The iPRES 2025 organizing team is now accepting submissions for the Great Digital Preservation Bake Off at the International Conference on Digital Preservation taking place later this year in Wellington!
The Digital Preservation Bake-Off provides a platform for developers and practitioners to showcase their digital preservation solutions in a live, interactive setting. No actual baking is required; however, kitchen metaphors and puns are encouraged! The Bake Off offers a playful yet insightful look into the future of digital preservation, making it a fun and educational experience for all.
Bake Off participants demonstrate how their tools address real-world challenges in digital preservation, such as metadata extraction, scalability, and integration with existing systems. Contestants use a ‘pantry’ of test files to showcase their applications in real-time, and demonstrate their solutions on common preservation issues.
First introduced as a showcase at iPRES 2014 in Melbourne Australia, and formally baked into the programme as the Digital Preservation Bake Off in 2019 in Amsterdam, this distinctive event has quickly become an iPRES conference highlight. It offers both seasoned and emerging tool developers the opportunity to serve up and demonstrate the value and effectiveness of their digital preservation tools in a short, timed presentation.
This year, the Bake Off features two tracks: the Amuse Bouche challenge for practitioners and the Tasting Spoon challenge for service providers.
We are looking for tools, new platforms and services, bespoke workflows or toolkits, or collaborative approaches to general challenges. We welcome contributions from both seasoned technical chefs and first-time bakers; whether your tool is fully baked or still in the proofing stage, we want to hear from you! We encourage you to register and present in person, but remote participation is also possible.Bakers are invited to express their interest in participation by 31 July 2025, using this form.
For more details, visit the iPRES 2025 Call for Contributions page.