I feel so very lucky to have the opportunity to work alongside with organisations that manage and protect our national heritage. The national collections are as varied as our rich past and it is a privilege to be able to visit the buildings that house these amazing artefacts and learn about their history. Not only that but it is my job – how amazing!

The change in legislation that brought about the free entry to museums and galleries was inspirational, now there is no excuse to find out more about Nelson [The National Maritime Museum], the Holocaust [Imperial War Museum], Darwin [The Natural History Museum], Jaguar Cars [Coventry Transport Museum], The Flying Scotsman [The National Railway Museum] and I could go on and on.

When I was younger a visit to a Museum took all day because once my Dad had paid the entry fee then we were jolly well going to get our money’s worth … Today, everyone has the chance to drop in and see something they have never seen before and still have time to go shopping, watch the football, meet chums, etc.

But back to the job – naturally there is a reason for my good fortune. It is a key part of managing these enormous and complex sites that they must be able to declare ‘in a scientific manner’ the number of visitors to the government body, the Department for Media, Culture & Sport.

Intelligent Counting has many years experience of counting people and it was just a small step to produce a Visitor Counting System for The British Museum in 1997 when a curator asked “..your job is to count people, surely you can provide something useful for us?” Thank you Geoffrey, we will always be grateful for that challenge.

Today, VisiTrak is recognised as the de facto VCS (Visitor Counting System) and has changed with the times taking advantage of technological progress.

It continues to evolve delivering tools such as automatic management of gallery populations – yet another inspirational idea from a customer and dwell time analysis providing real statistical information on just how long people spend in a given exhibit.

The excitement of working with our customers and ‘soon to be’ customers is extremely stimulating and it always thrills me to be with such an enthusiastic group of people. Using the inherent flexibility of the iC system to continue to meet the needs of Visitor Attractions keeps me on my toes and certainly helps when the alarm goes off early on a winter’s morning and I know there is a four hour drive to my first meeting – thank goodness for double espresso!

Diana Perry
Managing Director