Theme: Skills and Machines – A Living Partnership

Further information may be found at the Big Stuff 2025 website.

We are thrilled to announce that the international Big Stuff Conference will take place in Belgium from October 14th to 17th, 2025. Hosted by the vibrant Big Stuff Heritage community, this event is a gathering of museum professionals, academics, consultants, volunteers, and private owners dedicated to preserving and showcasing technological and industrial heritage.

In 2025 we focus on the symbiotic relationship between skills and machinery. Industrial heritage encompasses not just large-scale installations and historic machinery, but also the people, skills, and knowledge required to operate, maintain and showcase this mechanical legacy. As the generations of workers and volunteers who have learned to control, calibrate and repair these machines retire, their invaluable expertise is at risk of being lost.

The conference wants to explore effective methods for passing critical and endangered knowledge to new staff and volunteers, ensuring the continuity of this heritage. We would also like to broaden the scope, looking at ways to make old technologies resonate with new generations. How do we teach handskills to a generation brought up on automation? How do we connect older Big Stuff to important new themes such as lower carbon emissions, lower pollution, circular re-use and right to repair?