The annual National Trust Conference (with CAHP & Indigenous Heritage Circle) is Canada’s largest heritage conservation learning and networking event. Held every year since 1974, the National Trust Conference brings together a wide range of people working to keep Canada’s heritage alive: from architects and planners to grassroots activists and elected officials, policy makers, preservation supplies providers, and property owners. Conference themes have tackled pressing issues for Canada’s heritage movement, including adaptive reuse and retrofits, housing and intensification, sustainable development, and climate change.
The heritage conservation sector in Canada faces a “perfect storm” of social and political pressures. Heritage places are increasingly threatened by fast-tracked development, deregulation, and housing demands, even as rising cultural nationalism highlights their vital role in Canadian identity and economic resilience. At the same time, the sector is advancing reconciliation, addressing inequities in practice, and leading on climate action.
In this period of rapid change, how can the heritage sector shape the future of Canada’s tangible and intangible heritage? How are societal shifts and new technologies transforming conservation and stewardship? What will heritage leadership look like tomorrow? Canada’s largest heritage learning and networking event will convene 550+ professionals, policymakers, industry and NGO leaders, academics, students, and volunteers. Join this dynamic, annual, inter-disciplinary conversation.
Architects will find rich opportunities for professional development with 4 tracks of concurrent sessions on the following themes:
- Housing Creating & Building Reuse: Heritage Solutions for Increasing Density, Accelerating Development, and Reducing Carbon
- Re-Storying and Reclaiming Heritage Places: Heritage Sites, Policies, and Organizations
- Retooling the Heritage System: Policy, Codes, and Communities in a New Era
- Craft, Tech, and Teaching: Leveraging Digital Tools, Sustaining Heritage Knowledge, and Educating the Next Generation