Summary programme
This is an outline programme for the conference, showing our key speakers and main events. Details of all parallel sessions, together with links to available presentations, are in the full programme.
Saturday 29 September
- Pre-conference tours from Edinburgh and Glasgow
- Our specially arranged tours will get you to the conference with a chance to explore Scotland in depth on the way.
Sunday 30 September
- Evening walks and visits
- If you feel like exploring the area, there will be a number of short excursions to local sites.
- Scottish supper
- A welcome to the conference with Scotland's national dishes, together with traditional live music.
Monday 1 October
- Welcome to the conference
- Ruth Taylor, Chair of the Association for Heritage Interpretation, and Bill Taylor of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Chair of The Vital Spark steering group.
- Keynote speakers
- Alastair McIntosh, writer, lecturer, campaigning academic and social activist
Alastair will draw on new research on the role of interpretation in community regeneration. He will look at how the role of the interpreter is a trust that, in a bygone age, might have been described as ‘sacred.’ - Professor Jane James, Head of Cultural Tourism, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia
Interpreters often wrestle with defining what we do, and how to know what makes good interpretation. Just what is the vital spark that makes interpretation work? - Parallel sessions
- Talks, discussions and workshops include presentations on museum buildings as cultural icons, a practical workshop on writing interpretation for children, and the launch of a new European network for interpreters.
- Association for Heritage Interpretation Annual General Meeting
- Informal dinner
- Light entertainment and plenty of chance to chat
- Keynote speakers
- Susan Strauss, storyteller and interpreter, Oregon, USA
Rather than speaking of ‘art in interpretation’, we must focus on understanding the truly effective essence of ‘the artistic’ – and how this essence can breath life into our interpretive creations and into our very words and movement. - Shonaig Macpherson, Chair of The National Trust for Scotland
The National Trust for Scotland cares for iconic heritage such as the Culloden battlefield, documents written by poet Robert Burns, and large areas of Highland landscape. But many of our ideas about their value have been inherited from previous generations. How do we make them relevant to people today? - Parallel sessions
- Including a session on museum theatre and costumed interpretation, a practical workshop on new media and information technology, and a discussion on the links between interpretation and academic research.
- Visits to major sites
- A choice between afternoon visits to Britain’s newest National Park, the Cairngorms, or to Culloden, the iconic site of the last pitched battle in Britain.
- Conference dinner
- Followed by an evening with modern ceilidh band Dannsa, ‘celebrating the rich culture and infectious energy of Scottish dance’.
- Keynote speakers
- Jette Sandahl, Director Experience of Te Papa Tongarewa Museum, Wellington, New Zealand
How does contemporary globalization and mass migration impact on a local and national heritage? How does heritage interpretation deal with current complex issues of ownership to land and history, heritage and cultural identity? - Dr James Hunter, University of the Highlands and Islands Centre for History
Interpretation can be a key influence on a community’s sense of self worth. This is especially important in areas like the Highlands and Islands, once dismissed as hopelessly impoverished, but rich in music, architecture, literature, archaeology. - Parallel sessions
- A workshop on the role of minority languages in interpretation, an in depth look at storytelling, and a seminar on how the profession of interpretation should develop in future.
- Closing session
- Sam Ham, international interpretation guru, will sum up the conference
Tuesday 2 October
Wednesday 3 October
