Conner Prairie continued its commitment to innovation and exceptional guest experiences in 2008 with a year of significant achievement, recognition and growth. During Conner Prairie’s January 28, 2009 Annual Meeting, Conner Prairie President and CEO Ellen M. Rosenthal and Conner Prairie Museum Board Chair Gay Dwyer highlighted this year’s accomplishments
- Projected to finish fiscal year solidly in the black
- Overall General Admission up 6 percent.
- Membership up 2 percent
- Total voluntary support for 2008 the highest in Conner Prairie’s history at $1.6 million
- Member visitation up 41 percent (compared to 29 percent and 31 percent increases in 2006 and 2007, respectively)
- Web site visits up 12 percent
- Web site page views up 7 percent
- Surpassed one million mark for Web site page views in September 2008
- National Recognition:
- May 2008 Smithsonian Magazine featured Conner Prairie because its editors were told by museums on the east coast that Conner Prairie is “the most innovative and exciting outdoor history museum in the country… the next Colonial Williamsburg.”
- Conner Prairie’s Opening Doors initiative has brought the museum national acclaim and interest. Opening Doors research prompted a recasting of how the museum engages guests based on groundbreaking research about how people learn at our institution.