The Digital Organisation Michael Adams, Auckland Theatre Company In this conversation Auckland Theatre Company’s Michael Adams, will talk about the strategy the company is developing, entitled Bridging the Virtual and Real Worlds, as it prepares to open its new theatre on Auckland’s waterfront as well as positioning itself as a 21st century company. He will discuss their first milestones towards this major digital overhaul including auditing and mapping the current situation and preparing requests for proposals for the underlying business systems that will support greater audience facing goals. While a project of this kind may appear daunting and the learning curve steep, the key to success is determining the best place to start and breaking the overall project down into manageable parts. You’ll leave this session with tips and skills for your digital project, irrespective of its scale. You’ll also receive: • Useful tactics for visually representing your digital organisation. • Tactics for auditing your current situation to reveal the digital areas which are essential to work on in order to realise that goal.

1. 1

2. Auckland Theatre Company: Bridging the Real and Virtual Worlds is a strategy for
dealing with a rapidly digitizing culture and business environment. One that aims to
support ATC’s mission to create vital theatre experiences which enrich the lives of
New Zealanders.
2

3. In doing so it should be robust enough to act as a guide for future capital investment,
allocation of human resource and assigning duties and responsibilities to positions
across ATC.
I will talk about the research shortly when I talk about phases of the plan
3

4. ATC envisions the final iteration of this strategy as a holistic plan that sees digital
technology and opportunities placed at the core of all the company’s departments
and operations: creative, production, business, development, marketing and box
office.
What we have done:
Without buy-in you’ll risk developing a digital plan via a bitsy approach, there wont
be a central driving idea behind it and your solution will really just be an assembly of
campaign specific tactics and multiple independent and unintegrated systems that
were developed to resolve particular problems
- this can be much more inefficient and frustrating for everyone in the
long run
- this approach can be very expensive and time consuming (engaging
specialists to try to resolve non-intergration issues and potentially having to
rebuy systems.
Everyone needs to be aware of what the project his and how they can contribute
and what they’ll get out of it
4

5. I will discuss the interviews with everyone in the company when I am talking about
the phases of the plan shortly
4

6. Stage one – understanding the scope and developing the FRPs
Fundamental to successfully developing a digital strategy is dealing to the underlying
database structure that supports all activity. In doing research for this strategy it
immediately became evident that many companies overlook this stage as they rush
toward the end gain of stages two and three. Without giving stage one adequate
attention companies have not only had mixed results as they’ve developed
inefficient systems they have also exposed themselves to expensive fixes as they try
to make multiple systems compatible with each other and train staff.
To reap the full benefits that digital technology has to offer Auckland Theatre
Company in stages two and three, the underlying database structure must be robust:
the required capability carefully scoped and documented, protocols for data entry
established and company staff regularly trained.
5

7. The second stage deals with digital opportunities which are relevant to marketing,
communications, box office processes, audience interactions and business
operations.
On the business front each opportunity is considered according to its power to drive
the strategic business aims of:
1. increasing revenue:
a. by pursuing a digital first approach to marketing and communications
campaign planning;
b. through use of multiple digital platforms (digital broadcast media,
internet, email, mobile) and channels (traditional media, company publishing, social
media) to promote ATC’s programme of plays, events and activities;
c. incorporating and connecting all transactions, research and
interactions with customers into a single view format in a CRM system; and,
d. ensuring transactions are maximized and easy to make by having
eCommerce available on all relevant digital platforms, present on all channels, and in
an optimized format for all devices (television, radio, desk top, lap top, tablet, smart
phone).
2. improving audience satisfaction:
a. by delighting people with deep, engaging and relevant content;
6

8. b. ensuring each touch point in ATC’s digital footprint provides an
exceptional brand experience, namely we’re hospitable, we’re easy to access, we
listen, we respond and we make people feel comfortable;
c. by personalizing communications with people, while ensuring privacy,
through effective use of CRM;
d. by effectively using geo-fencing, near field communication and
augmented reality capability around the new theatre to 1. speed up functional
activities for patrons and 2. provide timely and relevant communications to people
as a means of deepening their engagement with the company based upon a patron’s
precise location around the theatre complex;
e. opening up an accessible channel for dialogue with the Company;
and,
f. by developing a trusted online platform for performing arts reporting,
editorial coverage and reviews.
3. reducing the cost of operating the business relative to income
a. by utlising digital platforms (CRM, venue management, financial
management, production management, servers) to increase the efficiency of
business operations;
b. by integrating systems to avoid double handling, duplication and
accidental data loss; and,
b. by using digital systems in productions (lighting, sound, AV).
On the artistic front, aspects of the digital world present a particular and
fundamental challenge to ATC, its particular brand of theatre presented in the main
bill programme and the way it communicates to its various audiences. It is a
challenge that goes to the heart of ATC’s art form and how it’s experienced. Theatre
is an inherently social experience; a communion between performers and audience
that takes place in real time and in real space. Furthermore, ATC’s main bill offering
is text based narrative theatre where audiences largely passively listen and watch a
performance taking place behind a “fourth-wall”. Digital platforms by their very
nature mediate a person’s relationship to the world and other people. This remote
consumption of the world and social experiences through digital platforms separates
people from one another as individual users and detached consumers.
To unleash the power of the digital world for creation of a transmedia theatre
experiences as well as to revise the way in which live theatre is distributed, ATC
needs to successfully harness the democratic potential of digital media, giving
audiences much greater control over content curation and narrative building
according to their tastes. In doing so, ATC will be able to bridge:
6

9. the real and the digital;
the social and the personal; and,
the intimate and the distant.
The key challenge in using digital platforms for the distribution of theatre is how to
successfully monetize it so that the commercial argument for implementing such a
strategy stacks up financially. This will take a substantial amount of work and
partnering with other parties with the necessary skills and hardware to ensure ATC’s
professionalism is upheld.
6

10. I will return to this at the end
7

11. The research ATC has done has included:
Audience surveying
Desk research – general database design, network design and available/appropriate
systems
Meetings with other companies (upcoming Sydney Theatre Company, Sydney Dance
Company, Royal Opera House, Auckland Museum)
“Mapping” the use of digital technology in the c
Needs analysis
The needs analysis process will be specific to your organization but, at a minimum,
should answer the following questions:
Who will be using the database and what tasks will they perform?
How often will the data be modified? Who will make these modifications?
Who will be providing IT support for the database?
What hardware is available? Is there a budget for purchasing additional hardware?
8

12. Who will be responsible for maintaining the data?
Will data access be offered over the Internet? If so, what level of access should be
supported?
reation and distribution of theatre (I will talk about this at the end)
8

13. Actually understanding how your audience use technology in their day to day lives
should be central to determining what you do.
If you can cross reference this with other ways of understanding audiences this is
useful – eg demographics, segmentation (we have included the cultural
segmentation questions so that if we use that in the future we already have useful
data)
We have discovered for instance, that our core subscription audience uses digital
technology for very functional things, eg banking and reading news from reputable
and established news site etc they are very low level users of social media preferring
nzherald.co.nz. When they recommend shows to people they would still prefer to do
so via face to face internations. The most used digital platform used by these people
is digital television. This informs our decision making – the functional benefit of
digital technology in our service delivery to these people will focus on improving
online booking and seat selection.
This is quite different from younger digital natives who use digital technology to find
out about shows, talk about shows and book. We need to tailor our tactics and
content accordingly.
9

14. Interviewing your work mates can be diffcult.
If possible have a consultant who appears neutral
The aim is to listen and record. It’s not your role to comment on how things are
done. Take an interest.
Read up on interviewing techniques specific to database or network design (not only
does it help you ask the most pertinent questions but it means you record the most
important information)
Ask people if they have thought about where things could be streamlined
Ask people if they have heard of solutions on the market
Thank people for their time.
Type up and deliver the notes and ask whether or not you have accurately recorded
the conversation.
10

15. Not only do you end up with great notes, this process will help you develop an
Company Operation Document – very handy to have
10

16. 11

17. Once you have drawn up the current situation, it is really easy to draw up the idea
solution – you’re just looking to simply things.
Once you’ve done this, it’s a great idea to whip up a prototype that you take back to
one of your colleagues to say, if this was the sort of thing that could be done, would
you find it useful? They’ll always say yes.
Access is great for building prototype databases and applications – if you can use the
other MS Office products it is quite intuitive. You’ll need to know a little bit about
database design. There are plenty of resources online.
Good ones include: Lynda.com, accesslearningzone.com, accessallinone.com or any
number of books on the software
12

18. If you group together your maps into a company wide map, you can start identify
whether the solutions to your issues are things that can be bought off the shelf or
will need a custom solution.
Furthermore, this will help you to develop a simple and clear Request for Proposals
RFP
13

19. This is more simple than it sounds.
It is just a list of the things that you need a system to be able to do.
If you’ve done surveys, interviews, diagramming of your current situation and a
conceptual model of your ideal situation, you should be able to document your
functional specification pretty easily.
14

20. On the artistic front, aspects of the digital world present a particular and
fundamental challenge to ATC, its particular brand of theatre presented in the main
bill programme and the way it communicates to its various audiences. It is a
challenge that goes to the heart of ATC’s art form and how it’s experienced. Theatre
is an inherently social experience; a communion between performers and audience
that takes place in real time and in real space. Furthermore, ATC’s main bill offering
is text based narrative theatre where audiences largely passively listen and watch a
performance taking place behind a “fourth-wall”. Digital platforms by their very
nature mediate a person’s relationship to the world and other people. This remote
consumption of the world and social experiences through digital platforms separates
people from one another as individual users and detached consumers.
To unleash the power of the digital world for creation of a transmedia theatre
experiences as well as to revise the way in which live theatre is distributed, ATC
needs to successfully harness the democratic potential of digital media, giving
audiences much greater control over content curation and narrative building
according to their tastes. In doing so, ATC will be able to bridge:
the real and the digital;
the social and the personal; and,
15

21. the intimate and the distant.
The key challenge in using digital platforms for the distribution of theatre is how to
successfully monetize it so that the commercial argument for implementing such a
strategy stacks up financially. This will take a substantial amount of work and
partnering with other parties with the necessary skills and hardware to ensure ATC’s
professionalism is upheld.
15

22. When thinking about incorporating digital technology into your arts practice, you
need to determine if it is adding value and enhance the experience of your art form.
You still need to be true to your art form.
With each option we review we ask would this still mean we are Auckland Theatre
Company or would we be trying to be the Auckland Digital Creative Content
Company?
Think broadly about your other strategic goals – for instance, ATC has big creative
development plans for youth and new audiences. Some of these innovations fit
perfectly with those aims.
In the last two years, though, the young people participating in our youth
development showcase have been totally uninterested in the digital stuff and more
interested in the live stuff! That has been a really important learning for us, we can’t
assume that interest in digital technology is a youth thing.
16