Enthusiastic support from organisations and individuals; some great keynotes and visits planned; lots of fun and traditional Scottish hospitality and conference fees that we hope will be our cheapest ever. All we need is YOU!
With our UK partner, the Association for Heritage Interpretation (AHI), planning for our annual conference, to be held in Inverness on the 3rd to 6th October, is advancing well. Ruth Coulthard, AHI’s Conference Manager, and myself have been making good progress. As we work towards opening Early Bird booking on 10th April, this is a good time to update you on this progress.
Visit the Conference Website to find out all the great offerings in Scotland this autumn. We have a range of possible pre- and post-conference tours, an exciting choice of site visits and we are working on some quality keynotes to enhance a strong programme of parallel sessions. We are on course to deliver the biggest and best heritage interpretation conference in Europe for ten years.
Some key dates:
- 6th March 1st call for papers
- 10th April Early Bird opens
- 1st May 1st call closes
- 15th June Programme content agreed and presenters advised
- 30th June End of Early Bird
- 31st August Final presentations submitted for conference proceedings
- 3rd October Conference opens
We have been successful in securing funding from a range of organisations which will allow us to keep conference fees lower than previous IE conferences. The Highland Council, Cairngorms National Park Authority and NAI have all committed funding support and we can expect funding from other Scottish public agencies and commercial sponsors. I want to mention colleagues from Scottish Natural Heritage (Susan Luurtsema), Historic Environment Scotland (Steve Farrar), Cairngorms National Park Authority (Jacquie Barbour and Pete Crane) and Forestry Commission Scotland (Paul Hibberd) who have done a huge amount to take forward our plans for site visits. Steven Timoney, who coordinates the MSc in Heritage Interpretation at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), has demonstrated strong support and we are looking forward to UHI being a great partner for the Conference. We hope to involve as many of the current Masters’ students as we can. We will also be offering opportunities for individuals from across Europe to apply for a scholarship for financial assistance to attend this exciting event. Scroll down to the IE announcements section for more details on this.
This is a wonderful chance to visit the Highlands of Scotland and experience our traditional hospitality. The conference will be enhanced with music, song and dance guaranteed to enthral and entertain you. It is our aim to make this a truly memorable event for all of you who can join us in Inverness in October.
To cite this article:
Bill Taylor (2017) ‘Making connections: Re-imagining landscapes’. In Interpret Europe Newsletter 1-2017, 27
Available online:
https://www.interpret-europe.net/fileadmin/Documents/publications/Newsletters/ie-newsletter_2017-1_spring.pdf
