Digital Futures
About Digital Futures
The Campaign for Real Ale is putting together a roadmap to strengthen its digital future by developing one centralised digital experience that promotes all facets of the campaign, whether that’s featuring beer and pub experience or CAMRA’s range of beer festival and events.
Exactly what that eventually looks like will be determined over the next two months as the organisation consults and engages with its volunteers, members, and the wider public.
What’s next?
If you have volunteered for the CAMRA Member Research Panel you will soon be receiving an email from us with a link to a survey to help us determine what a finalised digital experience needs to meet the needs of all our members. Please keep an eye out for this and make sure to fill in your thoughts once received!
We’ll also be engaging with smaller focused groups of volunteers across the campaign on an ongoing basis throughout this process. If you’d like to get involved in our Digital Futures Group, please contact us today to get involved.
The development of the final digital experience is expected to take place in the second half of 2023, with an initial release expected shortly after that. Throughout the process, members and volunteers will be called upon to help test and feedback on its final form.
What does Digital Futures cover?
The scale and scope of the Digital Futures project will be decided over the coming months, in consultation with members, volunteers, and the public. We envision developing a single digital touchpoint to cover the range of CAMRA’s activity – whether that’s purchasing tickets to local beer festivals or finding a beer via WhatPub. The aim is to make it as easy as possible to stay connected and involved with CAMRA.
Why do we need to think about our Digital Futures?
At CAMRA we have a huge range of tools to help connect you with the Campaign and the wider beer, cider, pub and club world. From rating beers for the Good Beer Guide to searching for pubs on WhatPub or finding a local beer festival on the events website – all the information you need is out there. Sometimes, however, it can be hard to find or tap into.
That’s why CAMRA is turning its attention to its Digital Futures, putting together a roadmap to bring our incredibly important (but disparate) systems into one centralised experience that helps to promote all facets of the campaign, making it easier than ever before to find information in one place, or get involved as a member or active volunteer.
Will you be retiring any of the current offerings?
The concept behind Digital Futures is to bring all of our assets under one umbrella to make it easier to tap into as a member or volunteer, not to remove any of the features or materials currently offered to our membership.
However, key systems such as WhatPub are now on old technology that is difficult and expensive to support, so all new investment will go towards the new application that will over time become the focal point for pub and beer information.
How will our Digital Future be decided?
The first step will be a member survey that will be issued to the Market Research Panel to fully understand what it is that Members need from their digital CAMRA experience. We will then use the basis of this survey to design and map out an experience which will be put forward to various committees and volunteers for consideration and sign off, before proceeding with the development in Q2 of 2023.
What about those of us who don't like (or are unable) to use computers or mobile phones to connect with the campaign?
Effective communication with all members, especially with those who are not digitally literate or don’t have digital tools, is vital for our Campaign. Even those of us who spend our days tied to our laptops and phones appreciate time away from our devices. And nothing matches face-to-face communication, especially down the pub.
The Digital Futures project is about complementing our Campaign with the digital tools that will make it easier for volunteers to engage with us and to focus on campaigning. The objective of the project is that it will have succeeded if members spend less time on computers. The aim is to make it quicker, easier and simpler to do the manual work so that more time can be spent in the pub and with fellow volunteers.
How can I get involved?
To volunteer your time to support the project, simply get in touch with digitalfutures@camra.org.uk