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Experience pays
County museums are once again being asked to demonstrate their value to taxpayers. As all municipal departments prepare 2020 budgets, guided by a council directive to find a 10 per cent reduction in operating costs, questions are again being asked regarding the long-term viability of managing and maintaining five museums across the County. Their fate comes into sharp focus when we are reminded that we still don’t have a plan to fix roads or house the marginalized in this County.
Now before folks seize upon their laptops to pen a scathing response to this barnacle encrusted columnist, let me clearly affirm my personal belief that museums are vital repositories of the stories and the lives of our community. Their existence is non-negotiable.
This does not mean, however, that these facilities are beyond scrutiny. Times change. Circumstances change. And our capacity to carry a geographically dispersed portfolio of museums must be balanced against our dwindling financial options.
It is, therefore, correct and proper to assess these places from time to time to ensure they continue to serve their purpose and are prepared to do so for the foreseeable future.
It is against this backdrop that I wish to highlight the spectacular success of the Escape Room at Macaulay House this year. Employing $5,000 seed money from the County Community and Economic Development Commission, museum staff commissioned an immersive experience at Macaulay House that won oodles of praise from participants, created new awareness of County museums and generated a healthy profit to boot.
Escape Rooms are experiences in which admission paying participants are “locked” in a room and must figure their way out. They are supplied with storyline and an array of physical and verbal clues. The trick is knowing which ones to follow and which to discard. They are a popular around the world.
With few marketing dollars, Escape Macaulay House relied largely on word-of-mouth. Yet, all summer long the buzz grew—particularly on rainy or grey days. Families were looking for something to do.
When the Escape Room wrapped up last month, the attraction had generated $14,650 in admission revenue. After expenses, the museum netted a whopping $12,570 in free cash flow.
Whopping, is of course, a relative term. But in this context, it is an appropriate adjective. It is remarkable both in terms of efficiency relative to the revenue generated, but also an important indicator of where to look for further profit centres within the museums (and perhaps other municipal buildings and properties). It surely marks a sea change in how we view these assets.
The Escape Room phenomenon exemplifies the importance of visitor attractions to provide immersive experiences. It is not good enough to make a terrific product and wait for the world to beat a path to your door. Visitors want a compelling, memorable experience. A story to take back to work on Monday. An experience they can post on Instagram.
Escape Macaulay House delivered this brilliantly. All while imparting the story of Prince Edward County along the way. As crass and commercial as this sounds, this is how we must view museum facilities in order to ensure they remain viable and relevant—as opposed to relics we ignore until they crumble. This can be a model for other municipal assets.
Escape Rooms, as an attraction, will likely fade in time. But immersive experiences will continue to draw visitors and their money. County museum folk have tapped into a rich vein. There is more to be mined here.
Jessica Chase and Jennifer Lyons deserve enthusiastic praise for their success with Escape Macaulay House. By every measure it is a terrific achievement. We encourage them to pursue other opportunities to propagate this experience at other museums—to pursue other experiences. Let us arm them some dollars and tools to see how far their creativity and growing expertise can take the County museums.
To this end, council and Shire Hall leadership may consider segregating the County museums’ experience as a distinct business activity. In this way Chase et al. would be granted some latitude to reinvest 2019 earnings to nurture the business through more marketing, new attractions or more Escape Room experiences.
When we unleash the entrepreneurial spirit, the deep well of talent that works for this municipality is revealed in vivid colour. We must encourage it when it occurs, and nurture it in its nascent form.
We must escape the debilitating fearfulness of liability exposure that looms over Shire Hall like a thick, wet cloud. We must liberate municipal staff—allow them to take some risks, pursue initiatives that might fail.
There is so much more County staff have to give— let’s free them to find out what that might be. We’ve already had an encouraging glimpse.
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