MAAM 2026 Annual Conference

What if a museum could feel less like a vault that preserves the past and more like a laboratory for exploring the present?

This intensive, full-day workshop gives museum professionals the tools to make that shift — moving from institutions that tell visitors what to think toward experiences that invite them to feel, question, and discover. Using a multi-stage methodology, participants will learn how to conceptualize exhibits and experiences that are educational, personally meaningful, and fun. The results? Experiences that give visitors fresh perspectives and transferable skills for their everyday lives.

Drawing on decades of practical experience and leadership–including the re-imagining of the International Spy Museum–the instructors will support you in moving away from “what we want to say” to “how visitors can most meaningfully experience it.” You will leave with a practical framework for experience design.

This full-day management institute is a day dedicated to developing more compassionate, effective managers. It offers participatory activities and conversation, using a combination of individual, small-group, and large-group work.

The day will include: developing your personal management approach; uncovering your core values & how they differ from your institution’s / your direct reports’; exploring complicated staff management issues through real-life case studies; and understanding organizational culture & how your management choices contribute to it

We know non-profits historically neither hire nor train for management skills, leaving staff unprepared for some aspects of their jobs. The SEED approach to management training emphasizes co-learning, co-creation, and thoughtful risk-taking. The SEED trio (Rachel, Rebecca, and David) have both museum-based management experience and research-based understanding of key management skills. As consultants, we have heard from both leadership and new and seasoned managers that good management is key to institutional (and individual) success.