Top of the Rock seeks to engage visitors at all times of the year with tools that can be easily customized to their various attractions, and updated at different times of the year. Top of the Rock Ozarks Heritage Preserve is a tourist attraction with two parts – the lost canyon cave trail that can be walked or ridden, and the Ancient Ozarks Natural History Museum.
Top of the Rock Ozarks Heritage Preserve wanted to be able to engage their visitors without hiring a large group of guides. Because they are a tourist attraction, they experience seasonal changes in numbers of visitors. Using the Agents of Discovery app makes it easy to provide programming to any number of visitors. In busy months, the Ancient Ozarks Museum needs programming that doesn’t take up too much space, so the virtual environment is helpful for keeping visitors moving through the exhibitions and avoiding bottlenecks.
Ryan Hawkins, Education Manager at Top of the Rock, says he has to be “very strategic about the spacing of Challenges within the space, and how much time people will spend on each Challenge.” He watched how people moved through the constricted areas of the museum, and built the Mission around that. “It’s important to pay attention to where you want people to stop, and which places you want them to move quicker through to keep everything flowing. It’s important to be intentional when you have limited space.” Visitor levels at Top of the Rock change seasonally, so they have fewer employees in the off season. Agents of Discovery can be particularly helpful when there are fewer staff members available to run tours. The off-season can also be a great time to expand Missions and get both local community members and returning visitors engaged.
“The Ancient Ozarks Museum is the best spot for Missions. Linking the real objects in the museum to the virtual Mission really brings the artifacts to life. Particularly for kids, the Mission is one of the most useful tools because the tech is intuitive to them, and it’s directly engaging them with the items they can see. Being able to turn the space into a scavenger hunt is a neat feature.”
Ryan Hawkins
Education Manager
Johnny Morris Foundation – Conservation Attractions