Ash Mann - digital expertise for cultural organisations

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Hi, my name is Ash, I'm an advisor, strategist and facilitator.

For nearly two decades I have helped cultural organisations sharpen their digital thinking and activity.

I am interested in helping you make the most of wherever people and internet technologies come together.

I can support you with projects, challenges and opportunities that involve strategy, leadership, change, users, technology and innovation.

Get in touch: [email protected].

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Ash Mann

Newsletter: Latest issue

Published — Sep 26, 2025

This week's best things

Copenhagen trips, upcoming talks on AI + digital failure, and a load of good reads: on daydreaming, content structures, gateopeners, the myth of engagement, and why prompting is a design act. Plus rain maps, Lego Globe, shark tracking, and a truly dreadful novel.

More issues

Build vs buy? That's possibly the wrong question

Cultural organisations often ask whether to build or buy digital tools, but that skips a more important question: are you ready for what comes next?

This week's best things

From change fitness and polytunity, to Edinburgh’s innovation role and why councils should share more. Plus: taste as intelligence, AI tutors, immersive art takedowns, a reminder to join the new digital culture community, and System of a Down cover bands.

This week's best things

Venice Immersive highlights, SEO AI implications, content maintenance, knowledge systems, organising structures, bottleneck leaders, project vs product funding, disintermediation, music discovery, fortune tellers, and more.

The under-explored potential of shared infrastructure and expertise

Many cultural orgs build near-identical digital systems from scratch which are often costly, fragile, and rarely better than ‘just good enough’. What if we explored shared infrastructure for the basics, freeing up time and budget to focus on what really matters?

From ideas to pilots: shaping a digital community for the cultural sector

We’re shaping a new digital community for the cultural sector, moving from identifying gaps to testing small, practical pilots.

This week's best things

Anonymous curators at Apple Music Classical, a zero-click AI vulnerability, the illusion of alignment in digital projects, crowdsourced visioning at the National Gallery, Excel as esport, and what playgrounds reveal about gender and space. Plus: shoes, stoops, and Karel Gott.

The illusion of alignment

Misalignment in digital projects often hides behind surface-level agreement. Cultural norms like politeness, power imbalance, and rushed decision-making lead to fragile consensus. Real alignment takes trust, open challenge, and shared definitions before delivery, not after.