2nd-5th September 2024

About the event

This year we want to explore practices and experiences of implementing interpretation work into the daily communication of world heritage sites. Therefore the topic of the conference is World Heritage: From Interpretation to Communication. This might mean different customer service channels such as guided tours, exhibitions, website content, sales pitches or grant applications. How can we best communicate the value and uniqueness of world heritage with our stakeholders and public?

The conference is hosted by two parties

Foundation of Petäjävesi Old Church conserves and protects Petäjävesi Old Church. The foundation furthers its endeavor by organizing different kind of development projects and by providing guided tours. Cultural heritage work, collaboration between Finnish world heritage sites and others visitor services are also part of its agenda. The foundation recognizes rules that apply to world heritage sites and collaborates with designated officials.

Petäjävesi Old Church tells the story of the Finnish people’s everyday life over four centuries. Built by Central Finland’s land-owning peasants in 1763–65 with their masterful carving skills, the Old Church has been the site of the most profound moments of life. The Old Church is beloved by the residents of Petäjävesi, and it is visited by thousands of enchanted tourists every year.

The Old Church is owned by Petäjävesi parish, which is responsible for reparation work and the finances of the church. The pastor and financial manager run the everyday operations, and the church council administer the strategic level of finances and larger investments. The use of the church is determined by the church board together with the pastor.

The over 200-year-old National Land Survey of Finland performs various kinds of cadastral surveys such as parcellings and reallocations of pieces of land, produces map data and promotes the use of such data. The National Land Survey of Finland safeguards the land ownership and credit system by maintaining information about properties and housing company shares in its registers and takes care of the registration of ownership and mortgages. Other tasks of the agency include spatial data research and application. The agency upholds the heritage of Struve Geodetic Arc in Finland.

The Struve Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, through 10 countries and over 2,820 km. These are points of a survey, carried out between 1816 and 1855 by the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve, which represented the first accurate measuring of a long segment of a meridian. This helped to establish the exact size and shape of the planet and marked an important step in the development of earth sciences and topographic mapping. It is an extraordinary example of scientific collaboration among scientists from different countries, and of collaboration between monarchs for a scientific cause. The original arc consisted of 258 main triangles with 265 main station points. The listed site includes 34 of the original station points, with different markings, i.e. a drilled hole in rock, iron cross, cairns, or built obelisks.