Successful ERIH Conference in Katowice / Poland

Various presentations about the subject “Industrial Heritage & Web 2.0” showed different aspects and examples of good practice, how new media can be used to market and promote industrial heritage.
All experts agreed that Web 2.0 and new media have a great potential for the marketing of industrial heritage. On the one hand a huge number of potential visitors can be reached (in a relatively cost-efficient way) and the community does act as multipliers for concrete offers. On the other hand virtual tours, augmented reality and other new techniques allow interpretation and visitor at sites which are not (permanently) open to the public or are still under restoration. 

But the experts warned of snap decisions, they recommended to analyse the concrete needs, objectives and target groups of a potential campaign before taking any decision. It is also important to carefully consider the financial and staff resources available at the sites. Especially social networks and blogs demand a (daily) maintenance, otherwise they are counterproductive for the site´s image. Based on this information an overall strategy for the use of new media should be developed taking into consideration a realistic time schedule and planning of available resources.

However, abandonment of new media is not a recommendable strategy at all as this means that some target groups are not reached at all. Especially younger people often cannot be approached with classic media.
For industrial heritage sites this means: It is worthwhile to follow the trend but with precaution and under consideration of the individual abilities.