DPC Members Forum and Networking Event - Europe

We are delighted to invite DPC Members and members of the digital preservation community to attend our DPC Members Forum and Networking Event in Edinburgh, Scotland!

This two-day event will take place on Wednesday 20^th and Thursday 21^st of May 2026, kindly hosted by Historic Environment Scotland in Edinburgh. In 2026, three DPC Members Fora will take place globally - in Edinburgh (Scotland), New York City (USA) and in Australia - with Members welcome to attend any or all.

The first day of this event is open to DPC Members and non-members alike, with programming designed to optimize opportunities for networking and information exchange. 

Day two is exclusively for DPC Members. In addition to meeting and networking with other members of the Coalition, we will have an exciting program of fast-paced member led talks and discussions, providing the opportunity to take the floor and exchange ideas as well as showcase work and discuss key themes.

Who is the event for?

This DPC Members’ Forum is designed to privilege operational staff working directly on digital preservation. We are particularly keen to hear from the following groups:

• Junior staff recently appointed and looking for opportunities to build their professional networks

• New entrants to digital preservation seeking to apply professional know-how to this new field

• Experienced practitioners who might not normally attend the DPC Board but have clear insights into the challenges of digital preservation in their own institutions.

• Senior staff, researchers and students are also welcome, though it is practical knowledge exchange that will be most prominent.

How does it work?

Offer to lead a session!

Whether you have a task you want to work on with others, a fresh idea or solution you want to demo, or topics you want to discuss to learn from others’ experience, this part of the program provides a space for you to achieve all of this. Please pitch your ideas and we’ll fill in the (currently blank) program for you to make the most of the Coalition’s collective digital preservation expertise.

Each session will offer approximately 45 minutes for you to either:

• Discuss: Pick the collective digital preservation hive mind and start a discussion about a topic

• Learn: Demonstrate and share solutions or workflows so that others can learn from your experiences.

• Share: Show and tell presentations of recent work, new ideas and achievements (or failures)

• Play: Bring a digital preservation game you have created to try out on colleagues and have fun!

DPC Members: share your suggestion for a Member-led session here by Wednesday 15th April 

Outline program*

A full program will be published once we have collected and collated your session suggestions! 

Day 1: DPC Open Networking Event

Wednesday 20^th May, 09:30 – 17:00 BST 

Open to all

 *Subject to change

** To be livestreamed for DPC Members only 

Day 2: DPC Members Forum

Thursday 21^st May, 09:30 – 16:00 BST

DPC Members only

*Subject to change – programming and the number of streams will be determined by the number of member-led session suggestions received, and whether these are to be delivered in-person or online. 

Register to attend!

Full Members are invited to send up to 3 representatives to attend the event in-person, and Associate Members are invited to send 1 representative to attend in-person. Each member institution may register 2 additional participants for remote attendance. Members may also allocate their in-person spaces to an online ticket if required, as long as the total number of attendees doesn't exceed 5 for Full Members or 3 for Associate Members. Alternatively, members may opt for fully remote participation with the same attendance limits.

Non-members are welcome to send one representative for Day 1 only, with in-person attendance being the only option available for non-members.

Registration will close on 15th May.

Priority registration for DPC Members is now open, please log-in to book your place.

If you have any queries about this event, please do contact angela.puggioni@dpconline.org. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing all of your session suggestions and to connecting with you all soon.

DPC Inclusion & Diversity Policy

The DPC Community is guided by the values set out in our Strategic Plan and aims to be respectful, welcoming, inclusive and transparent. We encourage diversity in all its forms and are committed to being accessible to everyone who wishes to engage with the topic of digital preservation, whilst remaining technology and vendor neutral. We ask all those who are part of this community to be positive, accepting, and sensitive to the needs and feelings of others in alignment with our DPC Inclusion & Diversity Policy.

 Sponsorship opportunities are available for the Open Networking Event on 20^th May. DPC Supporters, please contact Sarah Middleton for more information.