CAN VIRTUAL PRESENTATION AID IN INTEGRATING GLOBAL MUSEUM COMMUNITIES?
The 2006 ICME conference brought together museum professionals from eleven different countries to discuss “Connections, Communities and Collections” in Miami Beach, Florida. I consider the July conference a great success, with sixteen paper presentations, a number of group visits to small ‘community’ museums, as well as engaging pre- and post-conference activities. Focus of the presented papers included analysis of museum-community relations from various levels, historical overviews of ICME during the last 60 years, case studies of museum collaboration with community groups as well as of community groups in the creation of their own museums, the problems of digital collections, the ‘agency’ of objects, the pedagogy of recollection and many other points. Some of these papers are already available for downloading from the ICME web site, and several others will be online shortly. The excursions during the conference and the post conference tour included contact with groups and institution
