Locals urged to attend conference

ORGANISERS of this year’s Burren Spring Conference, entitled The Burren – What is to be done? are urging local people to come along and take part.

The aim of the conference, which takes place from March 11 to 13, is to explore the potential of the Burren as a place of heritage, learning, business and inspiration and to look at how this potential might be best realised.
“The Burren has so much to offer to so many but some of us feel we need to be far more proactive in deciding what it is we want for the Burren and being a bit more determined in actually pursuing it. Otherwise we will never realise the full potential of this wonderful place and we run the risk of having to react all the time to what others decide is best for the Burren; rarely a good idea if past experience is anything to go by.
“So this conference seeks to look at what other regions are doing, to imagine what the Burren might be and to take the first steps to getting there, for instance by working together as a community on exploring the development of a charter for the Burren,” commented Dr Brendan Dunford of the conference organising committee.
Speakers at the conference include Dr Conor Newman, CEO of the Heritage Council; Professor Kevin Whelan, co-author of Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape and Professor Gabriel Cooney, head of Archaeology at UCD.
Some select international guest speakers have also been invited to talk about what others have done in better managing their regions. These will include Susanne Forslund, who works closely with communities on the Swedish island of Oland, which shares many similarities with the Burren and is now an official World Heritage Site. Professor David Gibbon, a long-time visitor to the Burren with over 40 years of global research experience, will outline some UK models of landscape management and lessons learned from consultation with different stakeholders.
In a new departure for this year’s conference, delegates themselves are being challenged to take to the podium and summarise what they themselves would do about the Burren. This will be part of a ‘Petcha Kucha’ session, a method of presentation developed by architects in Japan in 2003, which entails 10 presentations, each lasting six minutes. The idea is to share a lot of ideas without any one person taking all the time available. For delegates who prefer to express their opinions less forthrightly, a world café-style discussion is being organised to allow them to elaborate on their collective vision for the Burren.
One particularly interesting and relevant input will be from Burren-based heritage consultant Zena Hoctor, who will describe some of the work that is currently getting underway on the development of a Burren Charter. This is a ground-up initiative, which aims to bring a wide range of sectoral interests together to forge a common vision for the future of the Burren.
Working from a core collective of local organisations, including Burren IFA, Burren Connect, Burrenbeo Trust and Burren Farming for Conservation Programme, this Heritage Council-funded project hopes to work with groups and organisations across the Burren and beyond to develop a shared vision for the Burren and to make real progress in realising this vision.
According to Dr Dunford, “This conference will only really work if lots of local people show up and really start to engage with the other speakers, delegates and themes. We really hope that as many local people come along as possible. To encourage this, the cost of the event has been halved and we have allocated plenty of space for good dialogue between the speakers and the delegates. We also feel that the theme of the conference is one of great practical significance for the communities of the Burren, their landscape and their future.”