One-day international conference on business archives, Edinburgh, 17 November 2006

A joint one-day conference of the Business Archives Council; Business
Archives Council Scotland; Business Records Group of the Society of
Archivists; and Section on Business and Labour Archives of the
International Council on Archives is to be held in Edinburgh on Friday 17
November with the aim of bringing together archivists from the UK and across
the world to discuss issues of common concern.

Titled Managing Business Archives: A Global Perspective, the conference
should have wide appeal and covers globalisation, digital records and access
as well as looking at how the historical records of business are handled
within national archive networks in other countries. The speakers include
eminent archivists and academics from the UK and overseas.

The main sessions are as follows:

Globalisation - managing archives and heritage overseas:
* Building a regional archive for HSBC in Hong Kong - Helen
Swinnerton, HSBC Asia Pacific Archives
* Managing the archives of St Gobain beyond France - Didier Bondue, St
Gobain Archives, France
* Archives as assets of an international brand based business - Becky
Haglund Tousey, Kraft Foods, USA
* How the archive supports Diageo's global premium drinks business -
Jennifer Birnie, Diageo

Digital records - a universal issue:
* The inertia of large problems: digital records preservation in
business - Peter Emmerson, Emmerson Consulting
* Digital Preservation Europe: a preservation initiative built on
ERPANET - Dr Seamus Ross, University of Glasgow

Different solutions - managing the records of business across the world:
How well have different strategies worked and what are the newest
initiatives? A panel-based discussion session with contributions by
representatives from countries pursuing varied national solutions for
managing the historical records of business including: Matti Lakio, Finland;
Christian Jansen, Denmark; Robert Brown, UK; and Karl-Peter Ellerbrook,
Germany.

Access - serving diverse user communities:
* From virtual museum to actual museum: accessing the Sainsbury
Archive at the Museum in Docklands - Clare Bunkham, The Sainsbury Archive
* 'Connected Earth' and BT's Heritage Policy - widening access to a
business historical collection within a corporate responsibility programme -
David Hay, BT
* The virtual archive: creating and promoting Prudential's memory map
- David Carter, Prudential

The event is to be held at the new conference centre of The Royal Bank of
Scotland Group at RBS Gogarburn close to the city's airport on the western
outskirts of Edinburgh. Applications are invited as soon as possible. The
conference delegate cost is £50 per person and includes lunch.

A full conference programme and booking form can be downloaded from the
websites of both the Business Archives Council (at
http://www.businessarchivescouncil.org.uk/activitiesobjectives/conferenc...
nf2006 ) and the Society of Archivists (at
http://www.archives.org.uk/thesociety/specialinterestgroups/businessreco...
roup/trainingevents.html )

We are also delighted to be able to offer three free conference places to
members of the Society of Archivists who are currently on the Society's
registration scheme. The only condition of such places is that successful
applicants agree to write a short note for publication on a particular part
of the conference.

For further information on the free places or any other aspect of the
conference please contact Alison Turton, conference co-ordinator, on 020
7615 6126 or via alison.turton@rbs.co.uk.

Alison Turton
Head of Group Archives
Group Property
telephone: 020 7615 6126
fax: 020 7837 7560
email: Alison.Turton@rbs.co.uk
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc
PO Box 348, 42 Islington High Street, London N1 8XL