Insights & Exhibitions - A Recap of AMMC 2026

A quick recap on the conversations and insights experienced at my first AMMC conference held in Los Angeles in October of 2026.

Another flight home, another blog post with some thoughts.

I came home from attending the American Museum Membership Conference (AMMC 2026) with a head full of conversations. First and foremost a big shout-out to the conference organizers for putting together a wonderful event with a great mix of intriguing sessions and fun excursions. It allowed me and the rest of the Arkus crew at the conference to learn a lot, and, most importantly, have long conversations about the past, present, and future of American museums.

A Passionate Community

It always surprises me how conferences can show the true passion of a community and the AMMC was no different. All of the attendees and sponsors were helpful, collaborative, and very talkative. They visited the Arkus booth curious about who we were and what we could do to help their institutions serve their members and missions better. The conversations ranged from providing faster discounts to what the future of museums looks like in an agentic world. Some debate, some education, but all good conversations held and helped by passion. It was clear that all arts and culture institutions are looking for better ways to connect with humans in the changing attention economy.

Vendor Lock-in

The most serious conversations we had at our booth were about the proliferation of software vendor lock-in for the industry. Some CRM/fundraising platform vendors (not Salesforce) pressure museums into signing long, three- to five-year bloated contracts or suffer the consequences. There was a lot of interest in migrating off of these legacy systems given the fact that Arkus has done so for a plethora of clients, but the frustration around already being locked into a disadvantageous contract is real. Hopefully we were able to educate many about better options with Salesforce, the new bundles, The Power of Us program and the shocking(!) idea that their data should be theirs, not something that gets used against them to keep them on an old, dying, and outdated platform.

Yes, you know who I am talking about.

Stunning Locations

The backdrop of the conference was wonderful, sunny Los Angeles, but the real showstoppers were all the local arts and culture spaces that opened their doors to conference attendees. There were a ton of places to go, but the best experience I had was visiting our client the Petersen Automotive Museum, and being treated to a tour of their vault, and getting a look at the controversial new “flying” Tesla Roadster that was only on display for a few days. The opening reception was at the LACMA and was bookended by the closing reception at the Huntington which put on a fun and spooky pre-Halloween vibe. Those are only a small sampling of the places we could visit. Some Arkies were lucky enough to sneak away from the booth duty for a private tour of the LA Philharmonic which we have partnered with for years. Each and every place was more welcoming than the last and it really brought the conference to a different level.

Room for AI & Digital Labor

Since I write and talk a lot about AI and how it has, and will, impact nonprofits, it was actually very strange how few of the conversations I had were about Artificial Intelligence. If it did come up it was with hesitation, some fear, and some interest, but not about true adoption. It became very clear that museums and the entire arts and culture sector have a lot of work to do, but also a lot of value to be retrieved out of working with AI tools. When we did have the conversations, the idea of agentic work and what it could do to help with fundraising, membership management, events, and marketing seemed to them like we were talking about a far off future, not the currently available reality. We in the Salesforce nonprofit ecosystem clearly have a lot of work to do to bring nonprofits together to look forward to embrace this gift of digital labor that can revolutionize their missions. The idea is that the future of AI could provide us humans the support we need so we can spend less time looking at screens, and more time visiting museums with the humans we love. Hopefully that landed. <<off my soapbox>>

We can’t wait for the next AMMC, which is over eighteen months away, but we will definitely see you there in Spring of 2028.

We at Arkus are very passionate about being the Expert in the Loop, educating, and empowering all nonprofit organizations in this next wave of technology. So if you are just starting with the idea of how to begin your AI journey, or want to learn more about the powers of digital labor, come talk to us now or find us at the next human event.

NOTE: This post was written by a human, on a flight, with bad wifi (Thanks again Delta). It was also corrected by a better human. AI kept its hands off other than some grammar, spelling, and helping find the links above.