FutureGaze: The Future of Tourism and Culture
8th September 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM BST
Overview
FutureGaze is a series of online lunchtime conversations that explore the future of our creative industries and practices.
Brought to you by Creative Edinburgh and in partnership with Edinburgh Futures Institute, FutureGaze has been designed for those eager to explore the future of our creative industries and practices.
PLEASE NOTE:
FutureGaze is a free event for all Creative Edinburgh members. If you’re not a member yet, you’re absolutely welcome to join us – and we’d love to have you. To support the community, please consider signing up as a free member or Pay What You Can to help keep events like this accessible for everyone.
Hosted by Caroline Parkinson, Director of Creative for the Edinburgh Futures Institute, each session features inspiring conversations with creative leaders who’ve driven innovation and transformation in their work – whether in business, the arts, academia, or beyond.
Together, we’ll explore what the future holds for the creative and cultural sector through their experiences and insights.
September’s Discussion: The Future of Tourism and Culture
What is the scope of our cultural tourism in Scotland, and how can we support local, national and international audiences to engage with Scottish culture and our cultural events?
During this event, we’ll explore the trends we’re seeing in the data, discuss how AI is impacting creative and cultural work, and discover how to harness these tools for better audience engagement and data gathering. We’ll also share strategies and resources that Scottish creative and cultural organisations can use to support tourism moving forward, helping you connect with visitors and build sustainable audiences for your work.
About our guests
Joshua Ryan-Saha, Director of Tourism, Travel & Festivals, Edinburgh Futures Institute
Joshua is Director of Tourism, Travel & Festivals at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh, where he leads the Travel Tech Innovation Hub and the Traveltech for Scotland network. Over six years, he has grown the network to more than 200 companies and helped facilitate over £25 million of investment into travel tech.
He chairs the Data, AI & Technology workstream on Scotland’s Tourism & Hospitality Industry Leadership Group and leads the Scottish Tourism Data Partnership. His work sits at the intersection of academia, government, and industry – translating emerging technology into practical policy, investment agendas, and a clearer understanding of the changing customer journey. A global practitioner in the field, he has delivered AI, futures, and technology sessions to over 1,000 tourism and travel professionals across four continents.
Mary Bruce, Digital Projects Officer, Edinburgh Fringe Society
Mary Bruce is Digital Projects Coordinator at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, working on digital transformation initiatives, including the development of the Fringe’s new website, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies through the Digital Accelerator Programme.
Mary is focused on improving how artists and audiences engage with the Fringe’s digital platforms and how these platforms can best communicate and provide access to the programme. She has led research into staff perceptions of AI within a festival context, helping to inform organisational policy development and the ethical use of AI across the organisation, as well as its use by artists and audiences. She has also conducted user research with community groups and audiences with access requirements, ensuring accessibility considerations are embedded into the development of the Fringe’s technical infrastructure.
More recently, Mary led a project to develop new ways of categorising work coming to the Fringe, helping audiences navigate the ever-growing and vast programme as well as finding ways to support artists to represent their work.
About our host
Caroline is Director of Creative at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, focusing on supporting innovation in data and creative technologies for the creative industries. Previously, she has led her own consultancy business, served as Director of Film, TV, Music, Creative Industries, Skills & Innovation in the early years of Creative Scotland, and before that, she was Director, Scotland & Northern Ireland for Creative & Cultural Skills.
Her early creative life included ballet and rhythmic gymnastics, fashion, singing in bands for over 30 years, and photography, becoming a professional photographer in 1999. She serves on the Board of Architecture & Design Scotland, and for 8 years has served in a voluntary capacity as Strategic Director and Presenter of the MOVE Summit, Scotland’s Animation and VFX Gathering.
Code of Conduct
Creative Edinburgh is committed to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone. Across all our activities and channels we ask participants to respect the Code of Conduct.
About Creative Edinburgh
Creative Edinburgh is a registered Scottish Charity (SC052838) committed to helping creatives thrive. Through events, career support and advocacy, we bring together and help grow the city’s creative community, providing a space for creation, collaboration and connection at every stage of your career. Creative Edinburgh is supported by Creative Scotland as a recipient of Multi-Year Funding (MYF).
