On 31st March 2017, one year after the start of the CD-ETA project, BSC Kranj, Regional Development Agency of Gorenjska, held a Stakeholder group meeting. Twenty representatives of stakeholders (Ministry of Culture, museums, Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Nature Conservation, municipalities, Regional Development Agency of Gorenjska and private entity with experience in digitization and new technologies – NEXTO) attended the meeting. A representative of the Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Nature Conservation presented a report from the first thematic seminar Digitization of natural heritage held in Spain in beginning of February. We discussed the upcoming thematic seminar Digitization of museums and galleries and invited the stakeholders to participate. We also presented a draft agenda of the thematic seminar Digitization of intangible cultural heritage, which we are hosting in Slovenia in October 2017.
At the previous meeting of stakeholders held in November 2016, we talked about the importance of content interpretation. On sites of natural and cultural heritage, visitors are mainly looking for interesting (authentic) content and enriched experience. This time NEXTO (Cultural engagement platform) developer presented different possibilities of interactive narratives offered by the upgraded NEXTO version that enhance the user experience on the heritage site (gamification, guided tours, augmented reality etc.). In connection with this topic and at the initiative of the stakeholders at our previous meeting this time we organized a special lecture on the topic of heritage interpretation. We had the privilege to host a Slovenian expert on this topic, Ms. Marjeta Keršič Svetel, who conducted an interactive lecture titled “Interpretation of heritage and the role of modern media”. The lecturer presented the concept of “heritage interpretation” – what it means and why it is so important. She also presented good and bad practices of interpretation and the role of modern media in interpretation process. Interestingly, the “less is more” saying often applies in the area of heritage interpretation. Participants were thrilled by the workshop because it gave us a very valuable perspective on the heritage content interpretation and its importance in connection with digitization.
