Heather Walker

Project Director, Visitor Experience, Royal Opera House

The Journey from Customer Care to Visitor Experience

8/26/2016

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As Royal Opera House undertakes a major physical renovation, the organization is also experiencing a philosophical and behavioral transformation focused on providing audiences and visitors with an unforgettable experience.

When the Royal Opera House embarked on an extensive capital development project named “Open Up“, the aim was not only to enhance the audience experience but also to welcome daytime visitors to this landmark site. While the design will ensure improvements to the building, the project will only be truly successful if these physical changes are matched by a redefined visitor experience.

"The expectations of audiences has undergone a seismic shift. No longer do they just expect inspiring auditoriums, thought-provoking and mesmerizing performances, and world-class artists. Now, there's an anticipation - a demand even - for the experience to start way before the orchestra tunes up."

In this talk, Heather shares the challenge of moving from a venue to a destination - from caring for your customers to delivering an engaging and memorable visit - and discuss her approach in ensuring that the project delivers on its promise to open up the Royal Opera House to many more visitors beginning in 2018. Click the play button above to watch the talk.

An architect's rendering of the "opened up" Royal Opera House

Heather Walker

Heather Walker

Project Director, Visitor Experience
Royal Opera House

Heather Walker has spent her career working for artistic and cultural organizations in a range of roles across commercial operations, programming, business planning and change management.

She held a variety of positions at the Royal Albert Hall in ticketing, visitor services, commercial operations and programming. As its Deputy Chief Executive from 2000, she led the development of a new operating model for the organization to coincide with the completion of a major redevelopment of the building. Heather’s next role at Melbourne’s Arts Centre in Australia involved implementing a series of major change projects, following which she returned to London and undertook consultancy projects for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Roundhouse, Southbank Centre and National Theatre - reviewing operations and contributing to business re-modelling. She became the Chief Operating Officer at the Roundhouse in 2012 with a responsibility for driving commercial income, managing operations and delivering a £3m project to create new accommodation facilities. In September 2015, she joined the Royal Opera House as Project Director leading the development of a new Visitor Experience vision to be delivered alongside the capital project to ‘open up’ the building and organization, to a wider range of visitors from 2018 onwards.  Heather is a graduate of the Royal College of Music and lives in London.

Topics

Audience Development

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Business Strategy

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Community Engagement