Trench Brady

Trench Brady is the Marketing Director of the Pawling Historical Society in Dutchess County, New York, and the creator of Sergeant Chirp’s Campaign — a multi-site augmented reality history program launched across nine historic sites as part of America’s Semiquincentennial commemoration.

By day, he is a Senior Production Designer at Tallen (tallen-inc.com), a full-service corporate event production company. Over a 25-year career in scenic design and large-scale event production — including eleven years at Tallen — he has created immersive experiences for Fortune 500 clients including Disney, Hasbro, American Express, Johnson & Johnson, and Pfizer. He brings those production instincts — and a hard-won instinct for doing more with less — to an organization run almost entirely by volunteers.

Through his newsletter Digital History Resource — now past its 100th issue — Trench has spent years helping small historical societies navigate digital tools, modern marketing, and limited-budget programming. Sergeant Chirp’s Campaign, built using Zappar, ElevenLabs, and AI animation tools, grew from a single flagship site into a nine-location county network for $2,800 — roughly one-twentieth the cost of a comparable professional AR program in the same county. A replicable licensing model is now expanding to neighboring counties.

Trench Brady will be speaking at the Digital Exhibitions Summit 2026 :

The $2,800 Revolution: How Nine Historic Sites Built AR History on a Shoestring

What does a $2,800 AR program look like when it’s running live across nine historic sites — and actually working?

Sergeant Chirp’s Campaign launched in April 2026 across Dutchess County, New York, built by a volunteer historical society using Zappar, ElevenLabs, and AI animation tools. Chirp — an animated Revolutionary War-era cricket — delivers QR-triggered AR stories that speak directly to children, layer onto existing exhibits, and update instantly when new research emerges. No reprinting. No contractors. No waiting for a budget cycle.

This session walks through the complete build: the grant structure that funded it, the production pipeline from character design to deployment, the specific tools and their actual costs, and the multi-site licensing model now expanding beyond Dutchess County. You’ll leave with a replicable framework your institution can adapt — whether you’re a two-person shop or a mid-sized regional museum.

$2,800. Nine sites. One replicable model. Innovation in the museum sector is less a question of budget than of resourcefulness. This is the proof.