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Well, that’s a wrap!

. . . for now at least. Today I uploaded my thesis to the University of Queensland’s servers and the fate of my doctoral candidature is in the lap of the gods (or, more accurately, two external examiners on the other side of the world). I should get their reports in a couple of months, and with a bit of luck get my PhD conferred not long after, depending on the nature and magnitude of changes requested by my examiners.

Coincidentally, my research career up to this point has been featured this week on the Research Whisperer blog.

That’s capped off a pretty busy September for me! I hope to get back to updating this blog a tad more regularly now.

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Why do I do what I do?

I talk a lot about visior experiences. But it occurred to me recently that I’d never really spelled out why I think they’re so important. We all like to think our work makes the world a better place in some small way, so how do I think what I do matters? Thinking about it over the past few weeks, I’ve come up with the following:

Why do I do what I do?

Because I believe that museums, heritage sites, science centres, zoos, aquariums and national parks have the power to make the world a better place. They can:

  • give us the thrill of discovering something new, or seeing “the real thing”
  • promote wellbeing by bringing us closer to art and nature
  • raise consciousness of the environment we depend upon
  • encourage empathy by presenting the point of view of a different person or culture
  • provide a context for memorable and meaningful experiences with our family and friends

And I firmly believe that the key to unlocking this potential is a good quality, well-planned visitor experience.

So that’s why I do what I do (And have just updated the interactivate web site to reflect this).

What about you – what inspires you to do what you do?