500 international guests what is most important in investing in cultural institutions. Here are the key findings:
Runa talked about perception and how health and safety remains really important. The perception of safety, which ranks highly for Copenhagen, is a key competitive factor which is critical to businesses and visitor attractions.
Runa claims, ‘the art of innovation is to work design driven’ with focus on:
This is a model which helps them to explore the change, understanding first of all the problem by coming up-close to the daily problems of visitors. They developed thirty solutions for visitors, public and private sectors. They then created rapid prototypes which provided tangible futures that could be developed further.
The art of innovation is also about ‘reconstruction’. Working with other cities in Denmark they developed a series of test labs, an initiative to embrace innovation within different prototype environments.
National Gallery of Denmark used this process to explore new digital business models. The pandemic has shown us the opportunity necessity to accelerate digitalisation and with that new digital business models. They had a new digital business model, focusing on transitioning the perception of digital as being space for free to low-priced products by transitioning it to digital premium products. With the help of a pricing expert, they increased the price seven times and it in fact sold out in hours. The perception and appreciation for the value were communicated by the price itself and this allowed them to break a perception that everything online must be free.
The next learning was about taking the museum out of the building- allowing the time, space and ultimately target group to be broadened. An initiative born from the pandemic but still here afterwards.
Odense used this programme to design experiences for new target groups. They recognised there were no guests from the local areas and so moved from having boat trips with 30-40 guests (tourists) towards an opportunity for time together for families, friends and colleagues. As such, they shifted focus to speak to a new kind of target group of family, friends and colleagues which resulted in immediate bookings with a high KPI per sale.
The Science museum is another prominent example. They had the same problem as the National Gallery where they needed to take the experience to the outside of the museum. They offered a ‘Mars from Home’ experience, with a bus and staff from the museum delivering the experience, moving it from a tangible experience in the museum to a starting point for time together with friends.
1. How we deal with a crisis is essential to grow resilience against pressure and overcome problems with innovation.
2. Investing in cultural institutions has to be in line with visitors' health and safety, which has become a competitive factor due to the pandemic.
3. Innovation means creatively exploring problems, generating alternative scenarios and enacting new prototypes accordingly.
Runa Sabroe is a Director of Development Director at Wonderful Copenhagen where her role is to set the strategic direction for the Development Department, and to govern the most demanding initiatives and activities.
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