Phil & Monique: Cost Per Visitor

FADE IN:

INT. MUSEUM CONFERENCE - GRAB-AND-GO CAFE - DAY

At a small table are MONIQUE, exhibition developer wise beyond her years, and PHIL, anxiety-prone independent museum consultant.


MONIQUE: That exhibition this morning felt like a $1 show.

PHIL: Were we on the same tour? That felt like $5,000,000.

MONIQUE: Exactly. [Eats blueberry.]

PHIL: What?

MONIQUE: You were thinking total cost. I was thinking cost per visitor.

PHIL: …

MONIQUE: OK, take total cost and divide it by total number of visitors. A $5,000,000 exhibition, running five years, with 1,000,000 visitors a year, is a $1 show. In cost per visitor.

PHIL: Uh, so a $10 exhibit, running ten years, with one visitor a year, is also a $1 show, in cost per visitor?

MONIQUE: Exactly! [Eats blueberry.]

PHIL: So?

MONIQUE: So, it reveals things. Like: those two exhibitions are equally effective, financially. Also: an expensive show isn’t expensive if it runs forever or has a lot of visitors.

PHIL: Huh. I’m going to use this ratio.

MONIQUE: We shall call it The Ratio of Monique!

PHIL: We shall miss the keynote if you don’t finish The Blueberries of Monique.

MONIQUE: Ooh, right! [Eats handful of blueberries.]


FADE OUT.