The ERIH Annual Conference 2016
26th to 29th October
Porto, Portugal

European Industrial Heritage – How to tell the International Story?

From its beginnings, the Industrial Revolution was not just a local phenomenon, it was international – “Globalization” is not a new buzz word! The new technologies quickly spread across the world, particularly in Europe, and this marked a major turning point in history. Almost every aspect of daily life was affected in some way and as a result, there were strong similarities across countries and cultures in the methods of production and ways of life – we all dug the same coal…

Each Industrial Heritage site; every city; and each workers’ dwelling has an international dimension to its history and this provides a huge treasure trove of fascinating stories which can be presented in ways that appeal to people of all ages and backgrounds.

Do we do this? Unfortunately not. Our presentations mainly focus solely on the local history and rarely touch on the wider, European story.

Should we change this? Yes, we should. Telling the story of a site’s international links and relevance is a great opportunity to widen the site’s appeal and to attract new visitors and repeat visitors. New stories for new visitors!

Furthermore, many visitors will be interested to hear about other sites which have a similar story to tell which they could also visit. By presenting and promoting these links and connections, sites are able to attract more visitors. This is what we call ‘Network Marketing’ – and it is a key element of ERIH’s core objectives.

Call for papers

Papers are invited (in English only) which present examples of good and innovative practice and ideas of how to tell the international story. There are good examples throughout Europe of how sites have achieved (or propose to achieve) this – if your site is one of them, please share your experience with us!

Talks should last no longer than 15 minutes based on a Powerpoint presentation. A text version should also be submitted which will be published on the ERIH website shortly after the conference.

Initially, please email your abstracts of half a page including your contact details and a short CV to info@erih.net – the deadline for abstracts is 1st June 2016.

The ERIH Board will select from what we hope will be a wide range of interesting and relevant papers and the list of papers selected will be announced promptly after the deadline.