2026 conference
CALL FOR PAPERS!
The Perfect Blend: celebrating partnerships and collaborations in Business Archives
A Business Archives Conference, 12th November 2026, Edinburgh
In 2026 the Business Archives Council of Scotland and the Business Archives Council will hold their joint annual conference in Edinburgh.
The conference hosted by Diageo will take place on Thursday 12th November 2026 at their Johnnie Walker Experience with online attendance also available. Our theme is The Perfect Blend: celebrating partnerships and collaborations in Business Archives. This conference theme will explore how good partnerships and collaborations can help transform our business archive collections. This might be through the use of new technologies or volunteering projects to assist with cataloguing and digitisation projects. Or research based collaborations that can unlock collections and engage new audiences with our material.
We are keen to hear from business archivists in a corporate setting but also those caring for business archive collections in public repositories or community archives. As well as researchers who have made use of business collections to inform their work in new ways.
Ideas for submission include but are not limited to:
● Examples of innovative partnerships in any aspect of collections care and engagement with business archives.
● Identifying partners and building relationships within your organisation to advocate for your service and collections. This could include making sure the right records are transferred to the archive for collection development purposes.
● The academic research potential within business archive collections, particularly examples of academic and corporate collaborations that explore collections.
● Creating partnerships within the business to enable colleagues from marketing or legal to view the collections as a source of inspiration or evidence for brands.
● Working with wider communities to explore ways in which business archive collections can be used for community engagement activities e.g. public exhibitions, storytelling and educational uses.
● Co-curation projects that have re-examined archival materials bringing different perspectives or disciplines to challenge traditional narratives.
● Working with services or partners who bring knowledge of technological developments (such as AI) that can improve collections processing or access.
Submissions
We are looking for speakers to deliver a 20-minute presentation which will be part of a wider session alongside two other speakers with time for questions at the end of each session. Limited online speaking slots are available for those unable to travel.
If you would like to submit a paper or a topic to present on, please send an expression of interest to Business.Bites.Contact@gmail.com
Expressions should include the topic of your presentation, a short biography of the presenter and the name of your organisation (if applicable). Expressions should also indicate if you would like to present in person or online. Submissions should not exceed 500 words. Speakers will have their conference attendance fee covered but BAC/BACS cannot provide assistance for travel and accommodation costs.
Key dates:
● 15th June - deadline for the Call for Papers. Speakers will be notified within two weeks of the CfP deadline.
● August - Conference programme will be published and bookings will open.
Additional information
The Johnnie Walker Experience is located in the heart of Edinburgh city centre's West End on Princes Street and is only a 15-minute walk from Edinburgh’s Waverley Station which connects via the East Coast main line to London (4 hours). The main conference programme will run from 10:30 on Thursday 12th and finish around 5. There will be an evening drinks reception in the venue afterwards
Any questions should be directed toBusiness.Bites.Contact@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.