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iPRES 2025 July Newsletter

  • ipres20254
  • Jul 9
  • 7 min read

Kia ora iPRES Enthusiasts!

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II inside the Beehive with New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II stands on the interior steps of the Beehive with Prime Minister Robert Muldoon at the opening of the New Zealand Parliament building. Photograph taken 28 February 1977 by an unidentified staff photographer for the Evening Post. Credit: The Dominion Post Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: EP/1977/0782/13a, https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22883183.

Message from the Conference Chairs

iPRES 2025 is less than five months away! It’s the perfect time to get your travel to Aotearoa New Zealand sorted if you haven’t already. We have lots of travel information available on the iPRES website, but if you have questions we haven’t answered, just ask! You can also check out the official New Zealand Tourism website, 100% Pure New Zealand, for sample itineraries and things to do across Aotearoa before or after the conference. 


As I write this, one of our Local Organising Committee members, Carly Lenz, is making the journey back to Aotearoa after competing with Team New Zealand in the 2025 Roller Derby World Cup in Innsbruck, Austria. Carly - also known as Lenz Flare - has promised to share her best long haul travel tips in our August newsletter.


If you will be travelling to Aotearoa from other parts of the world, we do encourage you to arrive a few days early in Wellington to rest and get acclimatised, in order to make the most out of your time here and your iPRES experience.


iPRES 2025 will open with a pōwhiri, a formal ceremonial Māori welcome, on the morning of Monday 3 November 2025. According to Waitangi kaumātua (elder) Wiremu Williams, of the Ngā Puhi iwi, "pō" can be translated as a venture into the unknown, or a new experience, and "whiri" is derived from whiriwhiri, meaning the act or experience of exchanging information and knowledge.[1] The pōwhiri will be held at Tākina Wellington Conference and Exhibition Centre first thing Monday before the start of the workshops, so do plan your travel accordingly. Additionally, for those of you attending iPRES in person this year, we have a very special treat in store. The conference dinner will be held at the Banquet Hall at New Zealand Parliament. The Banquet Hall is located inside the executive wing of the parliamentary complex, locally known as the ‘Beehive’ due to the building’s unique shape. The Banquet Hall is the original function space in Parliament for holding state banquets. The first event held here was on the 28th of February 1977, when Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the Beehive. A structure of outstanding historical and cultural significance, and the veritable heart of New Zealand’s government, the Beehive was declared a Category One historic place by Heritage New Zealand in 2015.


We could not be more proud to be holding the iPRES 2025 conference dinner in this incredibly special and unique location. A massive thank you to Amazon Web Services (AWS) for being our official iPRES 2025 Conference Dinner sponsor! 


– Andrea Goethals (Conference Chair); Valerie Love, Jan Hutař, and Martin Gengenbach (Conference Vice-Chairs)


Initial List of accepted submissions available

The Programme Committee is currently working on the draft schedule and programme for iPRES 2025, for release later this month. In the meantime, we are pleased to provide an indicative list of accepted submissions from the first Call for Contributions for Full and Short Papers, Panels, Posters, Tutorials, and Workshops.


Please note, this initial listing is not comprehensive and subject to change. A schedule of programming will be made available following the close of the Bake Off and Ad Hoc Call for Contributions. 


Bake Off Submissions Now Open

The iPRES Digital Preservation Bake Off is an annual tools demonstration that offers a platform for developers and practitioners to showcase their digital preservation solutions in a live, interactive setting. Participants demonstrate how their tools address real-world challenges in digital preservation, such as metadata extraction, scalability, and integration with existing systems. No actual baking takes place, but there are lots of baking puns! This year, the Bake Off features two tracks: the Amuse Bouche challenge for practitioners and the Tasting Spoon challenge for service providers. A unique aspect of the Bake Off is the use of the ‘iPRES Pantry,’ a curated set of test files and datasets supplied by the community. This resource enables participants to demonstrate their solutions' effectiveness on common preservation issues. Currently, our pantry features a wide range of tasty ingredients, including 3D Data, Geodata, email, web content, disk images, PDFs of all flavours, databases, AV materials, Mac and Microsoft Office formats, Google Drive files, and – for the discerning chefs – some exotic ingredients. 


Whether you're a developer at a large institution or a solo innovator, this is your chance to get cooking and receive immediate, unfiltered feedback from both peers and potential users in a supportive and enthusiastic environment. For more details on how to submit your tool and what to expect, visit the Call for Contributions page. Bake Off submissions are currently open until 31 July 2025, End of Day, Anywhere on Earth.


Ad Hoc Submissions open

Ad Hoc submissions are currently open! These submission types include:

  • Birds of a Feather (BoF) discussion sessions

  • Games

  • Lightning Talks

  • Other informal submission ideas

All ad hoc proposals should be submitted via the online form. If you are unable to access Google Forms, you can also fill out a Microsoft Word version of the Ad hoc form and email it to us at info@ipres2025.nz.


Accepted presenters must register to attend iPRES 2025 either in-person or as a virtual attendee. The deadline for submitting ad hoc session proposals is 18 July 2025, End of Day, Anywhere on Earth. 


Professional Visit offerings

Professional site visits will take place on Friday, 7 November. So far we have the following professional visit offerings available:

Professional visits are a great opportunity to connect with professionals across Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, and get a behind the scenes look at some of our most prominent cultural heritage institutions. We look forward to providing more details in the coming weeks.


Co-located and Kindred Events

A number of events are happening in Wellington around iPRES 2025 that may be of interest to attendees. These include:

Social Activities

We understand that many delegates will be travelling to Aotearoa New Zealand from other parts of the world. As such, we are providing as many opportunities as possible for in-person participants to meet, connect, and build upon the iPRES 2025 experience. This includes an array of optional social activities that attendees can choose to participate in while in Wellington, such as visiting Wellington's famed urban wildlife sanctuary, Zealandia. Please note that some social activities may have additional costs not included in conference registration fees. Stay tuned for more information about social activities at this year’s iPRES.  


Sponsor Spotlight

A very warm welcome to Amazon Web Services (AWS), our Conference Dinner sponsor! Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centers globally. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—are using AWS to lower costs, become more agile, and innovate faster.

Since launching in 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been providing world-leading cloud technologies that help any organization and any individual build solutions to transform industries, communities, and lives for the better.

Would your organisation like to partner with iPRES 2025? We have a variety of both in-person and virtual sponsorship options. More information about these and other sponsorship opportunities is available on the conference website.


Early Bird Registration - Currently Open!

Early Bird registration is open until 1 September 2025. We have special rates available for the full conference, as well as 1-day passes, and student discounts. There are in-person and virtual options available. Get your tickets early  to make sure you don't miss out! For more details about registration, including costs, please visit our website. Register now to secure your place and benefit from the early bird rate. 


Stay up to date with iPRES!

Make sure to check out our website for information on travel to Aotearoa New Zealand, getting around Wellington, accommodation, and airfare discounts. 


If you have been forwarded this email, do subscribe to the iPRES Interest mailing list at https://bit.ly/ipres-interest. Have a read through our previous newsletters on the website, or check out the news section of the website with latest blog posts as well.


You can also follow official iPRES 2025 accounts on social media on LinkedIn, Bluesky, Mastodon, Instagram, and YouTube, or follow the hashtag, #iPRES2025.


Look out for the August newsletter, which will provide updates on the iPRES 2025 programme, awards, things to do in Wellington, and travel tips.


Whakatauki / Māori proverb

Poipoia te kākano kia puawai.

Nurture the seed and it will bloom. 


Ngā manaakitanga / With best wishes,

The Wellington Local Organising Committee


Andrea Goethals, Blanche Joslin, Carly Lenz, Cynthia Wu, Dale Cousens, Jan Hutař, Martin Gengenbach, and Valerie Love

[1]. Pōwhiri - Te Kunenga Ki Pūrehuroa Massey University of New Zealand Te reo Māori and tikanga resources, https://www.massey.ac.nz/student-life/m%C4%81ori-at-massey/te-reo-m%C4%81ori-and-tikanga-resources/p%C5%8Dwhiri-mihi-whakatau-and-mihimihi-m%C4%81ori-welcomes/p%C5%8Dwhiri/. Accessed 9 July 2025.



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