Our conference team is working away to ensure that we are ready to welcome you to Slovenia for our next conference, Sustainability: Challenging mindsets through heritage interpretation, on 21-24 March 2024.

Slovenia is described as a ‘green jewel in the heart of Europe’, ‘green heaven’, ‘Europe in miniature’, and other similarly poetic expressions. Although it is not located in the geographical centre of the continent, it lies at the intersection of cultures: Latin, German, Slavic and Hungarian worlds. Consequently, its culture and language is a product from this melting pot of all these influences that shaped a unique cultural mixture, resulting in an enormous variety of cultural expressions and dialects in a tiny territory.

The country’s former tourism slogan, ‘On the sunny side of Alps’, revealed its climate and geography. Whereas the current tourism slogan, ‘I feel SLOVEnia’, suggests that you will, too, fall in love with the place. But, away from this romantic poetry, Slovenia can boast about many things: vast areas (64% of its land) covered in forest and one of the most progressive forest management systems, with a fair number of European beasts that have been successfully reintroduced in nature; culinary delights, as diverse as its landscape; high responsibility and respect towards nature and traditional practices; and plenty of heritage jewels along off-the-beaten-track paths that we’ll visit during study visits.

During iecon24 in March, we’ll explore places that can offer the best interpretive experiences in the region. Not only in Slovenia, but also in its neighbours – Croatia and Italy.
Check out our range of interesting study visits: https://www.interpreteuropeconference.net/study-visits/

Travel to and from the conference can be an opportunity to add extra inspiration by connecting further with colleagues, whilst also seeing some of the more well-known and crowded tourist spots. You may join us for an additional tour before or after the conference and joining us for a visit of the capital Ljubljana at your arrival and driving together to Venice on the way home is a good option to experience these two places. However, we’ll not be staying on the usual tourist routes. Our hosts will reveal another side of the story and also talk about sustainability of the places. Find out more here:

https://www.interpreteuropeconference.net/pre-conference-tour/

https://www.interpreteuropeconference.net/post-conference-tour/

We have received a number of very promising abstracts for sessions and workshops that will open discussions at all layers of the conference theme. We will hear about local projects and research findings and discuss successful approaches as well as open questions and challenges. Together, maybe we will find some solutions.

Finally, we are extremely excited about the renowned speakers that will provoke our thoughts each day with their opening keynotes. David Uzzel, a deserving professor and researcher of heritage interpretation has dedicated his latest works to sustainability psychology and will be happy to exchange views with us regarding the potentials and limitations of heritage interpretation in fostering sustainability mindsets. Whereas Lluis Bonet from the University of Barcelona and Špela Spanžel from the Cultural Heritage Directorate Slovenia will highlight our joint endeavors from other angles.

You can find out more about our keynote speakers here: https://www.interpreteuropeconference.net/keynote-speakers/

If you have submitted an abstract for a presentation, you will be hearing from the conference team during January. It is now time to start booking up your place! The early bird discount fees are available until 9 February so don’t delay!

We are looking forward to meeting many of you (again) in March for the next lively Interpret Europe conference!

Bettina Lehnes is IE’s Events Coordinator. You can contact her at: bettina.lehnes@interpret-europe.net.

Helena Vicic is IE’s Managing Director. You can contact her at: helena.vicic@interpret-europe.net.

For all conference enquiries, you can reach the local organising team at: management@interpreteuropeconference.net.

To cite this article: Lehnes, Bettina & Vicic, Helena (2023) ‘Challenge your mindset‘  in Interpret Europe Newsletter 4-2023, pg.6-7.
Available online: https://interpret-europe.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IE-Newsletter-2023_4-winter.pdf

It’s no secret that I am a big fan of Interpret Europe’s courses. I try to seize any possible opportunity to join one. However, that’s not always easy. While the CIG is often available in different parts of Europe, some courses are less common.

When I see a training announcement, the first thing I do is check out the time and the place. If it all fits, I hurry to reserve my spot. I don’t even think about the content, I know it should be good. This goes so far that I once accidentally applied for an upgrade course before joining the original training.

Earlier this year, a Certified Interpretive Writer (CIW) course was announced in Slovenia. I had kept my eye on that particular course for years, desperately trying to find a chance to join it. This year, it was taking place an hour away from my hometown, and my calendar was free on those dates! A minor setback: I am far from fluent in Slovenian. Minor enough – I applied anyway. My native Croatian has a lot of similarities, after all! Luckily enough, our trainer was very flexible, and we agreed that I would do my assignments in English.

It wasn’t until the day the training started that it hit me. How will I ever go through the dynamics and demands of IE training, if I don’t perfectly understand the language? Was I being too ambitious? But, the second I arrived in the beautiful town of Podsreda, I knew things would work out. It felt like entering a movie set. Podsreda is a small town trapped in time, surrounded by woods, with a mighty castle watching over from a hill. Everything goes according to someone’s plan in movies, I thought. I was eager to see what the director of this movie had in mind.

The director waited in our classroom. There she was, our course leader, confident and calm. The group started gathering. We prepared our computers, still not knowing what to expect.

What followed were five days full of great examples, useful tips, and challenging assignments. Teamwork, hard mental work, no tagging along. Each day, the tasks got more demanding, and our writing became more polished and reader-aware.

Part of the training is dedicated to self-guided tours. I found it particularly useful and inspiring. That is something I’ve been working on for a while. I was pleasantly surprised to get so much insight from this part.

If you’re wondering whether this training is for you, I’d say that it is if you have some experience with writing. Let me tell you where I have already started applying the new findings: in interpretive trails and self-guiding tours – that’s obvious. But also blogs, TikToks, social media posts, and even my CV. Furthermore, I have become more sensitive to the user experience and I’ve developed an eagle eye for good examples. It’s always easy to spot the poor ones. But I am now constantly on the watch for good examples that I used to take for granted. I now use them as a teaching experience, and this tremendously helps me in my writing career. Last but not least, I have grown more confident about my writing skills, and strengthened my decision to work more as an interpretive writer. I am not saying that all of this will happen to everyone who joins the CIW course, but that was the effect on me.

Oh, about the language barrier… Our group was incredibly supportive and accepting. I ended up using my mother tongue. I’d say it was somewhat of an extra challenge for all of us, but it might have helped us figure out some guidelines for interpretive writing in a natural way. A person who doesn’t fully understand the language forces you to use simpler sentences and wording. That’s one of the lessons anyway.

Being a possible disturbance to training also reminded me how challenging a trainer’s job can be. There can be so many unexpected or difficult situations, which can make some participants uneasy. Our trainer dealt with this particular one with such ease, that it didn’t feel like we had an issue at all.

All in all, it happened again! I came back from Interpret Europe training bursting with new ideas and creative energy, wishing I could rewrite all of my former projects, and with a firm goal to implement the new knowledge. I felt once again like I’ve witnessed the perfect recipe for a learning experience. I even distinguished some ingredients: a magical setting, a confident lead, and a group of dedicated participants.

I can’t wait for new training opportunities!

Iva Silla is an IE CIG trainer and now a Certified Interpretive Writer. She is the author of Secret Zagreb walking tours (www.secret-zagreb.com) and the Croatia Underrated podcast (www.croatiaunderrated.com). Contact her at: iva@questoftales.com

As a result of a joint collaboration between IE’s country coordinators for Slovenia (Marijaliza Fajdiga), Croatia (Andrijana Milosavljević), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Edo Mešić), together with Vida Ungar (IE’s natural heritage coordinator) and Samia Zitouni (IE’s former webinar officer), the first IE regional round panel was organised. It was also the first time that Slovenian, Croatian and Bosnian were used as a working language for event like this. Inspired by climate change and sustainability, the main topic for this online event was: How and in which direction is heritage interpretation building connections with nature? and the event attracted attention from other countries as well, including North Macedonia.

Our panellists were: Marijaliza Fajdiga, park supervisor from the National Park Škocjanske Jame (Slovenia); Maja Vurnek, specialist biologist and ecologist from the National Park Plitvička Jezera (Croatia); and Josip Vekić, head of the supervisory service from the Park Hutovo Blato (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Due to professional commitments, Mr. Vekić had to drop out at the last moment and Edo Mešić stepped in, as IE’s Country Coordinator Bosnia and Herzegovina. Our moderators were: Vida Ungar and Samia Zitouni.

Maja Vurnek started by introducing everybody to the activities that major international organisations, like UNESCO, are conducting in order to promote sustainability and protect our environment. She then explained that, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Park Plitvička Jezera faced the problem of too many visitors, which had a huge effect on the environment. This problem was solved with the introduction of an online ticketing system. Additional steps were taken in the form of establishing corporation with schools around the country.

Marijaliza Fajdiga mentioned that, just like Croatia, Slovenia is also participating in various programmes organised by UNESCO. In Slovenia, there is a high level of general awareness of the importance of protecting natural heritage. Besides government agencies, there are a lot private NGOs who work very closely with the State and other parties. Through her presentation, we had an opportunity to ‘experience touring around the park’ in a virtual world, and we learned that the National Park is working very closely with the European Union by participating in EU projects saving endangered species.

Edo Mešić then made a short introduction about environmental protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are certain issues that need to be addressed in order to achieve better and more efficient protection. Bosnia and Herzegovina doesn’t have a huge number of visitors like Croatia and Slovenia so the protected areas are not experiencing the same problems of overcrowding from tourists. In the last few years, local authorities have made some positive steps in order to protect natural heritage in this country. Of course, there are a lot of things that must be done in order to meet European regulations, but the most important step has already been taken. Government agencies and NGOs should work even closer with the local people and primarily with schools and universities.

After the three presentations, a panel discussion was opened. Attendees were invited to share their opinions and ask questions. Some interesting issues and problems were tackled during the discussion. The event ended with the message that professionals from these countries – Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina – should seek and establish closer ties and that environmental protection is not just of local importance, but of global importance too. Here’s to more future collaborations!

Edo Mešić is IE’s Country Coordinator Bosnia and Herzegovina. He can be contacted at: edo.mesic@interpret-europe.net.