From interest to connection: what 100 portrait sittings taught us about real audience engagement

Over two days, Buttercrumble’s founders, Chloe and Abigail, created more than 100 individual, bespoke hand-drawn portraits at this year’s (2026) AMA Conference in Leeds – a real novelty in our world full of algorithms, AI and automation.

I joined them in my role as our Community Manager, but as a trained anthropologist, I’m always observing people and trying to make sense of what’s going on around me, even as I’m talking to people and getting to know them. Watching more than 100 portrait sittings left me with a few observations I’ve been thinking about ever since.

Meaningful attention makes a difference

Over the course of the two days of the conference, we saw an almost non-stop queue forming for our 10-minute portrait sittings. On the one hand, 10 minutes can seem like a burden at a conference when there are hundreds of people to potentially meet and dozens of great sessions to go to. In some cases, people waited more than half an hour.

It’s surprising how people came for a portrait, but readily shared stories about themselves once they felt someone was genuinely listening and paying attention. From talking about their favourite fried chicken, regional pride in coming home to the North and Shakespeare in Northern accents, to lots of stories about dogs missed at home, we loved seeing people open up. People shared their nervousness about moving to a new city (or even moving country), starting a new job and their journeys into their current role. They shared candidly what they liked (and didn’t) about the conference (more snacks next time, please!)

The novelty of a portrait draws them in and gets them to stop, but it’s the conversation and connection with another human that leads people to stay.

Novelty draws people in, but connection makes them remember and refer

Although I’m not a marketer myself, I wonder if we spend too much time thinking about novelty. What really makes a difference is connection, not what people see, but helping them feel seen.

We lost count of the number of people who arrived because a colleague had sent them over, shown them a portrait or encouraged them to join the queue. Many then went on to share their own portraits on social media after the conference. There’s an argument to make
that connection multiplies and travels through other people’s networks and interactions to create a ripple effect.

The stories about the North, fried chicken or dogs aren’t the typical stuff people might talk about in their day-to-day at work, but you could feel the warmth of people when they felt seen and had a brief moment to connect with other humans. And then the smiles and joy became too much to hold in when we did the portrait reveals and people saw the little things that make them unique captured - their glasses, their outfits, their jewellery.

The biggest reactions came from the smallest details that could easily be overlooked: a favourite piece of jewellery, a specially chosen outfit. Those details showed people that they were noticed and celebrated in a room surrounded by hundreds.

The value of creating space

When I used to teach at the University of Edinburgh, one of my priorities was to create space for students to share their thoughts and, in some instances, to ask for help. Both academics and marketers can get so caught up in filling space and sharing content that we often overlook the value of giving people a moment or creating the space and environment for people to process, open up, share and connect.

Some people just wanted to sit and take a break; others wanted to chat. Allowing people to come as they are and meet them there has value, as it’s not just about filling the space, but creating it and allowing them to be seen and heard.

Likewise, when exhibiting at a conference, it’s tempting to talk at people and try to sell your services, rather than listening or even giving them the space and permission to let them be. Another adage I took into my teaching was that “Nobody knows how much you know until they know how much you care.” Along a similar vein, “People don’t remember what you tell them, they remember how you made them feel.”

In the midst of a packed conference programme, the Buttercrumble portraits and stand gave people that space and served as a sort of “social technology” to draw people in and gave them permission to chat, to tell stories, to be seen and recognised. The portraits, in a way, became a vehicle for connecting with our audiences at a personal, human level.

Sometimes it’s important to remember that people don’t necessarily need more content - they also need time and space to talk, to rest, to digest and process, and to express themselves.

Re-thinking and re-focusing attention

Looking back, I'm not sure the portraits were the most important part of the experience. They gave people a reason to stop, but what many seemed to value most was something far simpler: being recognised as an individual.

As arts organisations think about engagement, audience development and community, that's the lesson I keep returning to. In a world full of content competing for attention, the ability to give attention may be becoming increasingly valuable.

Sometimes helping people feel seen matters more than being seen yourself.

Dr Alex Gapud, Academic Community Manager,  Buttercrumble