The topic of the conference was “Resilience”. The event explored how industrial heritage sites have survived the Covid-19 pandemic and developed interesting and imaginative ideas for ongoing development in a post-pandemic world.

Resilience is defined as “being able to recover quickly from difficulty or distress”. The conference provided a timely opportunity to share experience on how sites and attractions are recovering from the impact of Covid and extended periods of closure. The conference also explored ways to mitigate against wider and long-term impacts on the protection and promotion of our industrial heritage.

Conference programme

Industrial Heritage is more than just industrial buildings and machinery, that is, the “tangible” remnants of industry. Industrial Heritage also includes the complex knowledge of running and maintaining machines, of numerous techniques and skills as well as of sector-specific social routines and intangible heritage. But this knowledge is in danger of being lost with the passage of time. Today heritage organisations are increasingly facing the retirement of their first generation professionals and volunteers – staff who experienced at first-hand life within these industrial communities. Against this background effective methods are needed for transferring and sharing knowledge with new staff and volunteers that engage in the field.

Most heritage institutions are facing these problems in a more or less similar ways. Therefore the presentations held at the conference introduced excamples how we can protect industrial heritage by ensuring that skills and knowledge are passed on to future generations. It also provided a platform for exchange and critical debate of experiences in the field of knowledge transfer and succession planning.

Conference programme

The growth of international tourism during the 21st century has been phenomenal and industrial heritage tourism is losing more and more its niche market image and is on its way to be recognized as a respected part of our cultural heritage. Although this is good news, the question is if industrial heritage on its own is enough for long-term attraction of visitors and for the stimulation of repeated visits? Or if linking the promotion of industrial heritage more fully with other sectors of tourism is the success factor for future tourism marketing?

Conference programme

Over the last 25 years European Industrial Heritage has become established as a major sector of tourism. Hundreds of millions of people visit to European industrial sites each year due to the efforts of many individuals and organisations, including ERIH

However this is no time for complacency, the promotion of industrial heritage needs to move with the times and ensure we reach out to as many people as possible. We need to show awareness of changes in European lifestyle and society in general and look forward to attracting as wide a diversity of people with as wide diversity of interests to our sites as possible. What societal changes need to be addressed? What opportunities are we presently missing? What gaps should we address in future marketing and promotion?

Conference programme