The complete schedule for the 2026 Cultural Heritage Roundtable is set. Over two days, practitioners from state archives, research libraries, and universities will walk through the real-world challenges they’ve tackled — from rescuing film backlogs and capturing fragile glass plate negatives to documenting conservation work and modeling the structure of medieval manuscripts.
Day 2 opens with a look ahead from DT’s own Doug Peterson and Matthew Watkins on where digitization technology is headed and what DT is developing for 2027. And for the first time, the Roundtable closes with a live panel discussion featuring this year’s presenters. Every session includes live Q&A, and DT’s sales and support teams will be in the chat throughout both days to answer your questions.
New This Year
A Live Panel With Our Presenters — and Your Questions
For the first time in Roundtable history, we’re bringing this year’s presenters together for an open panel discussion. Instead of a single talk, you’ll hear practitioners from archives, libraries, and universities trade perspectives on the heritage digitization topics that matter most right now — and compare notes on what’s working in their programs.
The conversation is open to the audience, too. Bring your questions and put them to the panel live. Friday, October 30 at 2:00 PM ET.
Event Details
Day 1: Thursday, October 29, 2026 | 9:00 AM–3:00 PM ET
Day 2: Friday, October 30, 2026 | 9:00 AM–3:15 PM ET
Format: 100% virtual and free to attend, open to anyone worldwide
Each day is ticketed separately on Eventbrite — to attend both days, register for each one.
All times are Eastern Time (ET).
Day 1
Thursday, October 29
Opening Remarks
Peter Siegel, Digital Transitions
Film Graveyards: Resurrecting Access to Film Materials with Creative Techniques
Ashlie Brewer & Kerry Bannen, North Carolina Digital Heritage Center & UNC Chapel Hill
Handle With Care: Streamlining Glass Plate Negative Capture With Conservation in the Loop
Robert Gasperino & James Watson, Maryland State Archives
Hardware, Workflows, and Creator Intent: The Mark Wallheiser Collection
Stuart Rochford, Florida State University
Building Capability at the Church History Library
Trevor Wylie, Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Much Ado About One Painting: The Importance of Behind-the-Scenes Documentation
Tim Tiebout, Folger Shakespeare Library
Day 2
Friday, October 30
Day 2 Kick-off
Peter Siegel, Digital Transitions
The Current (and Future) State of Digitization Technology
Doug Peterson, Digital Transitions
DT’s New Products for 2027
Matthew Watkins, Digital Transitions
Living Histories from Newspapers: Stories from the New Jersey Gazette
Caitlyn Cook & V Loveless, New Jersey State Library
VCEditor: Structural Models for Codex Manuscripts (and Other Books, Too)
Dot Porter, Penn Libraries, University of Pennsylvania
NEWPresenter Panel Discussion & Audience Q&A
Roundtable presenters in an open discussion of heritage digitization topics
Closing Remarks
Peter Siegel, Digital Transitions
Save Your Seat
For more details on our esteemed speakers and their presentation topics, see our previous article, Meet the Speakers: The 2026 Cultural Heritage Roundtable. Then register for one day or both — it’s free, and we’d love to see you there.