Congratulations to Mark Ryan for winning a Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) Creative Industries Career Fund grant to attend the 2010 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference in Los Angeles CA, March 17-21.

This conference brings experts from USA, Canada and Australia to Melbourne to discuss how the Web 2.0 revolution is changing museum and library practice.

The four conference sessions will explore:
# How to communicate with non-traditional visitors, and capture new audiences.
# How social networks allow audiences to form communities of interest.
# How scientific knowledge can create and sustain cultural participation.
# How organisational change is critical in a world of user-generated content and social media.

The Conference builds on the themes of the 2008 Sydney event by looking more broadly at how museums and libraries can contribute to the development of general understandings of science and culture by communities and publics. How is museum and library knowledge framed, problematised, created and disseminated in the Web 2.0 environment?

Early booking is highly recommended: the 2008 event sold out within weeks of registration opening!!

Angelina Russo has been invited to present at the Museums Australia Futures Forum to be held in Canberra on 19 – 21 May. Read more about it here!

Angelina Russo was invited to act as thematic editor for New South Wales Museums and Gallery Services ‘The MAG’. This issue focuses on the use of social media in cultural organisations and includes articles by Dr Lynda Kelly from the Australian Museum, Carolyn Royston from the Victoria and Albert Museum. It also includes an interview with Caroline Payson from the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York and several Australian case studies of the use of social media. The issue is due out in mid May!

Angelina Russo was invited to give the first presentation in the annual State Library of Victoria ‘Digital Forum’ series. The talk was presented by Andrew Hiskens, Manager for Learning and approximately 100 people attended. You can read more about it here!

Angelina Russo was invited to present to the Victorian Cultural Network Governance Committee. The Governance Committee is made up of key execs from five cultural agencies: Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Museum Victoria, National Gallery of Victoria, State Library of Victoria, and Victorian Arts Centre Trust - and some Arts Victoria reps. As a Governance Committee, they have responsibility to set strategic directions for the Victorian Cultural Network project.

Angelina met up with Caroline Payson, Director of Design, Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, Brisbane where Caroline was hosted by Arts Queensland to deliver a roundtable with government agencies, a public talk and two masterclasses. The public talk was opened by the Honourable Minster for Trade, Arts and Training, Mr Rod Welford. You can read more about it here!

Angelina Russo and Sebastian Chan were invited back to the prestigious Museums and the Web Conference in San Francisco to present an updated version of their highly popular ‘Planning for Social Media’ workshop. You can read a review of this workshop here!