Welcome to the IASA-BAAC 2026 Conference in Vilnius, Lithuania!

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the IASA-BAAC 2026 Conference here in beautiful Vilnius, Lithuania!

We are incredibly excited to have you join us for an inspiring week of presentations, workshops, conversations, and connections. This conference is especially meaningful as it marks the final conference under the leadership of our current IASA Executive Board.

As Vice President of Conferences, I have to admit that I feel both a sense of relief and a little sadness knowing this is the last conference under my purview. These past three conferences have meant a great deal to me, and as we all know, it's all about location!

From Valencia to Honolulu to Vilnius, I feel incredibly fortunate to have played a part in bringing these conferences together. Each location has offered something unique, and each conference has given us the opportunity to explore themes that speak directly to the cultural heritage issues so deeply connected to our field.

More than anything, I am grateful for the experiences, the collaborations, the friendships, and the extraordinary people who have helped make these conferences possible. It has been a privilege to be part of this journey.

As I reflect on what we have accomplished over the past three years, a few highlights stand out.

In Valencia, we introduced IASA's first dedicated conference theme focused on LGBTQ+ archives and communities, creating space for important conversations about representation, identity, and the preservation of marginalized histories. We also expanded our technical capabilities, learning how to successfully manage up to four simultaneous streams of a hybrid conference, making our programming more accessible to colleagues around the world.

In Honolulu, we partnered with SEAPAVAA and intentionally turned our attention to Pacific cultures and heritage, something IASA had long hoped to do. We also brought in speakers to address climate change, not as an environmental concern, but as a cultural heritage issue. Our hope was that these conversations would inspire us to think about how our work, and our association, can be collaborators for positive change.

And now, here in Vilnius, the Local Organizing Committee and I recognized that we needed to address the realities of conflict and war. Sadly, given our current global political climate, these issues are impossible to ignore. The preservation of cultural heritage takes on even greater urgency when communities, histories, and identities are threatened.

Looking back, what connects these three conferences is something I feel strongly about: our work is rooted in culture, not technology.

Yes, technology is an essential tool. It allows us to preserve, restore, document, and provide access to our audiovisual heritage. But technology is not our mission. Our mission is cultural. It is about people, places, and things(noun). It is about the stories we tell, the histories we protect, the communities we represent, and the memories we carry forward.

Technology helps us do the work, but culture gives that work meaning.

As we gather here in Vilnius, I am excited not only to celebrate what we have accomplished together but also to see where the next Executive Board will take IASA. I have no doubt that the association will continue to grow, evolve, and reach new heights.

Thank you all for being part of this incredible community, for your dedication to our shared mission, and for making these past three years so meaningful to me.

Here's to a wonderful conference, to the people and cultures that inspire our work, and to the next chapter of IASA!

Warm regards,

Rosie Marcu-Rowe
Vice President of Conferences
International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA)