Data Beyond the fact

I am replete, I have feasted on a wealth of Data information so capably served in digestible courses by &Co, The Cultural Marketing House in Yorkshire during their Fact: Data is Essential industry briefing yesterday.  Keynote speaker, Roger Tomlinson rhetorically asked ‘is data the heartbeat of 21^st Century arts organisations’?  We all know the answer but do we all know what it means well enough to use it effectively?    After this week’s media criticisms saying that the arts has had it far too easy, are we facing a crisis of culture or can we lead a period of growth and renewal by doing ‘normal’ things far more creatively?    

The &Co team of specialists know that data is beyond just collecting facts, an area they are truly experts at.  Undoubtedly facts are great, but used effectively give us information, knowledge and insight about how we do things and how effective we are.  We were reminded of Richard Branson who didn’t want to sell popcorn so he sold his cinemas and refocused on Virgin Atlantic where he is famously known for emphasising his company’s commitment to service by talking with customers during flights.  This is the sort of soft data which, in the whole mix, gives us insight.  Marry this with truly understanding the data we capture and we have a formula to win.

That formula should be based on absolute understanding. Roger Tomlinson put forward that our data culture is also often one where ‘we just know’ based on data myths and history.  We were reminded of ‘not believing, but knowing and understanding’, a phrase coined by Roger, Malmo Opera’s Thomas Wickell and Julie Tait from Culture Sparks.   We must challenge what we think we know so that meaningful data can pulse around the entire organisation to inform our missions and visions, strategy, tactics and operations.

I learned a lot from this briefing, far more than I can blog, but I am left wondering how much more our audiences can tell us about our business – they all too often know us better than we know ourselves but we don’t always tap into this wealth of soft data in an altogether meaningful way.  After all data = insight.

Gerry Wall, Business Manager, Audiences UK