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Few people in the cultural sector have watched the technology shift from quite as many angles as Ben Park.
He started out working in festivals, including a stint at the Edinburgh Fringe, before moving to arts centre roles and eventually landing at The Place, a contemporary dance theatre in London. It was there that technology found him rather than the other way round – systems kept ending up on his desk, and a curiosity about how they worked led him eventually to Spektrix, first as a customer and then as a member of staff. He spent 12 years there, joining when the company was still small. He now runs his own consultancy, working with cultural organisations and technology suppliers.
That background shapes a conversation that covers a lot of ground: why websites have been slower than ticketing to make the shift to subscription models, whether the sector's funding structures create friction with digital investment, and how venues can build more effective relationships with their technology providers.
On some of this, Ben is direct. When the question of "control" comes up – a word that surfaces often when venues are weighing up SaaS platforms – he reframes it quickly. Managing your own infrastructure isn't control, it's overhead. The more useful question is whether the platform you're paying for is returning more than it costs. If it isn't, moving is less painful than it used to be.
On other questions, he's more careful. He won't say custom builds are never appropriate, or that the sector's funding model simply needs to change. What he will say is that organisations should be asking harder questions of their technology partners – and of themselves.
Watch or listen to the full episode to hear Ben's answers in his own words.
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