Activities
Kingdoms Institute Platform for the Promotion of Documentary Heritage in the Arab World
Innovating Documentary Heritage for Sustainable Development in AlUla
Inaugural Conference, 5 – 9 December 2022
A major activity of the AlUla Documentary Heritage Project, the Kingdoms Institute Platform for the Promotion of Documentary Heritage in the Arab World will be taking place in its first edition on 5-9 December 2022 in the very heart of AlUla. The conference is being implemented by the UNESCO Memory of the World (MoW) Programme with financial support from the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU).
Billed to be a multifaceted opportunity for memory institutions from all corners of the Arab world, the conference will gather participants to discuss advancing the identification, preservation of, accessibility to, and promotion of the Arab world’s rich documentary heritage.
Key aims of the conference:
1. Promote the global significance of Saudi Arabian documentary heritage and that of the larger Arab region to the stakeholders as well as to the public;
2. Build capacities for the identification, preservation, and accessibility of documentary heritage as sustainable development among memory institutions in the Arab world;
3. Strengthen regional networking among policy-makers and memory institutions in the Arab world to more effectively engage with the documentary heritage in AlUla.
Itinerary
In pursuit of these key aims, the conference’s itinerary offers a variety of activities for participants, including high-level plenary sessions, a reception hosted by RCU, capacity-building workshops for memory institutions, hybrid exhibitions, first-presentations of AlUla research findings, and seminars and roundtables.
Carefully curated to address challenges relevant to the Arab region, a line-up featuring expert speakers will focus on an array of subjects, some of which include decoding documentary heritage in ancient Arabic, safeguarding documentary heritage against armed conflict and climate change, and exploring the evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in preserving documentary heritage in the region.
With guided tours to selected AlUla sites, participants will also have the opportunity to immerse in AlUla’s awe-inspiring and remarkably well-preserved heritage, bearing witness to history recorded in stone at sites showcasing the evolution of the Arabic language and alphabet.
Format and Participation
Organized in a hybrid format with live transmission of the event online, the conference is open for all.
Participants will include Saudi, regional, and international memory institutions and documentary heritage experts, policy-makers and Member States, and Regional and National MoW Committees.
Interested members of the general public are also welcome to participate, provided they account for their own cost of travel.
For comments, suggestions, or any inquiries, please contact mowsecretariat@unesco.org (UNESCO Documentary Heritage Unit, Communication and Information Sector).