the best in heritage 2019
The 18th edition of the event took place in Dubrovnik 25-27 September and gathered a wide scope of heritage professionals coming from various geographical and working environments.
CONFERENCE LIKE NO OTHER
The Best in Heritage is a one-of-a-kind conference. It features the best, award-winning projects from the heritage sector in the preceding year and does so on the global level. It therefore offers unique panorama of quality achievements. This year forty laureates awarded in 2018 were featured in a packed, three-day programme, representing almost all aspects of best and, indeed, awarded, practices from some 50 prestigious award schemes and their juries. The presenters came from 5 continents. Since the beginnings in 2002, the strategy is simple: same time, same place, one-track conference with an intimate atmosphere and imperceptible organization.
PROJECTS OF INFLUENCE
To further affirm the excellence of featured projects, we designed our own recognition for the projects that made the best impact on the international professional audience. Therefore, our moderators, the last year's winners and the audience (all acting as a Jury), cast their votes to choose one project (in each of the two sessions) as the Project of Influence for the current year. The implied claim is that such projects have a potential to produce change and advance professional practices by their power of inspiration.
In IMAGINES part of the programme (dedicated to multimedia and new technologies), our collective jury has chosen the #Romanovs100 & #1917LIVE - presented by Ivor Crotty from RT, to be the “IMAGINES Project of Influence” for the year 2019. This project was followed by Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters Interactive project by the National Museum of Australia - presented by Sarah Ozolins; and the third place by #ArchiveLottery project - presented by Adam Corsini from the Museum of London Archaeological Archive .
The core programme featured 27 out of 28 announced projects out of which the title of “Project of Influence 2019” went to the LAMO Centre, from Ladakh, India – presented by Monisha Ahmed. The second, joint, place by number of votes was shared by the Detroit Historical Society, from the U.S. - presented by Tracy Smith Irwin and Marlowe Stoudamire, and State Museum of History of GULAG, from Moscow - presented by Anna Stadinchuk.
Both awards are recognition of excellence and professionalism proposed by an ambitious international professional public. The two Projects of Influence award winners will be invited to take part of our ongoing effort to present the excellence in profession and that of the conference. We present “The Best in Heritage” biannually at “Exponatec” (Koelnmesse, Cologne) and at the Chinese Association's Museum Fair –“MPT-Expo”. Our winners are invited to join by presenting their achievements at a prestigious stand and the programme we arrange for the occasion. Altogether four Projects of Influence, from 2018 and 2019 editions, will be invited to take part at at Exponatec, Cologne from 22-24 November 2019.
To assure continuity and insight, the presenters of the winning projects are offered to return as the key-note speakers at the next Best in Heritage conference edition.
PARTNERSHIPS
The conference was organised with the International Council of Museums (ICOM), as our main partner, and in partnership with Europa Nostra (supported by Creative Europe programme).
The invaluable support comes regularly from the City of Dubrovnik and Dubrovnik Museums. The enchanting atmosphere of UNESCO world heritage site is a happy circumstance. The IMAGINES event is sponsored by Meyvaert Glass Engineering - Showcases & Solutions. The conference enjoys continuous support from the Ministry of culture of Croatia, Exponatec Cologne and, locally, Museums and Galleries of Konavle.
YEAR ROUND CONFERENCE
All the presented project receive a certificate of attendance that proclaims them “members of the Excellence Club”, indeed, projects of influence by the fact of being chosen into the selection shown in Dubrovnik. Their contribution is part of our conference publication, figures on the conference web site and is offered on our YouTube Channel. The conference in Dubrovnik is only the brief social version of the conference that is then circulated on the web throughout the year in an archive of all presentations from the previous editions, - freely accessible here http://presentations.thebestinheritage.com/
THE UNIQUE PLATFORM
Furthermore, though relatively small, this conference is quite unique in its global reach and in its ability to refer to the entire heritage sector. We bring in archives, libraries, virtual institutions, digitally born projects etc. We serve as unique platform for connecting official institutions, civil society and private activities & institutions, different temporary phenomena (pop-up institutions, campaigns, actions). This is why the most often used word by those who liked the conference experience is “inspiration”.
See you in Dubrovnik in 2020 from 23-25 September !