Digital Transformation for the Theatre Association of South Australia

This article has been written as a reflection upon my time and the achievements made within the Theatre Association of South Australia, from February 2017 to March 2021. I was approached by one of my work colleagues, at the time, who knew I enjoyed the theatre scene, with the question of "you know how to use a computer, do you think you can put together a monthly magazine?!" With a prompt invitation to the upcoming AGM, I was elected at the 2017 TASA AGM to be the new Encore Editor. Although, being just the editor did not last long.

For the Association I brought a fresh set of eyes identifying a number of cumbersome processes which were becoming outdated, limiting for the Associations deliverables and restricting the membership growth. The main functions, at the time, included:

• Website access, with many pages restricted to members only and paywalls.
• Encore magazine, created as a PDF replica of the physical magazine once produced.
• Various discounts, for theatre shows, workshops and fundraisers.

Website

The website, at the time of joining, was a Joomla 3.2 site, out of date and unable to upgrade due to the servers limitation, as the version of PHP 5.3.10 was unable to upgrade to PHP 7, server capacity and numerous other issues. With these limitations and the sites inability to be user friendly, both for the administrators/ authors and end users. I presented the need to change CMS platform and hosting solution to ensure we could deliver our current services with the prospective of being able to expand these services and capabilities over time.

The proposal was accepted for the upgrade and migration of sites. The executive of the board outlined their concerns identifying that the new site should still present the same look and feel. This was factored into the layout and design aspects of the new websites theme.

In April 2019, the launch of the new TASA website happened. With the deployment and release of the new site meant a number of communication pieces were provided to our membership and wider audience including:

• Email
• Facebook post
• Instagram story & post
• Cross-Platform posts (sample 1, sample 2, sample 3)

With the successful launch, and supportive responses from our membership and online audience, a number of enhancements were implemented including defined page/ post schemas, workflows, online forms, and expanding event capabilities.

AGM is another key element of the Association with members continually referring to the documents, papers and reports delivered. I took the initiative to create a custom built agenda management system into the website platform for members to access easily, securely and dynamically. Some key features of this build includes:

• Dynamic listing of past AGM's that link to agendas, minutes and tabled documents.
• Event information, linking each AGM directly to an event listing within the website for collecting registrations.
• Dynamic page display, where sections only display conditionally depending on how much information has been uploaded into the AGM management system.
• Easy navigation and content creation for the administrator or secretary to administer.

Communication Platforms

Facebook - When joining the association the page had 659 page likes, and the growth was static, the odd like here and there would occur but the content also wasn't much more than the odd post or the direct announcements.

Today, the page has a healthy 1,506 page likes, which has continually increased in growth. A few approaches I took included:

• RRS Feed posts - the content included latest reviews and upcoming events which kept the page active, continually driving users back to the website.
• Adding/ linking TASA Group Membership Facebook events to TASA's Facebook page.
• Sharing posts, where companies require assistance, or information needing to reach a wider audience within the theatre community.
• Interacting and engaging with comments and likes, acting as the TASA page to create awareness for the Association in various online communities.

A Facebook group was developed for swapping information - such as props, scripts and various other theatre elements and knowledge, although I cannot take any credit on this recent platform launch, as I only setup the group, linking it to the main Facebook page and left the management of this group to the board.

Instagram - The initiative to create an account occurred in April 2017, it has to date (April 2021) 402 followers. The site was setup to reach a new audience which was either not being reached on Facebook, or a younger generation only interested in a visual content platform. Engagement and awareness on the platform was created via:

• Creating posts including: #throwbackthursday - utilising historical Encore covers, latest Encore magazine covers, TheatriCAL award nominations and photos, along with providing companies the opportunity to take over the account to draw awareness to their current activities.
• Stories: this area was generally limiting to TASA, although when the account had takeovers this function was utilised and content was saved to then be compiled into a clip for YouTube, enabling non-Instagram users access to the takeover content.
• Interacting and engaging with comments and likes, acting as the TASA page to create awareness for the association on various profiles posts and stories.

LinkedIn - The importance for individuals being able to update their LinkedIn profiles and positions was identified, this is enabled by individuals linking to the associations page. The page brings great potential and I look forward to seeing how this develops in the future.

Managing the content across all of our social media platforms, I quickly discovered an integration piece was required to manage, schedule and scan company profiles easily. This was achieved by a combination of Hootsuite, Zapier and Buffer.

Mail outs & E-Mails

• What's On: Starting out as a fortnightly email. The single column layout quickly changed to a 3 column layout when companies and members started engaging in this semi-regular piece of communication. The new website, when launched in 2019 provided the ability to create dynamically rich content linking into the various event categories that are utilised including, regular production promotions, featured productions, and festival productions. Company events were added to this collection, providing another channel for members to advertise their fundraising, AGMs, and workshops.
• Encore: Initially was communicated as a plain text email with a PDF attachment, this was quickly changed to a more colourful and graphical engaging piece, with the PDF still requiring to be downloaded from the website server. Utilising MailChimp and later on website statistics, it was obvious downloading a PDF magazine was an outdated approach, which brought the latest approach to Encore being a fully interactive webpage per edition. The mailout still occurs, although generated automatically, which directs members to the specific edition on the website.
• Auditions: a previously neglected space, has now been incorporated into the event application, providing members the opportunity to receive mailouts direct to their mailbox of upcoming Auditions.
• On-boarding TASA Individual Members: The process was neglected and would only be engaged upon if the member had issues which the Association could assist by. Creating a dynamically updated piece of correspondence has now enabled the ability for new members to have a personalised email with recent content attached to it as an engagement piece upon signing up (Sample available).

Encore Magazine

The Encore Magazine, for the Association, has been operating since 1986 servicing the South Australian theatre community with the latest news, reviews and listing of upcoming productions. Originating as a printed document until 2015, it then became a PDF magazine for digital readers.

Various challenges were presented between 2017 to 2019, prior to the launch of the new website, including:

• PDF downloads
• Mailboxes unable to support large PDF attachments
• Technology capabilities
• Continual forwarding of the digital magazine, loosing the purpose of having a membership structure

The website launch gave an opportunity for this resource to receive a new lease on life. Being mobile responsive, accessible and dynamically available it meant readers weren't having to download, utilise large amounts of bandwidth or data to receive the latest Encore.

The content of the newly developed online magazine is conditional, dynamic and collaborative, drawing upon content across the whole website.

Live Theatre Guide

TASA's Live Theatre Guide (LTG) was identified as one of the processes that needed a major review, as it was not only becoming a costly exercise, but also an unmeasurable one too. The initiative at the time, of creation, was perfect and it serviced it's audience well. Although, with technological advancements and the format it remained in (single colour print) it meant the age of the publication was showing.

From 2017 to 2019, I created a variety of engaging printed formats for the marketing piece. Although, by the last publication in 2019 the decision was made to end the printed format of the Live Theatre Guide. The Association changed the membership structure enabling a digital format to be utilised, including the Featured What's On emails, social media posts and a range of other services. This has now enabled a more measured approach to the advertising piece, enabling companies to seek detailed and analytics of their advertisements.

Engagement

When I joined the Association there was confusion around it's branding and public approach in its visual representation. In 2018, as part of the website development project, I created a Style Guide that enabled a direction for the Association to brand itself by. With the colours, logos and approved selection of headers the Association created a consistent public facing approach that was being recognised.

With the branding aligned, and the launch of the website, it meant metrics and analytics could be derived correctly. As the previous website didn't have capacity to enhance it's approach to capture analytical data, this was a non-functional requirement that had a high priority for the new website.

Utilising both the updated branding and the analytics, I took some time learn Google's DataStudio to create reports for both the committee and companies to access and have the opportunity to access the website analytics.

Outcomes

Over the 4 years being with the Association a number of deliverables have evolved and so has the learning to go behind them.

• Encore PDF & Print development had pivoted to a completely online product.
• Live Theatre Guide being printed, was re-started as a fresh online Featured Productions listing.
• Style guide being developed and set.
• Website being updated to enable the Associations services with pages/ posts being enhanced accordingly.

These influences have shown in the growth of the Association, both as the demands and resourcing increased, along with establishing a larger committee. This was reflected with the increase of the Associations group membership coverage from 25 companies (in 2017) to 45 companies (in 2021). Individual membership also had a number of changes to influence the growth, provided by the board, enabling the 53 members (in 2017) to triple by 2021 (159 individual members).

The changes and transformation to the Association have received a positive response from the membership. The contributions I have provided to the Association are only the building blocks to establish their next steps into this digital journey.

As I depart from the Association, it has been identified to maintain the deliverables of the digital transformation a number of new roles are to be created to continue the drive and performance of the digital space. Being part of the driving force into the digital change has been exciting, interesting and a learning curve that I have greatly appreciated. The skills have been transferrable into my current job role, but enabled a greater understanding and appreciation of how these roles all function (separately or performed together by one person).