The Thoughtful Ancestor

Earlier this year I was delighted to find that one of my submissions for the Connections2025 Conference had been accepted.

My topic is: The Thoughtful Ancestor: leaving a large footprint for future generations

Image by bobschwenkler from Pixabay

The Synopsis: Researchers spend enormous amounts of time, effort and money on their projects but, if they have not made arrangements before they are dead, the fruits of their labour are likely to end up on a rubbish dump. 

The purpose of this presentation is to make attendees reflect on their practices and to guide them in making decisions to ensure that their work is preserved for future generations. 

In this presentation I hope to cover: Evaluating your collections, Cleaning up your files, Documenting your wishes, Appointing a successor: person or institution, Writing up a clear summary of your collection, Leaving funds for curation.

I'm aiming to make this a practical presentation with many suggestions for leaving a large footprint. In addition to a physical footprint I will mention the emotional legacy we leave for our descendants. 

I feel a serious case of nerves approaching as I strive to put together a talk worthy of the event. When I peruse the program I see that I am in the company of esteemed and experienced presenters.

On my recent return from overseas I created a Powerpoint file to use as a mind map/plan for my presentation. It's time to give up dabbling and get moving as my file is due to be uploaded in less than than a month. I am now in serious research/preparation mode. 

My presentation is after lunch on the last day of the conference so the audience members are likely to be suffering from information overload. I will have to make it light and lively to keep them engaged.

There are a few speakers I would really like to hear at the event but as we are scheduled at the same timeslot I will have to miss Andrew Redfern and David Ryan. I hope there is some audience left for me!

Roll on March.