BBC Things To Do and Culture24

By Albert Kawmi

The BBC and Culture24 held a series of events around the UK in January 2012, highlighting the BBC Things To Do website. Having attended the Edinburgh event on Tuesday 10th January, I put together this summary of what Things To Do offers arts and cultural organisations, and how to get involved.

What is BBC Things To Do?
“BBC Things To Do helps the public discover great local activities offered by the BBC and our partners connected to our TV and radio programmes, and other BBC campaigns.”

You can register as a partner organisation and start posting your events (activities) on the website. Or you can register via Culture24 (see below) and benefit from promotion on both sites without having to duplicate your submissions.

In Glasgow, the site is already being used by Glasgow Science Centre, Botanic Gardens, Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery and The Burrell Collection.

What kind of events or activities can be posted on BBC Things To Do?
To appear on the BBC Things To Do website, activities must:

• be free or ‘cost-recovery’ 
• have a participatory element (e.g. dance class or a talk with Q&A)
• link to a BBC project
• include a photo

BBC projects include Arts & Crafts, History, Nature & Outdoors and Science, as well as others, with more categories being added soon.

At the event, were assured further that:

1. Having a "link to a BBC project" simply means an activity is of relevance to people who are interested in those projects
2. There is some flexibility. So, if there is any doubt on the cost or participatory restrictions, it is best to contact the Things To Do team and check if your activity is eligible.

What are the advantages of posting activities on the BBC Things To Do website?
Making your activities available on the website allow people to find them whilst they are browsing for other activities on the site. This allows organisations of all sizes to take advantage of the promotion of the BBC’s programming. Audiences are driven to the site by the BBCs projects and seasonal promotions, and can then discover a variety of related offerings. 

In some cases, specific activities can benefit from directly by being mentioned alongside the BBC’s projects and seasonal promotions in broadcast across various shows and channels. Users can also search the Things To Do website by entering their location to highlight relevant activities in their locale.

What is Culture24?
www.culture24.org.uk features news, reviews, event listings and resources from 4,400+ of the UK's museums, galleries, science centres, heritage sites and historic houses.

Once your organisation is registered with Culture24, activities uploaded there can be automatically channelled to BBC Things To Do, without having to enter data twice. This confers the benefits of being on the Things To Do side along with the advantages of posting your data on Culture24.

You can find more details on the Culture24 website and Frequently Asked Questions on the BBC Things To Do site.