Experiential Tourism Workshop

This week Grant, Banting House NHSC Curator, and I had the opportunity to participate in an Experiential Tourism workshop. A group of approximately fifteen professionals from around Southern Ontario had gathered to learn how to become coaches in creating experiential opportunities in the tourism industry and we acted as their test subjects. The group  spent the morning learning the theory behind this coaching and in the afternoon had the opportunity to put this knowledge into action.

We started the afternoon by conducting a fifteen minute tour of Banting House NHSC , which was no easy feat!  Most of the participants had never been to the museum and knew very little about Banting’s life prior to this visit. After this quick tour we reconvened at The Root Cellar, a local business, to see the coaching in practice. Grant sat with his back turned to the audience while Melissa De Luca from Tourism London coached him through a meeting to figure out potential experiential opportunities at the museum.  The rest of the group was tasked to look for techniques and behavior showcased by both Melissa and Grant which was discussed later. After this meeting was completed, Grant was able to turn around to face the group and everyone discussed their ideas for potential opportunities.

Creative ideas that ranged from theatre performances, paint demos, innovation workshops, 100th anniversary events and more were shared among the group. It was fascinating to see how a group of people who knew little about the museum only an hour before were now able to share such unique ideas. I took lots of notes during this discussion so that we could refer back to these ideas later.

Overall, it was a meaningful experience that not only gave Banting House a variety of avenues to pursue, but also taught me lessons in the value of creating safe spaces where people can share ideas and inviting community members to participate in brainstorming sessions. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who was involved in the process and we’ll keep you updated on how we decide to integrate experiential tourism into the museum!

What experiential opportunities would you like to see at Banting House NHSC?

This post was written by Rachel Delle Palme, Graduate Research Assistant at
Banting House NHSC. Rachel is currently completing her M.A. in Public History at
Western University.