Lates is one of the Museum’s biggest events, staged on the last Wednesday of each month (except December) and themed around a science-related subject. It’s free and attracts around 4,000 visitors over the course of each night.
The average age range of visitors is 18–35, usually young professionals looking for a free, fun and engaging night out.
Why join us?
We offer you the opportunity to run an event with lots of very keen and eager-to-learn adults. In some cases we may be able to offer some financial assistance to help support your event too.
Upcoming themes:
27 June 2018: Sexuality
25 July 2018: Medical Marvels
29 August 2018: Circus
26 September 2018: Lates is 10 years old – Science of celebration
31 October 2018: Year of the Engineer
28 November 2018: The Sun
30 January 2019: China
27 February 2019: The Last Tsar
Please note that we confirm all events for each theme around 4–6 weeks before the event.
What we're looking for
Three different types of events fit into Lates:
1. Talks
- 30 minute talk repeated 2–3 times
- Caters to around 100–360 people over the night
- Introduces people to a concept and enthuses them about it
- Teaches audiences more about a subject they may know a little about
2. Drop-in events
- Run from 18.45–21.30
- Caters to around 400–600 people over the night
- Can be anything from showing off new technology or demonstrating scientific concepts to a performance or an experience
3. Workshops
- Run from 18.45–21.30
- Caters to around 500 people over the night
- Can be something that everyone contributes to create a collective result
- An alternative is a ‘make and take’—something for visitors to create and take away that can be completed in 15–20 mins, makes no mess and is rewarding and aesthetically pleasing
- Can also involve people learning a task, e.g. dance, drumming, knitting, games etc
Things to bear in mind
- Audience interaction: how will you keep your audience engaged?
- Jargon free: our audiences generally have no specific scientific knowledge so technical language must be kept to a minimum
- Humour: Lates visitors always respond very positively to added humour
- Social media: opportunities for our audiences to show their appreciation
- Costs: we have very limited funding but we can offer some assistance
- Resources: as a museum we are sometimes restricted in what we can do
- Health and safety: risk assessments and method statements will be required for most events
