EuropeanaTech 2023 will be taking place in The Hague, the Netherlands, from 10 - 12 October 2023. The conference is for all tech-minded professionals, developers, researchers and students working in and around digital cultural heritage across the globe and is organised in collaboration with the EuropeanaTech Community. 

On this page you can find all the information you need to submit a proposal for an interactive and engaging talk, webinar, workshop, session or intervention to be held during EuropeanaTech 2023 on 10, 11 and 12 October.

We are looking for your proposals for an interactive and engaging session or intervention to be held during EuropeanaTech 2023. We want to invite the best ideas to take the stage, and open up our platforms to new voices and subjects around the following themes.

Explore  

In order to help people explore cultural heritage online and discover Europe’s rich heritage, cultural heritage institutions work tirelessly to structure, enrich and link their data to make digital cultural heritage more findable, accessible and interoperable. The use of automated approaches like AI assisted  enrichments of data offers opportunities for new ways of interaction. The emergence of new types of data, such as 3D also pushes us to rethink and upgrade our current process and workflows. 

Under this conference theme, we are interested in interventions around: 

• Processes and workflows which facilitate the digitisation, creation, enrichment and management of data (including 3D) 

• Standards and protocols which support the creation, sharing and reuse of Linked Data

• New automated approaches towards the enrichment of content and metadata including machine learning, computer vision  and natural language processing

Engage 

Cultural heritage enriches lives. Access to cultural heritage in all its richness helps us learn about who we are, where we’ve come from and what we can become. The ways cultural heritage institutions provide access to cultural heritage data, and are set up to preserve, curate and deliver that data, is increasingly determining the relevance of the cultural heritage sector. Is developing decentralised models a way to make the cultural heritage sector stronger and more prominent in society? How can technology facilitate the participation of diverse audiences and communities? What advancements can be used to create a  space for others to share their own pieces of cultural heritage with the world?

Under this conference theme we are interested in receiving proposals related to: 

• Models of developments and  collaboration between cultural heritage professionals which support better sharing of, and access to,cultural heritage data as well as increasing its impact

• Developments around user interactions and applications which support new ways to search, browse and interact with cultural heritage data (for example, through immersive experiences)

• Projects and tools which facilitate the participation of audiences in the curation, enrichment, reuse of digital cultural heritage 

• Activities related to open access, public domain, and Creative Commons, making collections more accessible

Experience

Digital cultural heritage is no longer limited to 2D content, a link to a webpage and a couple of metadata fields. The diversity of data (from transcriptions and annotations, to 3D models) and the increased number of available technologies coupled with high-quality digitisation and AI have transformed the experience we can offer to audiences. We have gone beyond the paradigm of search and browse, and can now look to build rich, interactive and immersive experiences which let people explore, engage and experience the past as never before seen possible. 

Under this theme we are looking forward to hear about inspiring presentations about: 

• Usage of cultural heritage data (image, text, video, audio and 3D) to build user interaction and experience 

• Collaboration between cultural heritage institutions and creative industries 

• New types of interactions supporting users in their interaction with cultural heritage (e.g AI chatbot, assist tools)

Our selection criteria are designed to enable a broad and diverse selection and to facilitate a more inclusive and equitable call in order to open up the conference to new voices.

The proposals will be reviewed on the following:

•  Does the proposal make it clear what outcomes the attendees will be able to get out of the session? (0 - not at all, 1 - partially, 2 - fully) 

• Does the proposal speak to, involve, or collaborate with one or more of the conference target audiences? (0 - not at all, 1 - partially, 2 - fully) 

• Does the proposal offer something interesting, useful, innovative, or important to the event? (0 - not at all, 1 - partially, 2 - fully) 

• Do the topics proposed represent diversity in the themes? (0 - not at all, 1 - partially, 2 - fully) 

Once the proposal is submitted you will receive a confirmation email - make sure you check your spam folder if you don't have this message in your primary inbox.

The selection committee might contact you, before or after the first notice, with a request to merge or combine your proposal with another proposal. This will only be done if there is overlap between the proposals.

In addition to the application form, we encourage everyone to prepare a short video of 45 to 90 seconds to pitch their proposal. We are not asking for anything highly polished - even a video shot on your phone will do. See our colleague Sebastiaan's example video he shot in his garden in 2020.

Our selection and programme committees are representatives of the Europeana Initiative. The committees consist of members from Europeana Foundation, the Europeana Network Association Members Council, Europeana Aggregators’ Forum, EuropeanaTech Steering Group and members of our other communities.

Deadline

The deadline for the call for proposals has been extended to 6 June 2023, 23:59 CEST

First notice 

You will receive a first notice by the end of June 2023 if your proposal meets the conditions to be taken into account for final selection. 

Final notice

You will get a final notice if your proposal has been selected by mid - late July 2023. We will provide brief feedback on proposals which are not selected.

Training and checks for online presentations

Authors of selected proposals will receive a short, voluntary training session and will be asked to participate in a mandatory technical check in September 2023. 

The format examples below are intended to help you think of ways to maximise the impact of your contribution to EuropeanaTech. The main criterion for choosing a format is the impact you want to make with your contribution. 

Do you want participants to learn something from you? Do you want to learn from them? Do you want to raise the profile of a certain topic by encouraging discussions? Do you want participants to experience a thought process?

We welcome four different types of submissions:

• ‘Paper’ format (15min + 5min discussion) - Talk/Presentation or demo etc.

• ‘Lightning’ format (5min) - Lightning Talk or demo etc.

• ‘Moderated’ discussions (45 min) - Presentations followed by a panel, Q&A sessions

• ‘Workshop’ format (2h-4h) (Only Tuesday, 10 October) - Workshop or tutorial etc. Please note that this format can only be run on site, not in a hybrid or online form.

If you have questions, doubts or you want to withdraw your proposal, for whatever reason, please contact our events team (events@europeana.eu).