In two years Southbank Centre has gone from “digital-zero” to a digital leader in its sector. As Europe's largest Arts Centre, in 2013 we set out to embed digital throughout the organisation to transform how we deliver over 4500 events and 13 festivals a year across multiple venues, and how we engage with our visitors and on-line audiences. To do this we had to build solid digital platforms covering core infrastructure and connectivity, video capture and display platforms, in-house digital skills, and information and digital asset assurance. Alongside this we had to fix our website to respond properly during periods of peak demand, cross-sell products, and support mobile purchases. Right now we are building a brand new ticketing website, creating on-line festivals, experimenting with new digital learning formats, and developing a standard for publishing linked open data for events. In this presentation Rob shares what he has learnt during the digital transformation of Southbank Centre so far, and offers tips for anyone on a digital journey; possibly highlighting some of the things that are helping to make the difference between success and failure.

1. 10 Top Tips for Digital
Transformation
Rob Gethen Smith

2. Southbank Centre passionately believes the
arts have the power to transform lives

3. 4500 Events
13 Festivals
6m people

4. 2012

5. 1. Tell the organisation that you mean business
- Fix broken things quickly

7. Website improvements in <18 months
● 75% overall increase in sessions (440k to 700k
per month)
● 50% reduction inbound phone sales traffic
during on sales
● 100% increase in use of mobile devices to
access the site
● 200% increase in mobile sales funnel rate from
basket to check out
● £14 higher average order value online and
increasing faster than offline
● >£150k revenue uplift due to tablet ticket sales
since Dec 13 (£6 more per order)
● >£100k savings in internal production costs
● Website complaints dropped from 600 (in
2013) to 123 (in 2014)

8. 2. Rebrand IT -
Become a beacon
for digital
change

9. Tech innovation club
Shopping list...
iBeacons x4
Oculus Rift x5
Google Cardboard x3
Rasberry Pi2 x1
Arduino Kits x2
Leap Motion x1
Laser keyboard x2
Smart watches x2

10. 3. Make sure governance
of your digital change is
crystal clear…
...no one owns Digital!

11. 4. Have a two-tiered Digital Strategy
- Digital foundations
- Digital everywhere

12. 5. Become a Digital Workforce
- give everyone digital tools
and skills

13. The effect of Google Apps:
● 50% general improvement in ability get stuff done
● 60% increase in ability to collaborate
● 300% increase in ability to work flexibly
● 80% increase in ability to find information
○ ~70 hours a day
○ ~10 extra people

14. 6. Supercharge your digital team - start small,
learn fast, find the right partners

15. “Make no little plans; they have no
magic to stir men's blood”
Daniel Burnham
7. Have BIG ideas…

16. THE GLASS BOX

17. 1. Best in
breed event
ticketing
website
2. Unique
digital space
for arts and
learning

18. “Talk about taking transparent
participatory to the next level!”
Mar Dixon

19. New Ideas

20. User testing

21. Drop in
sessions

22. Workshops

24. Tim

26. 8. Open Up Everything!

27. ● Open platform
● Open data
● Open designs
● Open use
● Open process

28. Website users can reuse content, data and
software, explore how the website works
and easily manage their privacy so that the
Southbank Centre becomes a trusted and
valuable resource.

29. 9. Tell the whole world what you are doing

31. 10. Enjoy what you do!

33. “...you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only
connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the
dots will somehow connect in your future.”
Steve Jobs

34. The
Beginning
@robgethers
2015