Museum Connections 2026

Show program

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The trade show continues... at your own pace! Watch replays & explore essential takeaways!

Replay the sessions that resonated with you, share the ones that inspired you, or catch up on those you might have missed. 
Explore the highlights and uncover the key takeaways through replays, summaries, and reports.
Watch the replays
Watch the replays

Full event &  conference program

This program brings together all the highlights of the show: 
• Inspiration Conferences,
• Innovation TV,
• Culture Business Talks,
as well as many other events. 

The program also includes the visits organized as part of Open Museum, which will take place the day after the show. 

To easily find the conferences and events that interest you, you can refine your search using the filters available below.
Jan 13Jan 14
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Meeting Room
Jan 13, 2026
9:30 AM5:00 PM

"Immersion and museums": New forms of mediation, experimentation, and deliberate disorientation

In the museum context, immersive technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), augmented virtuality (AV), and mixed reality (MR) now make it possible to immerse visitors in a new, multisensory spatial reality. Visitors’ senses, knowledge, movements, and emotions are all engaged through these new sensory experiences with heritage. The growing widespread adoption of immersive technologies in the museum field is bringing new professional profiles into museums, new skill sets, and new ways of working, both internally and in collaboration with external stakeholders. What museographic uses can be made of immersive experiences? Which institutional objectives can they serve within a museum? Who designs them, and what impact do they have on visitors? This workshop, organised by Ocim as part of its partnership with Museum Connections, will enable participants to discover and experiment on site with a range of immersive installations, and to meet exhibitor stakeholders actively involved in the development of these technologies. True to Ocim’s culture of exchange with its partners, and in a friendly and open atmosphere, the day will provide an opportunity to identify the uses, strengths, and key challenges of these technologies for museums and their professionals, both today and in the future.
Angèle FOURÈS
OCIM
Omer PESQUER
MUZEODROME
Inspiration Conferences
Jan 13, 2026
11:00 AM12:10 PM

Museums & Resilience: strategies for a changing world

Trusted institutions and social connectors, museums have demonstrated remarkable adaptability and innovation in recent years when faced with the unexpected. Today, as the economic, geopolitical and social context continues to evolve, many cultural venues once again face challenges that test their capacity for resilience and transformation. As part of the overarching theme of the Inspiration 2026 Conferences, centered on the concept of “Resilience 2.0,” this session will bring together representatives from museum organisations on both sides of the Atlantic. Together, they will discuss the major challenges confronting the sector and share perspectives on current and future resilience strategies and levers. Resilience, here, has a dual meaning: that of museums themselves - their governance and funding models, their ability to innovate - but also their relevance and active role in strengthening the resilience of societies, in line with recent commitments to ecological and social transitions and in response to current and emerging societal needs. The concept of "résilience 2.0" is freely inspiredfrom the European Strategic Foresight Report “Resilience 2.0: Empowering the EU to thrive amid turbulence and uncertainty” .
Grace STEWART
AMERICAN ALLIANCE OF MUSEUMS
Dr. Felicia STERNFELD
ICOM EUROPE / EUROPEAN HANSEMUSEUM LÜBECK
Pirjo HAMARI
FINNISH HERITAGE AGENCY
Émilie GIRARD
ICOM FRANCE / MUSÉES DE STRASBOURG
Clément LALOT
Musées et Société en Wallonie ASBL
Resilience: preparedness for the future
Inspiration Conferences
Jan 13, 2026
2:00 PM2:55 PM

Advocacy: unlocking a strategic lever

Widely practiced across NGOs, by major cultural umbrella organizations, and within the Anglo-American museum landscape, advocacy is increasingly attracting the attention of European cultural institutions. Advocacy — understood as the act of defending and promoting causes to key stakeholders, whether internal to the organization (funding) or external in relation to broader societal issues — often takes the form of ad hoc initiatives. Yet it can also evolve into a structuring, long-term institutional strategy. This roundtable will focus on this latter approach, inviting speakers to share inspiring examples and perspectives on how — in concrete terms — advocacy strategies can emerge and be effectively implemented by cultural organizations, particularly museums. Between advocacy as a deeply embedded institutional mindset — reflected in an organization’s values, mission, and actions — and approaches more focused on stakeholder mobilization, the discussion will explore different types of advocacy strategies and levers available to cultural institutions today. We thank Brunswick Arts London and The Revels Office for their collaboration.
John SHEVLIN
ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS
Marta BARTKOWSKA
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART IN WARSAW
Grace STEWART
AMERICAN ALLIANCE OF MUSEUMS
Constance RIVIÈRE
PALAIS DE LA PORTE DORÉE
Clare BARLOW
PEOPLE’S HISTORY MUSEUM
Annabelle TÜRKIS
FREELANCE CONFERENCE CURATOR MUSEUM CONNECTIONS
Resilience: preparedness for the future
Innovation TV
Jan 13, 2026
2:30 PM3:45 PM

Touring Exhibitions: New Experiences, Innovation and Trends (Session 1)

Two sessions fully dedicated to Touring Exhibitions will showcase the most inspiring projects from around the world. Institutions, producers, and specialists from France, Canada, England, Australia, Brazil, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, the United States, Scotland and beyond will share their latest creations and innovations across art, science, design, history, cultures, technology and popular culture, designed for museums and cultural institutions, heritage and leisure venues, tourism boards, parks, and outdoor and public spaces. These presentations will offer an exclusive overview of current trends: immersive experiences, sensory and interactive installations, sustainable design and the travelling of collections… Approaches that are reshaping the circulation of exhibitions and enriching visitor experiences. Each session will be followed by a networking opportunity with the speakers at the Touring Exhibitions Pavilion (booth D69), a unique chance to meet project leaders and explore new collaboration opportunities. The sessions will be hosted by Teo, the international resource for touring exhibitions.
Anais AGUERRE
CHATSWORTH
Jason OLSEN
UNCEDED: Voices of the Land
Victor GAMA
PANGEIART
Jan-Patrik Novoa Lill
ALEGRIA EXHIBITION GMBH
Nathalie GRENET
SPL LASCAUX EXPOSITION INTERNATIONALE
Calum MacGillivray
National Museums Scotland
Alba Collado
Mediapro Xperiences
Anna CLARK
FLYING FISH
Marco ZANNI
MUSEUM NATIONAL D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE DE PARIS
Quentin DEFAUT
HISTOVERY
Manon DELAURY
TEO EXHIBITIONS
Will MATHER
AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM
Benjamin CAMUS
WORLD PRESS PHOTO FOUNDATION
Nicholas KONDOPRIAS
PAN ART CONNECTIONS INC.
Henna BHATTI
SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP
Sloane PHILIPP
DINO DON INC
Samer FOUAD
MUSEUM OF POP CULTURE (MOPOP)
Alexandre CALIL
INK & FIRE | XR ROCK PAINTING EXHIBITION
Alex SUSANNA
EXPONA
Joy LATOUR
MUSÉUM D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE DE TOULOUSE
Touring Exhibitions
Innovation TV
Jan 13, 2026
4:00 PM5:00 PM

Audience Studies – How can we better assess and measure the value of the visitor experience?

The evaluation of the museum experience is no longer limited to simply measuring visitor numbers or observing visitor flows. Today, cultural institutions are exploring more nuanced and sensitive approaches to understand how audiences actually experience their visit, interact with artworks, and construct meaning throughout their journey. This presentation of the study proposes to address two complementary dimensions: the impact of sound environments on the visitor experience, and new large-scale audience research methodologies. Immersive devices, particularly sound-based tours, reflect a growing trend in cultural and tourist venues. They rely on sound compositions and spatialized narratives to enhance the visitor’s sensory and cognitive experience. At the Musée national de la Marine, for example, research projects conducted in collaboration with university laboratories have made it possible to experiment with and analyze the effects of sound-based mediation within a visitor itinerary. Discover how this type of approach opens up new perspectives for measuring not only attention to the exhibition, but also the emotions, engagement, and memory retention generated by the experience itself. At the same time, audience knowledge is now being structured around large-scale research projects capable of going beyond the simple collection of demographic data. The European Sentomus study represents one of the first coordinated efforts to explore in depth the behavior, expectations, and perceptions of visitors in partner museums across several countries. Unlike traditional surveys limited to a single site, this project makes it possible to understand how audiences perceive the museum offer, assess exhibitions and activities, and the value they attribute to their visit, thus providing institutions with benchmarking tools, avenues for strategic improvement, and a better understanding of their social role. Discover how these approaches help to rethink the ways in which the most...
Antoine ROLAND
{CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES]
Lucie AERTS
MUSÉE NATIONAL DE LA MARINE
Francis DE BONNAIRE
SENTOMUS
Mélissa MATHIEU
Université de Tours, CESR, CNRS, Tours
Studies
64 sessions
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