Programme

Day 1

The first day of the conference will feature the official opening with a welcoming message from FIAT/IFTA President Bríd Dooley and a keynote speech. After the break the FIAT/IFTA General Assembly will convene to inform members about what has happened during the past 2 years, to elect a new President and six new members of the Executive Council.

The afternoon will be spent on the first parallel sessions. One will be a full afternoon ‘super session’ focusing on artificial intelligence and feature extraction. Next to that there will be sessions about marketing and audience research, publishing broadcast archives, technical and content related choices in preservation and digitisation and digital rights management.

In the evening FIAT/IFTA invites you to the marvellous Casinò di Venezia for the Welcome Cocktails. This will be an excellent opportunity for a more informal chat in the luxurious-mysterious atmosphere that only Venice can offer.

Day 2

The next conference day opens with the second keynote speech, followed by a plenary session in which FIAT/IFTA’s partners present themselves to the delegates. After the morning break the breakout sessions offer presentations on archival stories that must not be left untold, on archival strategy and opportunities for collaboration and media management case studies.

The afternoon begins with a conference element that has rapidly become a well appreciated tradition during the two previous FIAT/IFTA conferences: the expert lead discussion tables. They bring together small groups to discuss one particular subject. Each table discussion is held twice, so participants can pick the two subjects in which they’re most interested. The discussion tables are an excellent opportunity to meet up with like-minded colleagues, facing similar challenges.

The last session of the day is again a plenary session. The nominees for the FIAT/IFTA Archive Achievement Awards will present their excellent projects and, during an interview session, will explain why their projects are unique.

On the evening of conference day 2 we traditionally hold the Gala Dinner. Venice has numerous stunning buildings, but our host RAI has chosen a truly unique one: the Scuola Grande San Giovanni. It will no doubt be an unforgettable experience, during which we’ll learn who the winners of the highly coveted Cubes, the FIAT/IFTA Archive Achievement Award trophies are.

Day 3

The third and last conference day starts with a presentation of the results of three special FIAT/IFTA initiatives: the Save Your Archive programme, the Where Are You on the Timeline Survey results and the Outsourced Digitisation Guideline.

The parallel sessions of the third day will focus on a broad range of themes. In the morning sessions will be about quality control and restoration, the archive as an organisation and how television archives can interact with their audiences in a new way. After lunch the subjects tackled will be the new roles archivists will undertake, how to deal with legal deposit, and the search for partners in artificial intelligence and feature extraction.

The conference ends with the last, but very promising plenary about how archives can seize a unique opportunity to reach new audiences with their assets. The conference will then be closed by the newly elected FIAT/IFTA President who will also tell us where the 2019 edition will take place. Finally, the closing reception, on the ground floor of Palazzo Labia, will be an opportunity to toast our profession and to say goodbye for another year.