Each mentoring session accommodates 100 participants on a first-come, first-served basis. Attendees will be divided into four groups of 25 per mentor. Please arrive early to secure a seat with your preferred mentor.

CHAO TAYIANA MAINA
Title: Left Behind: Community Engagement, Cultural Heritage Digitisation And Digital
Futures

Museums worldwide are incorporating digital tools at varying speeds, shaped by funding
constraints, infrastructure gaps, and socio-economic contexts. While some institutions advance
rapidly, others often feel excluded from an increasingly digital future.
This mentoring session challenges the “left behind” narrative by reframing digitisation as a
matter of strategy rather than scale. It highlights how success lies not in acquiring the latest
technology, but in using available resources creatively to serve immediate audiences and
innovate within local contexts.
Through shared discussion and examples, the session explores how digital tools can enhance
community-led approaches and youth engagement. Participants will discover that meaningful
digitisation prioritises cultural relevance, environmental sustainability, and community needs
over technological ambition. It transforms challenges into opportunities through thoughtful,
context-sensitive practice.

SUY LAN HOPMANN
Title: Decolonisation Means Different Things in Different Parts of the World: Learning
from the ICOM Network

Across the globe, museums are engaging with decolonisation in diverse and evolving ways.
Between 2023 and 2024, the ICOM Working Group on Decolonisation conducted global surveys
to understand how members across regions interpret and implement this process.
This mentoring session presents key findings that highlight varied understandings and practices
of decolonising museums worldwide. The results offer a snapshot of current initiatives and
perspectives shaping this work.
Through interactive discussion, participants will exchange experiences, connect with
colleagues, and reflect on how shared learning can help make ICOM and the museum sector
more inclusive, equitable, and representative of multiple voices and histories.

KATE SEYMOUR
Title: Emerging Voices, Lasting Impact: Shaping Conservation and Museum Policy

Conservation is central to collection care and should be embedded in every policy discussion in
museums. Today, nearly one-tenth of ICOM members are part of the International Committee
for Conservation (ICOM-CC), connecting conservation professionals across the globe.
This mentoring session highlights how ICOM-CC supports its members at all career stages and
delivers impactful programming across the field. Through interactive discussion, participants,
particularly emerging professionals, are invited to share their experiences, challenges, and
ideas. Together, the session will explore how conservation can continue to evolve and drive
museum practice forward, shaping the future of ICOM-CC and the profession at large.

BRANDIE MACDONALD
Title: Generative Change in Museums: Restitution, Reconciliation, and Indigenous
Collections Stewardship

In this session we will sit in community and reflect on what it means for museums to engage in
restitution and reconciliation today with communities harmed by colonialism — challenging how
histories are told, whose voices are centered, who defines best practices, and how collections
are cared for. How do we ethically steward Indigenous objects (tangible and intangible)? What
responsibilities do museums, and the museum professionals, hold in processes of restitution
and repair? What pathways can museums take in redressing colonial harm with Indigenous
peoples and their collections? Through critical reflection and dialogue, we’ll examine how
restitution and reconciliation are not only acts of accountability but also acts of
creation—opening space for new relationships, shared authority, and community-led futures.
Join us as we consider how this generative work transforms museums from sites of preservation
into spaces of justice, renewal, and reciprocity.