ICOM COMMS and ICOM Dubai 2025: The Future of Museums in Rapidly Changing Communities, 11-17 November

Everything You Need to Know

Be inspired at ICOM’s 27th General Conference, where you are the star! Dubai is the first city in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia to organise this prestigious international event since ICOM’s establishment in 1946 and our host ICOM UAE is rolling out the red carpet!

ICOM COMMS looks forward to engaging you in our sessions as we delve into a range of communications, marketing, and audience engagement issues relating to intangible heritage, youth power, and new technologies. On our offsite day, we join AVICOM (Audiovisual, New Technologies, and Social Media) for a day of amazing discovery and empowerment at Terra Expo City Dubai!

Click here to learn about the program and theme, hotels, how to plan your trip, registration, the Call for Papers, International Committee Offsite Day, and much more.

Call for Papers: Deadline for submissions is June 22. Abstracts are submitted through the ICOM Dubai portal and will be reviewed by the relevant International Committee. All selected speakers will be notified and must confirm their participation by 31 July 2025.

Click here to learn more and then click on each session and scroll to find ICOM COMMS

ICOM COMMS Session Topics

Session A: Intangible Heritage—Storytelling, Identity, and Relevance

Session B: Youth Power—Co-Creation, Activism, and Digital Fluency

Session C: New Technologies—From Artificial Intelligence to Ethical Dilemmas

If you have any questions about submissions, please contact ICOMDubai2025@dwtc.com.

ICOM COMMS and AVICOM Offsite Day – Rapid Change and Sustainability: Communicating with New Technologies

To be sustainable in an era of constant transformation, museums must adapt and communicate with the newest technologies. ICOM COMMS (former MPR) and AVICOM (Audiovisual, New Technologies, and Social Media) offer a day of joint programs at Terra, a central part of Expo City Dubai known as a clean, green, tech-enabled, human-centric city of the future.

Buses will transport us to Expo City to begin our day with a coffee and welcoming remarks followed by a breathtaking journey of Terra’s exhibits and behind the scenes, designed to empower us to better understand the effects of our actions on nature and become agents of change. After lunch, there is time to explore more of Expo City or attend the COMMS general assembly with a panel on “Rapid Change and Sustainability: Communicating with New Technologies.”

We will end the day with AVICOM’s 2025 International Media Festival F@IMP 2.0 (Festival of Audiovisual International Multimedia Patrimony) where we will see the award-winning productions. Before heading back to our hotels, we will enjoy a closing reception and make a toast to our technological and sustainable future!

More details to follow. Watch for ICOM COMMS announcements to register!