​Digital era, the death or rebirth of heritage?

The recent and still present pandemic keeps us at home.
​Luckily we live in a digital era!
The pandemic only busted the need to use technology for good. Everyone had to adapt and join the work towards the digital transition:

• Schools and teachers had to implement digital tools and adapt pedagogical content and procedures;
• Companies and institutions had to learn how to meet and make decisions without being around a physical table;
• Parents had to find out how to access cultural heritage resources  and share it with their kids without going outside, even playing videogames with them and connecting in a whole new way.

Why going digital is important and what are the opportunities and challenges for heritage education, research and practice?

What are the impacts of COVID-19 for heritage planning and design?
  

How can digital tools be a game-changer for community engagement in heritage management processes?  

Those are some of the questions that we want to discuss at the 2022 Faro Convention International Conference:
“Digital era, the death or rebirth of heritage?”

​This conference will take place in the city of Faro (Portugal), where the Convention was signed. It will take place on the 27-28th october 2022 to celebrate the signig date of the Faro Convention.

You don’t want to miss it!

Until 2027 we will organize a series of International Conferencies within the scope of the Faro Convention​​

Departing from the innovative program of the MI.MOMO.FARO project and to celebrate the place in which the Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society was signed, this conference aims to place Faro at the center of cutting-edge experiences and knowledge about the intersection of heritage and digitalization. 

The first year of a series of annual conferences until 2027 is dedicated to the three-fold theme Faro Convention, Heritage and Digital, which aims at introducing the state of the art and practice of the convention as well as the debate about the pros and cons of digitalization.

The conference is structured around the three dimensions of the relation heritage & digitalization:

• (1) Digital tools in Heritage Education - Innovative digital tools in educational projects around heritage studies,  including potentials and challenges and how to solve them;
• (2) Heritage Research in the Digital Era - Last trends and contributions for digital historic cities and societies;
• (3) Heritage and Digitalization in Practice - Projects and policies implemented from a small to a large scale (private and public) around heritage planning and management.

Beside the sessions, composed by senior and junior academics (selected throughout and Open Call to be launched soon) and practitioners, following the spirit of the Faro Convention, the 2-day conference will also include two parallel activities:

• (1) good practices’ roundtable with municipalities representatives
• (2) workshop with the Faro local community.

Venue: To be confirmed 
Format: Hybrid, combining online and in presence attendees.

In 2020 we celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Faro Convention

The commemorative ceremony took place at the Teatro Municipal de Faro. Guilherme d'Oliveira Martins was present, who chaired the committee responsible for drafting the document in 2005. 
​
​At this event, the Mayor of Faro announced several initiatives that associate the city with the Faro Convention. These initiatives began in 2021 with academia, schools, public facilities and communities that once again associate the city with the Faro Convention.

In 2021, the Faro Convention International Conference - Warm-up Meeting took place

​This was an initiative commemorating the 16th anniversary of the Faro Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society.
Memoranda of Understanding were signed on this day with the University of Algarve and TU Delft (Netherlands). The objective is to enhance collaboration and the deepening of the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society and the development of an action program.
The event had a hybrid format with digital and other face-to-face initiatives.
Several doctoral students presented their theses showing the relevance of this topic. There was also a workshop and round table on the use of digital technologies in the context of Cultural Heritage.