Children’s Season 2011
1. Characteristics of events
Why?
The purpose of Children’s Season 2011 is to inspire, engage and educate children through experiential exhibitions and education children’s programmes. This event is a local/ community event in Singapore, which is organised and supported by local government agencies - jointly organized by the National Heritage Board and Museum Roundtable. Nowadays, fewer people travel overseas for holiday because of the numerous natural disasters happening in other countries – Earthquake and tsunami in Japan, flood and drought in China, and volcano eruption in Chile. Thus, parents wanting to give their children a fruitful holiday experience would bring their children to participate in the children’s events in Singapore.
Who?
The stakeholders of the event include organisers who are National Heritage Board and Museum Roundtable; Singaporeans who are the participants and spectators; official outdoor media – SMRT.
When?
By organizing the event during the school term holidays, May – July 2011, it is looking forward to serve their event audience whom are children accompanied by their parents. This period is when they are not busy with school and when parents are most willing to bring their children out for fun. There were quite a number of families at the event that I went, consider it to be a weekday. Most of the children were age below 12 years old.
Where?
The locations are mostly at museums like National Museum of Singapore; Peranakan Museum; the Changi Museum etc. The PlayDome is designed akin to playground with colourful decorations. It wants to influence mindsets on children that the museum can be their playground of dream and fantasies, which can also modify the impressions on the adults that museums in Singapore do not only open to tourists, but also utilize the resources for the locals.
This event will feature two anchor events at the National Museum of Singapore and Singapore Art Museum as well as children’s exhibits and programmes.It is a whole new world beckons as National Heritage Board and Museum Roundtable transform its museums into playgrounds of fun, inspiration and education for Children’s Season 2011. It provides a variety of unique hands-on activities, games, roving acts and storytelling performances for the children to have memorable experiences at the museums.
The Children’s Season 2011 consists of several events at different types of museums. Further information can be found from: http://www.museums.com.sg/cs11/index.html
I went to one of the many events listed which is located at National Museum of Singapore – The PlayDome: “Kaleidoscope of Dreams” with admission fee of S$9.
2.1 Environment & Venue
The location of event is an important factor in developing the event. The venue must meet the needs of the event, not only catering for the visitors, but also contributing to the desired style and ambiance. The event The PlayDome has chosen to locate at National Museum of Singapore. The reason of hosting it in a museum is to grow familiarity within the children. However, because museums are known for tourism and educational purposes, it has difficulty for the event to relate fun with education. Besides, museums often host formal exhibitions for instance, Treasures of Vacheron Constantin : A legacy of watchmaking since 1755 is currently held in National Museum of Singapore with free admission. Holding an informal children event like The PlayDome might have a sudden change of impression on museums in Singapore.
The venue must also be able to meet operational needs of the event in terms of access, catering, staging and facilities. It will need to fit within the budget, including costs like decoration, water and staging facilities. As National Museum of Singapore is located at town, it is considered accessible for most of the Singaporeans. They will be exposed to many food and beverages shops or restaurants at several shopping malls around like Plaza Singapura and Centrepoint. The PlayDome event covered four levels of the museum, but only a small division at each level. There are also toilets and emergency plans and exits available at every level. Because the event is carried out indoor, the climate will not affect the flow of programmes.
Lastly, the advantage of hosting at National Museum is to have easy transportation, parking and convenience. There is a large parking lot in the National Museum itself, and there are shopping malls nearby. Because the event is located in town, there are many public buses that reach the museum and the nearest Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) includes Dhoby Ghaut station and Bras BAsah station. It is very convenient for visitors to travel by public transport instead.
2.2 Programming
The PlayDome event consists of a total of three sections excluding the workshops which require additional charges. The three sections are Black Box, Sensory Studio and Garden @ The PlayDome with Playeum.
Black Box
It is situated in a ‘black room’ which enables children to play and create their own works with several new, artists’ inspired contemporary exhibits. There is a giant kaleidoscope where children can create one-of-a-kind magical visual patterns and images. There are also hands-on handicrafts available for children to create their own wayang masks and making fabric with knots.
This programme has given the children a rather memorable experience because of the colourful cloths used, creative masks and unique fabric as well as arranging the room akin to a ‘little playground’. Apart from decorating and designing their artwork, the children are able to bring their art piece home too. The children would then be able to keep it as a memory for participating in this event.
Sensory Studio
This programme welcomes children to experiment and express themselves through creative art play. It engages the senses of touch, smell and sight to create collaborative works with artists and play facilitators. In this programme, there is plenty of room for the children to let their imagination run wild.
When participated in this programme, I felt that there were no interesting activities available. The facilitators only instructed the children to get a cloth, magnetic clips and some markers and make use of the different fabrics to create patterns on the cloth. It was observed that the children were too young to understand the purpose of the cloth. Instead of designing their own patterns, the children were running, hiding and playing around with the fabrics and those colourful magnetic clips. I think that this programme also lacks of creativity and innovative. The parents at this section were found sleeping on the cushions provided.
Garden @ The PlayDome with Playeum
This programme is held outdoors. Domescape, specially designed contemporary art installations collectively, would inspire the children to view, interpret, transform and have fun exploring the colourful expressions of the museum’s dome.
This programme is quite interactive because the children are able to design anything they have in mind that they would like to see in the sky. It allows the children to imagine their artwork being lifted up in the sky which they will feel astonished, satisfied and fun-filled.
2.3 Manpower Allocation
For ‘The PlayDome’ event, there were several types of staff – Facilitators, supervisors, entrance staff and staging crew. I did not manage to see the crew that set up the whole event, but I was told by one staff that the crew was in charge of the decorations, organizing the tables/chairs and setting up posters. When I attended the event, there was a few staff at the entrance giving us a visitor band for the event. As I proceeded to the second level, there was a friendly staff explaining to me about what the event was, and where I should go. There was sufficient manpower at every section of the event, about four to five facilitators and one supervisor each.
2.4 Logistics
Ticketing
The ticket distribution of The PlayDome is at the visitor services counter of the National Museum of Singapore. Tickets are also sold through a distributor, SISTIC, via their website, hotline or authorized agents. It is more convenient for visitors to purchase their tickets or book in advance lest there is no more vacancy left. The tickets are sold at Single Day Pass and Season Pass where the latter has unlimited access and is entitled to receive one goodie bag. Having the Season Pass is a good strategy for increasing the number of repeat visitors, because it acts as an animator. The event has also encourages first and repeat visits for the children as they find the event interesting and interactive.
Flow
The on-site logistics of the event must ensure that the event must be smooth without any mistakes. ‘The PlayDome’ has logistics which includes - garbage removal; first-aid kit obtainable at the information counter; about two security guards around the event; one small stall selling snacks and drinks; mineral water supplies for the staff. The main materials needed for this event would be supply of paper, cloths and coloured markers for the children. Because it is considered a small-scale event, many other logistics such as artists and equipment transport, media and VIP facilities are not required. The logistics required are simple and easy to obtain.
Communication
As mentioned above, due to the size of the event, no complicated way of communication is needed. The staff communicate through either runner or mobile phones communication. Such methods are more efficient and cost-saving.
2.5 Products & Services
As the event audiences of ‘The PlayDome’ are children, there must be the necessary childcare facilities provided. There are spaces for prams, a drawing corner for the children to rest before they continue their journey for exploration.
One weakness of the event is not having any food and beverage outlet at the event. There is only one stall that sells snacks and canned drinks. I understand that children will get hungry easily after a long day of running and fun at the event.
2.6 Partnership
The event is a joint partnership of National Heritage Board and Museum Roundtable. Often, partnership would present basis of ‘relationships and goodwill’ between the organizations which would lead to success because of solid partnerships and strong links with loyal supporters like the government, participants and corporate representatives. Thus, Children's Season 2011 is able to conduct successfully because of proper allocation and great teamwork.
3. Improvements &Solutions
3.1 Business Opportunities
I feel that this event can be further improved because there is potential for business opportunities. This event has attracted large audiences to different museums in Singapore. Having such wide market, it would be a waste not expanding business opportunity.
Looking at ‘The PlayDome’ event, more food and beverages outlets can be opened at the event. It need not be classy fine dining or cafes, it can be stalls that sell more food variety such as sandwiches, finger food, ice cream, candy floss and fruit juices that would cater to children as well as parents. These food stalls can also work and collaborate with the event and perhaps provide coupons like ‘free candy floss’ or ‘Buy 2 sandwich at S$4’. ‘The PlayDome’ event can also invite balloon makers to set up a station near the food stalls to attract children’s attention.
Stalls that sell museum items like stationeries and clothing can be position around too. Parents would want to buy a few of them to keep as a souvenir for their children.
3.2 Enhancing Visitor Experiences
People seek and embrace experiences that enrich their lives. Thus, ‘The PlayDome’ must be created in the sense that motivates learning and inspire the children. Motivation is not formed by educational talk or lesson. It can be presented through fun. As for children, what interest them the most is having fun.
It must be known that the participants of this event are not only the children, but also the parents. ‘The PlayDome’ can plan programmes that involve interaction between parents and their children.
To improve parents’ experience at the event, maybe while the children are having fun at the Sensory Studio, the parents are given a small talk on childcare tips. It would keep the parents entertain instead of falling asleep.
3.3 Event Marketing
Ticket distribution is important in reaching out to the target audience. Besides selling tickets through a distributor, the Children’s Season 2011 can also promote tickets at local preschools and primary schools. The teachers can suggest as holiday ideas to their students and produce brochures for them to bring home.
Children’s Season 2011 can make use of packaging to improve sales. Instead of selling tickets individually at each museum, they could combine it into a package. For instance, tickets of ‘The PlayDome’(National Museum Singapore), ‘Little Phoenixes & Dragons (Peranakan Museum)and ‘Art Garden’ (Singapore Art Museum) can be purchased at a cheaper price since these three museums are located in close proximity.
4. Future Challenges
4.1 Competition from other destinations
There will be many competitions from both Singapore and other countries, affecting the Children’s Season 2011 directly or indirectly.
Direct competitors would be events that are also targeting the children and their parents during their school holiday. Science centre has organized event (or workshop) for the children – Ski Workshop, during the last week of June 2011.
Indirect competitors would be attractive tourism leisure destinations in Singapore. The competitors include the newly built theme park, Universal Studio, Underwater World, Escape Theme Park and Snow City.
4.2 Cultural Impacts
In the future, if the museums in Singapore continue to organize such events similar to Children’s Season 2011, there would be cultural issues arising from different opinions. There may be questions about eroding of culture in the museums. The main purpose of building museums may be lost due to many such events holding there. People may be questioning on inducing the wrong mindset on the young generations. Because the children are exposed to museums by having fun, instead of exhibiting and appreciating the arts in the museums, they might think that museums are places to have a good time.
