From 12-14 November we were celebrating the 35th ICARUS Convention, hosted by our new members, the State Archive of Venice, Italy. The importance of Venice, La Serenissima, as a hub of trade and art, and a beacon of cultural and political influence throughout Europe, is clearly mirrored in the vast holdings of the Archives, which we were privileged to visit during the final day of our Convention. This was the culmination of an event, that showed once again the dual mission of the ICARUS community: safeguarding historical records and enabling broad, innovative access through shared digital infrastructures and international cooperation projects.

Our Convention’s overarching theme was carried through with reflections on the bridge-like role of archives, connecting past and present through international cooperation and digital innovation. Speakers emphasized the scale of ICARUS’s network, growing digital collections, and the opportunities and challenges that AI and automation now pose for scholarship and archival practice.

Prof. Franz Fischer (Ca’Foscari) introducing our keynote speaker

Highlight of the first day was the keynote speech of Prof. Dr Dominique Stutzmann (IRHT-CNRS) introduced by our colleagues of the Venice Center for Digital and Public Humanities of the Ca’Foscari University in Venice as part of their recurring lecture series. Dominique reminisced on how AI is reshaping archival knowledge production and the study of medieval script cultures. He reflected on the risks of unquestioningly trusting AI outputs – sharing an example of fabricated archival references – and stressed the continuing role of archivists as validators of authenticity. He argued for collaborative digital communities that combine human expertise with computational methods to build richer, more reliable access to historical sources.

The crowd listening to Prof. Stutzmann’s speech.

In addition to Prof. Stutzmanns lecture, we heard several other interesting presentations throughout the 2,5 days of the Convention, showcasing how AI, handwriting text recognition (HTR), and machine learning are transforming archival workflows:

• Overviews of European AI initiatives revealed both major breakthroughs and the risks of fragmented, duplicated efforts.
• National projects—especially in Hungary—demonstrated large-scale in-house HTR development tied to secure digital infrastructures.
• Different speakers presented new TEI-XML editions, semantic modelling approaches, and computational analyses of medieval charters.

Another significant part of the Convention focused on how archives can remain resilient and socially relevant:

• North Macedonian and Slovenian presenters discussed sustainability strategies, climate risks, and legal frameworks for long-term preservation.
• Innovative outreach initiatives- exhibitions, school programs, public events – demonstrate ways to build archival literacy and public support.
• Several case studies stressed that sustainability requires a balance of physical care, digital infrastructure, and community participation. Results of a study on user satisfaction tried to explore potential demands of visitors in archives and how to better interact with the researchers.

Beyond textual materials, the programme also included:

• The EU-co-funded project “3DBigDataSpace”, aiming to integrate high-quality 3D models into the European cultural heritage data ecosystem and offering financial support for case studies using the tools developped within the frame of the project (“outreach synergy grant”)
• Talks on preserving industrial archives, visual sources, and fragmented private collections, each requiring flexible, non-standard approaches.
• Pedagogical activities at the University of Naples, teaching students to work with medieval account books using different tools, active learning, collaboration, and participation in real scholarly workflows.

In case you missed the Convention and/or the live streams, or simply wish to relive the event, know that we are planning to share the video recordings of the presentations in due time.

For now, please get some inspiration from the following photos taken during the Convention:

Photos of our guided tour – archival and architectural treasures: