Wrest Park, Bedfordshire is a French-style mansion with stunning gardens owned by English Heritage. The venue was successful in securing National Lottery funding that aimed at developing new audiences. University of Bedfordshire has been working with Wrest Park for the past couple of years through both - assignments being part of the curriculum, as well as projects, ran by the Junior Research Institute for Tourism (jRIT).
Our group of tourism students, who joined jRIT were introduced to an exciting project aligned to the Wrest Park’s aim to develop its audiences. As a team, our role was to explore the success of a range of interpretation methods used by the venue’s visitors. Such methods normally incorporate high-tech, interactive gadgets that visitors use so they get to know what an attraction is about, its significance and history, exciting facts and personalities. Interpretation methods then have an educational function and we had to find out how they influence visitor understanding of a place.
This was a great opportunity for all of us to gain practical experience. We formed a very committed team of five undergraduate and postgraduate students – Danka, Sisi, Linda, Paul and myself. My role was to ensure the smooth running of our project, coordinate various activities among the team members, give guidance and help where possible. As we worked as a small team, the role of each and every individual was of great importance to the various stages we have been through.
Stage One: Get to Know More about the Project
The very first, crucial step for all of us was meeting the client – the recipient of our team’s piece of work. In this stage, we got to know in detail:
- what the project was about
- what the key objectives were
- desired outputs the client wanted to see
- deadlines and specific project requirements to be met
We knew that developing an action plan of the project and clarifying individual roles and responsibilities from the very beginning was essential. The action plan included the various project stages you will read about, outlined in detail within a timeframe. We formed two data collection teams. Their role was to run interviews with visitors of Wrest Park – during weekdays, as well as weekends, so we capture the different types of visitors coming and using the interpretation methods.
Stage Three: Interviewing Visitors
For the purpose of interviewing, we had to have an interview agenda – we all met on a brainstorming session and developed a questionnaire that will be used during data collection. The four interview dates were agreed from the very beginning as Wrest Park is a busy venue, especially on weekends when they do weddings and various events. There was no second try if we missed a date and therefore, full commitment to the project was extremely important.
Stage Four: Dealing with Difficulties
Even in project management things go wrong sometimes and facing difficulties is inevitable. The human factor is something that is hard to deal with - Paul opted out due to external arrangements, whereas Sisi had to do urgent trip to France. I knew that deadline was approaching and if our team could not deliver the project on time, we had no one else to blame but ourselves. I had to review the action plan and perhaps, take on responsibilities and tasks of the missing team members. Additional tasks were assigned to the remaining team members as well, such as taking over interview slots, data analysis, report writing – all being exciting stuff I will talk about now.
Stage Five: Working as a Team
This stage involved co-ordination of various activities and tasks among individuals within the project team. The focus here was on quality – we had to prove that our team was the right one for this job. Interviews were completed and Danka and I started transcribing them, before any data analysis is to be done. Bear in mind that this stage is a very lengthy process – it takes a great amount of time to turn audio recorded speech into text! Once completed, the plan was then to analyse the transcribed data through NVivo – a software package for qualitative data analysis. As most of the members were not aware of it, I organised a tutorial session with them so we all got to know NVivo. All team members were involved in data analysis - they have done interviewing and met visitors on the attraction. So their personal reflection when observing visitors was important factor, particularly when evaluating the success of interpretation methods.
Stage Six: Report Writing Up
Lucky getting the project to this point, we agreed on the most appropriate way to disseminate project outputs. We had to produce a report and I knew that language is important – our team had to avoid using technical terms and concepts. We agreed that the client is interested in actual facts and figures, and not in the process of discovering findings or the methods we employed. Linda and Sisi contributed to different project sections, where Danka and I were involved in writing up the final report. Having said this, one should see project report as detailed and focused piece of work, as oppose to a messy text. Think of important matters you should communicate to the reader!
Stage Seven: Presenting Project Outputs
Finally, as required by the Audience Development Manager, we had to deliver the project outcomes through a presentation. We knew we should not get lost in our findings – a well-structured presentation that outlines the salient points of the case is what we did. And we succeeded – Lisa was happy! We should not forget the valuable experience the whole team gained through this project. And when you get your reference from jRIT that means you have done a good job indeed!
About the Author: Deyan Hristov
Deyan is a Graduate Academic Assistant at the University of Bedfordshire Business School, where he has been engaged in various research projects. He joined the Business School in January 2013 and has also been working towards completing his PhD in organisational change since then.
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