FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2018
The Archive’s Renaissance:
Navigating the Future, Channelling the Past
9 – 12 October 2018, Venice, Italy
Hosted by Rai – Radiotelevisione italiana
An annual professional meeting point as much as a friendly and welcoming learning and networking opportunity, the FIAT/IFTA conferences provide the forum par excellence for all those involved in audiovisual and especially broadcaster’s archives. Engineers, managers, strategists, catalogers, technicians, researchers, policy makers, consultants, service and materials providers from all over the globe will all gather in the stunning Palazzo Labia and several neighbouring locations to present, listen, discuss, exchange, negotiate and eventually pronounce a toast to the profession.
This year’s main presentation topics will include:
- Leveraging the powers hidden within your treasure: content is ubiquitous and not just on a television screen. Archives who would like to win over the media consumers have to convince them with a well-tailored offering. Who are the most interesting user groups, what exactly do they want and how do we make a good fit?
- In the archive’s control tower: current trends and topics in media management: the way in which media is produced and consumed has changed radically. Inflows and outflows have grown dramatically and they are characterized by great diversity. Media managers have to channel it all, making use of new instruments. So: how do we organise the content in the back end of our OTT and VOD platforms? Which skillsets are required to keep up with the pace of change? What will be the impact of artificial intelligence and automatic metadata creation in general?
- Analog and digital preservation: to beat the two-headed monster called ‘degralescence’ (M. Casey, Indiana University), digitisation efforts definitely need to speed up. But while taking care of that, we also realize that digitisation makes migration a way of life. This new challenge requires new skills, new workflows and new instruments. How will we manage large scale digital intake projects, including transcoding and rewrapping. Which updates can we bring from the codecs and wrappers world? Which innovations currently characterize the audiovisual digitisation market?
- Copyright: technology as an opportunity between producers and re-users. Using the term ‘rights’ is a frequently used technique to nip access and reuse initiatives in the bud. But it is an excuse that cannot last forever, especially now that new technologies are opening new ways. How to turn old obstacles into new opportunities? We’ll welcome presentations about blockchain as a rights control and protection technology, the implementation of DRM systems, privacy and data security (including GDPR) for audiovisual archives and copyright risk assessment in the audiovisual archives.
- New trends and techniques in archives research. For media producers the challenge of delivering content on time is quickly turning into the challenge of making content discoverable. Reliability and authenticity remain core values however, and the same counts for scientists who leverage media archives as a scientific source. These require new ways of analysing the archive, new ways of storytelling, new ways of getting the most out of the archive.
You can read the official Call for Papers here.
Next to the presentations, there will be ample space for discussion and networking, showcasing, learning and enjoying the unique Venice atmosphere. The conference will also host the bi-annual General Assembly of FIAT/IFTA.
Key dates during the running up to the conference:
- 12 January 2018: announcement of the conference dates, theme and title
- 8 February 2018: publication of the Call for Papers
- 6 April 2018: first deadline of the Call for Papers
- 27 April 2018: extended deadline of the Call for Papers
- end of May: paper selection and communication to the speakers
- early June: publication of the first programme version
- mid June: early bird registration opens
- end of July: official announcement of the General Assembly
- mid August: early bird registration ends
- 9 October: pre-conference day
- 10-12 October: FIAT/IFTA World Conference
Industry partners interested in sponsoring the conference or partnering with FIAT/IFTA to make this and other events a success are welcome to contact the FIAT/IFTA Office.
