Introducing the iPRES Tools Demo Session: The Digital Preservation "Bake Off"

The iPRES Digital Preservation Bake Off is an annual tools demonstration. Despite the wooden spoons and aprons, no actual baking takes place at this event... Photo credit: Michiel Devijver, iPRES 2024, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Digital Preservation Bake Off is a dynamic event held during the International Conference on Digital Preservation (iPRES). It offers a platform for developers and practitioners to showcase their digital preservation solutions in a live, interactive setting and decorated with delicious baking puns. Participants demonstrate how their tools address real-world challenges in digital preservation, such as metadata extraction, scalability, and integration with existing systems. At iPRES 2024, the Bake Off featured 21 diverse digital preservation tools, each presented in a competitive yet collaborative environment. These demonstrations give attendees insights into the latest advancements in the field, and gives our community’s biggest whisk-takers their time to shine. 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.

Bake Off Commitee member, Nathan Tallman, offers a guide to the iPRES Digital Preservation Bake Off.

This year, the Bake Off features two tracks: the Amuse Bouche challenge for practitioners and the Tasting Spoon challenge for service providers.

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.