AmbITion was founded by Rudman Consulting. Rudman Consulting delivered AmbITion programmes across the UK with a total investment from The National Lottery, via arms-length government agencies Creative Scotland and Arts Council England, of over £3.7m.
Esther Currie, of national youth dance agency YDance: “The AmbITion Scotland programme has been a huge benefit for YDance. We had aspirations to develop digitally and the opportunities offered by this programme have definitely allowed us to do that. As a result we not only have a fully functioning customer relationship management system that has helped streamline both our administrative and marketing practices, but the training opportunities offered by the programme have also helped us to develop our social networking presence and inspired us to greater aspirations for future digital developments.” Watch their case study:
Rudman Consulting developed the Digital:Transformation Approach, a methodology which was the core framework of AmbITion programmes. The Digital:Transformation Approach supported mission-driven businesses through a facilitated process of organisational change to enable them to use digital technology in an effective and integrated way – for better business sustainability. Watch this executive summary:
AmbITion Scotland 2012-14
AmbITion Scotland was designed and delivered by Rudman Consulting, together with Culture Republic. The £1.15m total investment support from The National Lottery through Creative Scotland enabled the programme’s delivery to arts, cultural, creative and heritage organisations across Scotland.
The Make:IT:Happen Fund supported new ideas and digital approaches. It received almost 200 applications and made over 70 financial rewards. AmbITion Scotland’s fabulous resources to build digital capacity and capability remained as a legacy online for 10 years until 2024, for the annual 35,000 interested audience from all over the world. The majority of Scotland’s arts, culture and heritage sector was touched by the events and networking programme.
We teamed up with Interactive Scotland, the support mechanism for digital industries in Scotland to deliver the national event in Scotland for the creative, digital and interactive industries, Digital 2012 & Digital 2013. We also developed a partnership with Interface-Online to provide routes in research and development partnerships and internships with Scotland’s Higher Education Institutions, and worked with digital innovation programmes from Nesta Scotland.
Digitally disseminating lessons learnt
Peer learning and sharing was key to building confidence across a whole sector, so AmbITion produced digital development learning content, video case studies, webinars, video and written How to… resources, online toolkits, AmbITion’s network (1250+ cultural sector professionals discussing and sharing ideas around digital developments for artistic, operational and business model enhancement) and a marketplace of ideas, jobs and opportunities.
AmbITion:Scotland 2009-11
A £1m programme (2010-2011) for digitally developing Scottish cultural organisations funded by support from The National Lottery through Creative Scotland. The programme worked in depth with 55 Scottish cultural organisations, but any creative SME, cultural or arts organisation, or individual was involved in the wider learning and networking programme.
Rudman Consulting jointly ran the whole programme with Culture Republic. All participants benefitted from AmbITion Scotland’s events, training and networking programme and online resources as well as being welcome in the almost 800 member strong online network. We also had significant support from the Scottish Centre for Enabling Technology and the Intellectual Assets Centre. We developed a strategic partnership with Interactive Scotland, the support mechanism for digital industries in Scotland to deliver the national event for the creative, digital and interactive industries in Scotland, Digital 2011.
AmbITion England
AmbITion was a change programme for the arts and cultural sector in England, funded by £1.5m National Lottery funds via Arts Council England, led by Hannah Rudman of Rudman Consulting and project managed by Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA), the AmbITion pilot ran from 2007-2009.
AmbITion England worked with a number of creative industries organisations in the North West and East region. They covered all art forms, and varied greatly in size. All of the organisations benefitted from going through the Digital Transformation Approach, find out more about these early digital transformation stories:
- Firstsite
- Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
- Ludus Dance
- New Wolsey Theatre
- Writers’ Centre Norwich
- DaDa
- Oldham Coliseum
- Aldeburgh Music
- Britten Sinfonia
- Colchester Arts Centre
- Hoipolloi
- Lantern House
- Litfest
- The Poetry Trust
- Prior to AmbITion England, between 2003-6, Rudman Consulting delivered Arts Magnet, a digital development programme for Creative Industry Companies in the NW of England.