BBC Things To Do

I had a moment of pleasurable serendipity last weekend. I was in Manchester with my wife and daughter as we prepare for BBC Learning's move to MediaCityUK in Salford later this month. As we walked through the city centre, I saw an interesting looking black tent pitched in front of Manchester's Town Hall. As we got closer I realised it was my very own Hands On History team, who'd rolled into town with their exhibition encouraging people to learn about their local history through Melvyn Bragg's new series The Reel History of Britain.

The exhibition was a delight, with ancient cine cameras, a mini cinema and experts you could chat to. BBC Learning runs dozens of these kinds of events across the year, part of our mission to inspire a life full of learning by letting people delve deeper into subjects they've been intrigued by on television, radio and online.

Many people will, like me, have the joy of coming across our events by chance but many others won't be so fortunate. To tackle this we've just launched Things To Do, a searchable website and mobile offer that lets people find learning and participation activities and events near them. Things To Do brings together all the activities and events that the BBC runs, linked to subject areas like Nature, History and Science into one place.

Importantly, everything on the site is linked to BBC content and involves real hands-on experiences - whether it's discovering more about the history of the local area, joining a nature treasure hunt or taking part in local stargazing activity. But it doesn't end with BBC-run events, we've teamed up with publicly funded and non-profit partners across the UK to showcase their related events and activities too. It's early days but we're gradually building and deepening the content, extending its geographical reach and bringing on board new partners, big and small.

All the activities and events on Things To Do are free for visitors or of minimal charge to cover costs. To ensure people are able to progress their interests and learning journeys, we've also built the system to encourage discovery of other areas, so you can come in through Nature but end up progressing through to Science or even Sport. We've also included links in every activity page back to the partner's event info.

I'm sure Things To Do is going to be a really popular part of the BBC Online Knowledge & Learning product and I think my teams and our partners are going to have to get ready for bigger queues outside Manchester Town Hall or wherever in the country they're creating activities and events that deepen people's experience of the best of the BBC's programmes.

You can find a more detailed description of Things To Do over on the Internet Blog.

Saul Nassé is BBC Controller of Learning

• BBC Things To Do
• More about Things To Do on the BBC Internet Blog