Choose Your Own Future: Resilient Communities and Sustainable Solutions

As a community, the Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities conference has addressed change in a myriad of ways. Collectively we have explored how crisis can act as a catalyst for change, have considered changes to our practice through inclusive innovation, and have radically reimagined the interplay between the physical and the virtual.

In 2025, the DCDC conference will itself be embracing change. We have been gathering feedback from our delegates and peers and are excited to offer a fully hybrid programme for our growing international community: a programme that will explore the opportunities, innovations, challenges, and solutions that are driving change across the GLAMA sector (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums and Academia). A programme that will empower and enable, advocate and co-create, and look to the future with hope.

Organisations face escalating costs, changing user or visitor expectations rapidly emerging technologies such as AI and threats including cyber security, as well as political and climate instability which put increasing strain on our resources. How ready are we to embrace change, pivot strategy, implement new approaches, and harness new technologies for the good of our collections and our communities?

How do we embrace the opportunities that technologies bring to upskill, to inform our practice, enhance access to our collections or transform visitor experiences? How can we better understand our audiences, and in what ways can we continue to collaborate with communities to ensure their voices are heard and their needs are met? From knowledge sharing to collaboration opportunities across all sizes of organisation, how can we work together to affect change for good?

A collective call to action, DCDC25 invites you to come together, no matter where you are in the world or the stage of your career, to choose your own future: to celebrate what is already being achieved and debate what more could be done, to explore the challenges we face across the GLAMA sector and to work together as a community to find sustainable solutions.

DCDC25 aims to explore, but is not limited to, some of the following topics and questions:

• In what ways are we advocating for our colleagues, our communities and our collections to affect change across the GLAMA sector?
• How can we work together towards breaking down financial, cultural and perceptual barriers for communities to access heritage?
• How are we going beyond providing access to our collections and involving communities in our practice?
• In an increasingly digital world, what might the future of collections look like?
• How can we implement green computing to ensure efficiency and sustainability across the sector?
• How can we ensure that open data serves our communities in ethical, inclusive, sustainable and accessible ways?
• How do we ensure that all uses of AI are safe, equitable and deliver sufficient benefits?
• How do we recover, adapt and change in response to the challenges and threats we face across the sector?
• How do we keep our collections, data, and services accessible and at the same time secure from cyberattacks?
• How can we drive down costs or explore new business models that support the sustainability or growth of our organisations?
• How can we work collaboratively across the GLAMA sector and with communities to navigate complex conversations regarding provenance and ethical collecting practices?

DCDC25 offers an opportunity to explore some of these questions as they relate to our research and practice. It is also an invitation to reflect on the resilience of the GLAMA sector, to work collectively to find sustainable solutions, and to consider how the DCDC community can affect change for good.