From spectator to spectraitor

The King’s Cultural Challenge is an opportunity for King’s College London students to pitch for a paid internship with the Royal Opera House, Royal Shakespeare Company, Southbank Centre or V&A. This year’s Cultural Challenge question asked how might the four organisations work together, without losing their individual identities, in programmes or projects that build audiences. Any King's College London student can enter but what made the difference this year was that, before finalising our entries, we were given the opportunity to develop our ideas through a number of workshops. That allowed us to discuss, develop and refine our ideas with fellow students and, critically, with art professionals from the four organisations involved. The eleven of us chosen as finalists were then invited to an ‘innovation surgery’ workshop, with members of the Cultural Institute team and the Chief Technology Officer at the Royal Opera House, as well as a ‘pitching skills’ workshop, where we were given top tips from a professional presenter.

The final took place in June with BBC Radio 4 presenter Zeb Soanes as master of ceremonies. My idea was a DISloyalty app called ‘Spectraitors’ where loyal spectators from any one of the four arts organisations are encouraged to become spectraitors by visiting performances or exhibitions at the three other participating institutions.

It is a way of reaching people already engaged in the arts but it could also be used to help introduce new artforms to people who are less engaged

I actually came up with the idea in the shower. I had a 5,000 word essay due in in a matter of days and it wasn't going all that well. All I had come up with was a loyalty scheme but I couldn't think of a way to tie the four institutions together other than through joint programming. But then I thought about it from my own perspective. I frequently attend performances at the Royal Opera House but only go to the other three every so often. To address this, I needed to be DISloyal to the Royal Opera house, hence the DISloyalty app.

As it is an app it can work in a number of different ways that can be tailored to the arts organisations' preferences. Each spectraitor has their home institution set to the institution they are loyal to. The app will then generate performances or exhibitions at the other venues that the spectraitor must attend in order to receive exclusive rewards from their home institution. The app suggests a variety of ways to earn points towards the exclusive rewards, from having a pre-performance drink in the bar to actually attending a performance. The exclusive rewards can include being able to watch rehearsals, priority booking, signings by the cast or artist or other such 'money can't buy' rewards.

Everyone who works in the arts knows the potential for new technologies to change traditional approaches and enhance the art experience – from being alerted about new performances through GPS activation to buying your ticket through PowaTag. The app aims to build on this while taking the engagement a stage further. As it stands, it is a way of reaching people already engaged in the arts but it could also be used to help introduce new artforms to people who are less engaged. For example, users could be incentivised to take a friend by receiving extra points towards their exclusive rewards. While I can see that some arts organisations may fear that Spectraitors will result in them losing their valued customers as they try out other artforms and organisations, they will also have loyal customers from other organisations flocking to their performances or exhibitions – surely a win-win.

After what felt like a very long period of deliberation, Zeb Soanes announced the four winners and I was ecstatic to hear my name. As I study music at King's and aspire to be an opera singer, I was even more elated to hear that my internship is at the Royal Opera House. This is an amazing opportunity which may even result in putting my Spectraitors app proposal into practice.

Lauren Holden is a third year music student at King's College London.
www.kcl.ac.uk/cultural