The annual National Trust Conference is Canada’s largest heritage learning and networking event. Held every year since 1974, the National Trust Conference brings together a wide-range of people working to keep Canada’s heritage alive: from grassroots activists and elected officials, to professionals, planners, policy makers, and property owners. Conference themes have tackled pressing issues for Canada’s heritage movement, including community revitalization, heritage tourism, sustainable development, and climate change.
Take a look at some of the highlights from our 50th anniversary conference, held in Ottawa ON in October 2023
NATIONAL TRUST 50th ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE 2023
(with Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals and Indigenous Heritage Circle)
Transforming Heritage
October 26–28, 2023 (Chateau Laurier, Ottawa, Ontario)
Canada’s heritage conservation movement is transforming itself to meet new needs in society. Are you on board? Advancing decolonization and anti-racism, leading climate action, and supporting the efforts of grassroots organizations, governments, and the private sector and to address socio-economic challenges are front and centre in our communities. At this watershed moment, the heritage sector has the opportunity to accelerate our benefit to society through transformational changes to our mission and practice, based on a shared vision.
The National Trust’s 50th anniversary conference is a fitting heritage milestone to seize on lessons from the movement’s many dramatic or gradual transformations over time as a compass for the future. Together, how will we shape the next 50 years, addressing pressing issues like reconciliation, affordable housing, accessibility, climate change, social justice, and economic resiliency?
Conference Themes:
- Social-Cultural Reset – Activating the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), Confronting Exclusion, and Transforming Heritage Practice
- Environmental Reset – Championing Heritage Conservation as Climate Action
- Economic Reset – Removing Systemic Barriers to Reuse & Empowering Conservation
Conference Website
Sponsorship opportunities for National Trust Conference 2023
Be Part of the Heritage Reset – Raise your voice in “reset” working sessions as we reinvigorate the Canadian heritage vision, and get inspired by reboot efforts underway in the United States and Australia. Review the Heritage Reset Framework here. And the bilingual version here
