Keynote: Walking in Customers Shoes
The presentation will be in two parts. Part One will draw on recent general research from across the leisure and attraction sector to outline some big trends which will influence Science and Discovery centres in the next five years. In Part Two I will share research conducted especially for the conference which focuses directly on the sector itself, examining its current position, how people choose, the barriers to visiting and benchmarking against other attractions.
Biography
Gary is Chairman of Customer and Colleague Experience company, Brand Vista. He co-founded the business in 2000 before selling to the Definition Group in April 2022. Gary began his career at the advertising agency JWT and one of his first clients was Alton Towers which he began working with in 1991. He still works with them today and has been involved in all their ride and hotel developments from Nemesis in 1994 to Wicker Man and Gangsta Granny. He has worked across the whole Merlin portfolio including LEGOLAND, Sea Life, Warwick Castle, The Dungeons, Madame Tussauds and The London Eye. Over the last 30 years he has conducted research and produced brand strategies for Chatsworth, The National Science Museum, The SS Great Britain, Visit Blackpool, Liverpool 08, ZSL London Zoo, Bristol Zoo, The RHS, English Heritage, Richard 3rd Visitor Centre and the Imperial War Museum. He helped create the strategy for Visit England in advance of the 2012 Olympics and his leisure experience extends outside the attractions sector and he has worked extensively with Greene King, David Lloyd, ICELAND, Howdens, Odeon, The Lawn Tennis Association, ASDA and Vision Express. He has been a trustee at The National Space Centre since 2014 and, he says, got all of his space knowledge from the ASDA book of planets.