Deliver a talk or workshop at the Heritage Network Conference

Have you got a heritage project that you’ve recently completed? An interesting case study that you learned from and want to share? Developed an interactive workshop or talk that shares heritage best practice in an engaging way?

Fill in our Speaker & workshop call out for Conference 2026!

We’re looking for engaging and informative talks and workshops from across the heritage sector to share with the 250+ delegates at our annual conference, taking place in Belfast & Armagh this September.

The conference is a great opportunity to shout about your work, connect with others in the sector, and aid the learning and development of community heritage organisations across the UK. We know from conference feedback that delegates are able to develop projects, implement learning, and approach new ideas with what they’ve learned at our conferences.

Past & suggested topics include:

Heritage impact
Working collaboratively to sustain & enhance the historic environment
The past lives of heritage buildings, looking at the liminality of those spaces now
Accessibility & Inclusion
Cross sector / Arts & Culture in Heritage
Meanwhile use
Driving social value in heritage projects
Community engagement
Working with young people
Is your project viable?
Why appropriate repair and maintenance is crucial to ensuring the longevity of historic buildings
Wellbeing through heritage
FailSpace: tools to help you have more honest conversations about failure

Some key information that you need to know ahead of submitting a proposal:

Audience & Tone – Our conference audience is made up of a mix of not-for-profit heritage organisations; professional advisors, consultants or contractors; national agencies, membership bodies and funders; voluntary and community organisations, and local authorities, please bear this in mind when submitting your proposal.

The tone of our conference is informative but friendly, we are not an academic conference and encourage plain and accessible language, avoiding acronyms and any exclusionary language. For further detail on tone and language, please refer to page 8 of our Brand Guidelines.

Talks – These will be included in the morning plenary session and would need to 30 minutes or less, a preference for local case studies and meaningful examples with UK wide applications or lessons. Higher strategic or conceptual themes or topics can be brought in.

Sometimes we will include talks in the breakout sessions, these will generally be no more than 30 minutes, allowing for 15 minutes of discussion or Q&A.

Workshops – These will be breakout sessions across the afternoon, around 45 minutes in length. These can cover a broad range of topics but need to have applicability across the UK and heritage sector. Preference will be given to interactive workshops where delegates can implement learning through activity or frame for their own context.

Remuneration – All speakers will receive a free ticket to the main day of the conference, and if you require materials, we will usually be able to cover these. We are unable to offer speaker/workshop fees for our conference. If accommodation or travel costs will be an issue for you to attend the conference, please get in touch and we can discuss.

Timeline