About the Network
What is the Digital Culture Network, what can it do for me?
The Digital Culture Network provides practical, on-the-ground help to the creative and culture sector. Our focus is around digital skills, data literacy and leadership development. We can help you:
- Explore and harness the benefits of technology to achieve your goals.
- Find new ways to reach and engage audiences.
- Develop sustainable business models.
- Create manageable digital strategies.
Support from the Digital Culture Network comes in a variety of formats to help you learn in a way and at a pace that suits you. Our support is free, unlimited and tailored specifically to your needs or the needs of your organisation. Our support comes from a team of Tech Champions with a broad range of digital specialisms. We speak with hundreds of creative and cultural organisations and individuals every month, we’re in tune with the digital landscape and we want to help you!
Getting Support Quickly and Easily
Our main support type is our unique one-to-one support session. Having support from a Tech Champion one-to-one gives you the chance to gather specialist advice and training from an industry specialist who would like to guide you on your digital journey, this could be as simple as a 30 minute chat via video call.
Working with a Tech Champion is easy, we’ve worked with some organisations who have returned for support on a regular basis because the relaxed and informal format of the one-to-one session has allowed them space to ask questions and tailor the outcomes to their own unique needs. If you’d benefit from knowing more about how someone might go on a digital journey with Digital Culture Network, check out this case study by Blast Theory who, at the time of publishing, had received one-to-one support from a variety of Tech Champions 38 times!
What Specialisms do the Tech Champions Support on?
- Data Analytics and Insights
- Digital Accessibility
- Digital Marketing and Strategy
- Social Media
- eCommerce and Merchandising
- Digital and Video Content Creation
- Email Marketing
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Websites
- Data Methodologies and Systems
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Box Office Ticketing
What Should I do if I want Support from the Digital Culture Network?
You should navigate to our Ask a Tech Champion page. From there you will complete a simple web form and a member of our team will get in touch promptly. Don’t worry if you’re unsure about which Tech Champion you need to speak with, we can work that out! You can even choose to have an introductory chat with a Tech Champion who can listen to your areas of development and help you to develop a plan or help you to discover your digital priorities. Our support is always free to individuals and organisations working within the creative and cultural sector. Get in touch to begin your journey.
What Other Options are there to get Support from Digital Culture Network?
We create practical workshops and webinars that are designed and delivered by our Tech Champions to help you to improve your digital skills and to give you a chance to engage with your peers who are sharing your learning journey.
We can signpost you to valuable resources, our Knowledge Hub is packed full of written and video content created by our Tech Champions.
We can also support with tech opportunities, often connecting those working in the creative and cultural sector to key technology providers through platform demonstrations.
Where did the Digital Culture Network Begin?
Launched in June 2019, the Digital Culture Network is an initiative to increase the digital skills and capability of the creative and cultural sector; originating from one of the commitments from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Culture is Digital report. The report focuses on the use of digital technology to drive our cultural sector’s global status and the engagement and diversity of audiences. It recognises that there is scope for cultural organisations to develop digital skills, infrastructure and resources and leadership training, and that digital experiences are transforming how audiences engage with culture and are driving new forms of cultural participation and practice.
Our Journey so far
Year 5
23 – 24 has been a landmark year for Digital Culture Network. Whilst celebrating our 5th birthday we have reflected upon a record year in which we delivered more than 2,000 one-to-one support cases to almost 700 organisations and individuals in the creative and cultural sector. Whilst demand for support in Data and Analytics continues to drive our work, new trends have appeared. With significant need for help in audience surveying coming to the forefront, we have been delighted to see our new Audience Data Collection Tech Champion build great relationships with a diverse range of people to provide that much needed sounding board.
23 – 24 also marks a milestone moment, the sharing of our case data for the very first time, inviting you to take a deeper look into our commitment to digital skills development in our sector. By sharing our experiences through our data, we encourage others in similar fields to draw upon our insights, fostering a community-wide aim of digital skills development. We’re inspired not only to inform but also to inspire collective progress towards a culture of data driven decision making.
You can download our 2023 – 2024 case data here (Excel download) and see a summary of our record year in numbers below.
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Year 5 summary PDF download (600K) > |
Year 4
In 2022 the Digital Culture Network continued to support organisations and individuals across the creative and cultural sector. We saw great demand in a number of specialisms however Data Analytics and Insights was particularly important with the advent of Google Analytics 4 and the end of Universal Analytics in Summer 2023. We’ve also broadened our horizons by welcoming our very first Digital Accessibility Tech Champion to the team as inclusivity and relevance remain key to our values and vitally important to the people we support. We’re looking forward to our fifth year and everything that it brings.
To discover more, please download our summary PDF of Year 4.
Year 3
Throughout 2020 and the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, the work of the Digital Culture Network was never more important. We continued to provide one-to-one support to organisations and individuals in the creative and cultural sector with a need for stronger digital skills. We also increased the volume of resources available to you as many people sought to accelerate their digital progress.
To discover more, please download our summary PDF of Year 3.
Year 2
Our second year kept us busy!
Year 1
Over our first year, we engaged with over 300 national portfolio organisations and another 300 creative and cultural organisations across the country. We delivered a number of training workshops and webinars. Read our news article to find out more or view our 1 Year Celebration infographic and summary PDF.
Evaluation of Arts Council England’s Digital Culture Network
The Digital Culture Network originated from a DCMS white paper ‘Culture is Digital’ recognising the need to support arts and cultural organisations to develop digital skills and utilise technology to achieve their digital ambitions.
This evaluation report reviews the set-up and the reach of the Digital Culture Network in the first two years.
The report concludes;
- The DCN achieved most of its KPIs for 2020/21 and has set up and delivered an effective and well-received programme in the space of less than two years.
- The DCN recruited skilled and knowledgeable Tech Champions from outside the sector, establishing the their core offer, systems, processes, branding and marketing. They have established partnerships and collaborations with tech organisations and Sector Support Organisations.
- The DCN has overachieved significantly with it’s delivery of one-to-one support and events, and received high user satisfaction scores, evidencing demand and high quality of service.
Download the executive summary report here.
If you’d like to read the full report, please get in touch.