At the opening of MCN 2025, I noted that the conference theme, Resilience and Resonance, captures where the museum community is right now: building foundational strength to create more meaningful impact. After two packed days of sessions, evening events, and dinners with friends and colleagues, that feels truer than ever. 

The current climate of political and financial uncertainty provided an uneasy backdrop for the conference. Equally present, but less overt, was the profound transformation museums have undergone over the past five years, shaped by the pandemic and its lingering effects and greater awareness of inequity within major institutions. Many museums have faced financial strain, evolving visitor expectations, and internal turmoil as staff push for fairer, more sustainable workplaces. 

Simultaneously, museums are reimagining their roles through digital transformation, hybrid access models, and deeper community engagement that centers belonging and co-creation. Increased scrutiny around collecting practices, repatriation, and representation has reshaped institutional ethics. Together, these forces are redefining what resilience, relevance, and responsibility mean for museums today.

On top of the internal and external social and political pressures that museums face, the digital landscape is more fractured than ever. Audience attention is scattered across an ever-shifting preponderance of digital channels. There is uncertainty about how (and sometimes if) we should build websites, and AI is radically changing how content is created and knowledge is collected, stored, disseminated, accessed, and valued. 

MCN has always attracted some of the most thoughtful digital practitioners in the nonprofit arts and culture sector. And their responses to these changes, from technical challenges and opportunities to existential threats, are always well-reasoned and productive. Below, I’ve attempted to capture some of the recurring themes and related responses from attendees and presenters at the conference.  

Resilience is innovation

One of the things that struck me this year was how much our idea of innovation has evolved since I first started attending museum tech conferences in the early 2010s. While many sessions featured technical innovation, there was little to no starry-eyed enthusiasm about any specific technology. The consensus seemed to be that the real innovation is in figuring out how to make what we have (new or not) work better, last longer, and reach further, while navigating the ethical implications of working with big tech. 

Sessions this year focused on the challenge of sustainability: how do we build systems that are strong enough to adapt, yet light enough to change? How do we ensure accessibility is not just a checklist item, but an ongoing collaboration with sustained commitment? Future-proofing is only partially about technology. It’s also about people and working in ways that are flexible, collaborative, and sustainable over time.

The conversation around infrastructure was also different this year. While we always like to show off our architecture diagrams and tech stacks, the focus was on choosing systems and processes built for modularity, transparency, and longevity, as well as building internal capacity. Resilience requires not just endurance, but intentional design.

Resonance lives in the human moments

Many sessions emphasized creating a genuine connection. How do we make audiences feel something real through digital channels? How do we reach people who can’t physically access our spaces? How do we co-create with communities in ways that honor their knowledge and sovereignty?

The answers pointed in several directions, from creating connections across distance, to storytelling that centers the people behind the work and not just the work itself, to co-creation that honors different ways of knowing and being, to experiences designed for contemplation rather than consumption, to interpretations that expand who gets to be an expert voice.

All of these approaches share a common theme: digital work is, fundamentally, still human work. Technology simply gives us new ways to listen, empathize, and connect.

Learning to work with uncertainty

Another big takeaway came from sessions that embraced uncertainty. When can problems be solved with technology? When can they be solved with expertise and planning? And when do they require patience, experimentation, and learning in the open? How do we recognize the difference?

These questions shaped many of the conversations about AI. No one seemed to be an AI evangelist, and very few were outright anti-AI. The conversation felt grounded, focused on how to use these tools thoughtfully, in ways that serve our values and balance efficiency with ethics, automation with human oversight.

The sessions showed a field that’s maturing, not chasing hype, but finding balance between curiosity and care, and asking hard questions about data sovereignty, the labor of accessibility experts that often goes unacknowledged, and when to embrace new technologies and when to proceed with caution.

Some of our most complex challenges aren’t technical problems at all; they’re human ones. And trying to solve human problems with solutions that rely too heavily on technology can have disastrous results. 

Strategy, measurement, and meaning

Throughout the conference, there was rich discussion about how we set goals, track progress, and tell the story of our impact. How do we measure what matters while staying flexible enough to adapt? How do we balance data with narrative, metrics with meaning?

These discussions reflected a field thinking deeply about success, not just in terms of website traffic or engagement, but also access, equity, and community impact. Measurement, when done thoughtfully, can inform and align rather than merely audit and report.

The measurement sessions acknowledged an important point: the numbers tell us what’s happening, but we need human judgment to understand why it matters.

The connective tissue: care, trust, and shared learning

Strong systems and thoughtful processes make space for creativity, empathy, and experimentation. When we design with accessibility in mind from the start, when we focus on tools that help staff do their best work, when we measure data in ways that tell human stories, and when we build partnerships grounded in trust and mutual respect, we’re building the foundations that allow the resonant work to happen.

For me, that’s the biggest takeaway from MCN 2025: that what we’re building together is not just technology, but the conditions for meaning.

We’re learning to distinguish between problems that need solutions and complexities that require navigation. We’re choosing simplicity over complexity where we can, and embracing necessary complexity where we must. We’re building systems that can weather change while staying true to mission. We’re centering the humans in our audiences, on our teams, in our communities, and in everything we create.

That’s what resilience looks like in practice and what resonance feels like when it’s working.