The time has come at last! Today you can register for our autumn conference ‘Making connections: Re-imagining landscapes’ in Inverness, Scotland, on 3-6 October. Visit the conference website for registration.

Our 2017 conference, jointly organised with AHI, is now open for bookings with significant benefits for IE members. Book early to receive the reduced rate on conference fees and first choice of site visits and check the wide range of accommodation options in Inverness.  

You will also find descriptions of the options for site visits that have been planned. There are four to choose from:

  • Visit Scotland’s largest national park – Cairngorms. Hear about how they work with public and private partners to interpret the landscape of the busiest part of the park
  • Also in the Cairngorms, we will visit the remote little known area of Tomintoul and Glenlivet where €4 million has been awarded to interpret this hidden landscape
  • Wester Ross and the North West Highlands – a dramatic landscape of mountains and lochs: Visiting two outstanding nature reserves with recent innovative interpretation at Beinn Eighe and Knockan Crag
  • Around Inverness: A day taking in some of our nearest iconic tourist destinations with a range of approaches to interpretation: 4,000-year-old chambered tombs and standing stones of Clava; the historic Culloden Battlefield; a sail on the renowned Loch Ness and a visit to ruined Urquhart Castle

We are pleased to confirm our two keynote speakers (presentation titles will be available shortly on the website):

Carol Ritchie – Executive Director of EUROPARC Federation
Carol is responsible for the smooth running of all the Federation Directorate and its work. Carol operates across Europe, out of both the Regensburg and Brussels offices as well as anywhere else needed, to represent the Federation’s interest and to support the work of the President and Council.

The EUROPARC Federation is the representative body of Europe’s Protected Areas. It is the collective voice for all nature and landscape areas and seeks to build a stronger, unifying, European network organisation that is better placed to support its members and to respond to current and future challenges facing Europe’s nature.

Drew Benelleck – UK Head of Landscape and Natural Heritage for the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)
Landscapes are an important part of our past and play an important part in our lives today. Since 2003, HLF has committed grant-aid totalling £220 million (€260 million) to 124 Landscape Partnership schemes across the UK. Landscape Partnership schemes put heritage conservation at the heart of rural and peri-urban regeneration. Local, regional and national organisations work together to make a real difference to landscapes and communities for the long term. They do this by conserving habitats at landscape-scale, promoting joined-up management, reviving long-lost skills, and much more. HLF-funded projects make a major contribution to work in the UK on implementing the European Landscape Convention.

As well as the above we will have over 30 parallel presentations, good food, good company and lots of traditional Highland entertainment. Can you afford to miss this event?