The Seat of Kings - Bamburgh Castle, architectural / visitor information photographic print.

The Seat of Kings - Bamburgh Castle, architectural / visitor information photographic print.
Fine Art Photography - Abstract Series - Ebb & Flow
Torsa Otter - natural history photography
Heritage Centre, Bellingham - webcasting, online shopping, collections galleries, visitor information and more.
We won a North East Digital Award 2007 for this! Digitisation of archive, metadata compiling and online development / presentation of collection.
Blyth Huts - Architectural Fine Art Print
We built Burgundy Gite Holidays, we manage it and it's online promotion and we continually develop it...
Northumberland VCS.

Consultancy and development
Digitisation of the acclaimed Sudan Archive, Palace Green Library, Heritage Collections, Durham University. We also digitised the Bentley Beetham Collection
Digitisation of the Sudan Archive, Durham University, Palace Green Library, Heritage Collections
We've been the brains behind this website: managing it and supporting the organisers in web strategy, social media and emarketing for 8 years!
Ben, in his role with Newcastle City Council developed the bronze-cast interpretation in Old Eldon Square, Newcastle

About Us

Ben Smith | Director

MA (Heritage Education and Interpretation)
BA Hons (History of Art and Architecture)

"Through my passion for digital media and my love of culture and history comes a unique blend of online and offline experience that allows me to deliver multi-faceted projects from end-to-end"

With 8 years experience working in the heritage and cultural sectors and 12 years working in the online and digital sectors Ben has a wealth of knowledge and practical hands-on experience. Previously a founding partner of Differentia Media (now voluntarily closed) Ben has worked with clients from the public, voluntary, community, disability and commercial sectors delivering web developments of great depth and breadth of focus.

Ben has delivered award-winning digitisation and web projects including The Bentley Beetham Collection which scooped a North East Digital Award for 2007.

Notable experience includes

developing an interpretive masterplan for the phased upgrade and new installation of interpretation throughout Newcastle City Centre and suburbs to create an identifiable visitor information brand that has synergy with other city visitor information
digitising over 2000 fragile glass plates from the 1924 expedition to Mount Everest where Mallory and Irvine died and developing an archival management system that also interfaced with the web. In doing so we created user-journey's and ways on to the mountain of image resources via the website http://www.bentleybeetham.org that won an award as 'Best Voluntary Sector Website - North East Digital Awards 2007'
digitsation of the internationally acclaimed Sudan Archive held by Durham University Palace Green Library Heritage Collections
developing and project managing digital and traditional interpretation for Newcastle City Council's 'Old Newcastle' project as well as a suite of supporting visitor information including a visitor leaflet and supporting website. Ben recently spoke at a European conference held in Newcastle about Engaging People with the Historic Environment Using Digital Interpretation
developing and project managing the formation of a Local List of Sites of Architectural & Historical Significance including supporting policy documents for Newcastle City Council's Local Development Framework
developing and project managing the creation and installation of bronze interpretation plaques to surround Newcastle's official war memorial as part of the regeneration of Old Eldon Square
eight years as ICT and online services advisor for Tyne and Wear Heritage Open Days taking the event in Tyne and Wear from it's first website through to online marketing and social networking to enhancing the website year on year to deliver a resource that is used by thousands of people to plan their Heritage Open Days weekends
developing heritage services online for Newcastle City Council - from project visioning to content creation and project management Ben has delivered, amongst other digital projects, an upgraded Tyne and Wear Sitelines - Access to the Historic Environment Record Online website, Old Newcastle website, Newcastle Heritage Partnership website as well as Tyne and Wear Heritage Open Days website
delivering Newcastle City Council's Commemorative Plaque Scheme from event planning to managing the production and installation of the plaques
creating an online exhibition for Lubaina Himid as a supporting exhibition to her installation, Naming the Money, at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle
creating an accessible virtual 360 degree 'bubbleword' tour of Etruria Industrial Museum and Ford Green Hall for Stoke on Trent Museums Service
working during the .com boom for numerous startup companies as sales, commercial, alliance and ebusiness manager Ben has worked at the cutting edge of web developments and understands fully the potential of the internet and digital technologies
Continuing development of online heritage trails for Bradford Diocese. The trails will be available via the dedicated website, through all major mapping utilities like Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Earth Mobile, Bing Maps and Yahoo Maps as well as being downloadable for printing
Total technical and editorial management of Burgundy Gite Holidays website an historic gite set in the heart of Burgundy we developed an eStrategy and then set about deliver it to help the owners gain coverage, publicity and sales of rental weeks
Strategic advise with technical functionalities and ad-hoc editorial management of The Heritage Centre at Bellingham's website we have delivered a powerful content management system that the centre uses frequently to keep the public abreast of what they are doing.