TownsWeb at the ARA Conference 2026

Last week, the TownsWeb team headed north to Glasgow for the 2026 Archives & Records Association (ARA) Annual Conference, held at the Radisson Blu from 5–7 August.

Representing TownsWeb this year were Casper Smithson (COO), Nathanael Liu (Account Manager) and myself, Paul Marks (Head of Marketing). After months of preparation it was great to finally arrive in Glasgow, set up our stand and spend a few days surrounded by so many familiar faces from across the archives and records community.

With this year’s conference centered around the theme of “Authenticity”, the programme explored some of the biggest questions facing the sector today – from digital preservation and conservation to community engagement, artificial intelligence and the importance of maintaining authentic voices within collections.

Our ARA experience actually began a day before the main conference programme, with the Tuesday evening Arrival Drinks at the Radisson Blu.

Held in the Finnieston Room, it was the perfect informal start to the week and a chance to catch up with people we already knew, meet some new faces and settle into Glasgow before the conference officially got underway the following morning.

As anyone who regularly attends ARA will know, some of the best conversations happen away from the formal sessions, and Tuesday evening certainly set the tone for a very sociable few days.

Wednesday marked the official start of the conference and the opening of the exhibition.

Between conversations at our stand, there was a packed programme of keynotes, workshops, panel discussions and individual presentations taking place across the venue.

This year’s theme provided plenty of scope for discussion, with sessions examining authenticity from a wide range of perspectives. Digital archives and automation naturally featured strongly, alongside conversations around conservation, access, engagement and ensuring that the people and communities represented within collections retain an authentic voice.

For us, exhibiting at ARA has always been about much more than simply showing what TownsWeb does. It gives us the opportunity to speak directly with archivists, records managers and other professionals about the challenges they are facing, the projects they are planning and how approaches to digitisation continue to evolve.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by the TownsWeb stand during the three days. It was fantastic to catch up with existing clients and friends as well as meet plenty of new people.

Announcing our 2026 Digitisation Grant winners

One of our biggest highlights of this year’s conference was particularly special for us as it was finally time to announce the ten winners of the 2026 TownsWeb Archiving Digitisation Grant.

Our annual grant programme exists to help archives and heritage organisations bring important collections to life through digitisation, and once again we received a fantastic range of applications.

We were delighted to be joined in Glasgow by three of our four grant judges – John Chambers (Chief Executive of the Archives & Records Association), Audrey Wilson (Partnerships and Engagement Manager at Scottish Council on Archives) and Casper Smithson (Chief Operating Officer at TownsWeb Archiving). Unfortunately, our fourth judge, Kathryn Tollervey (Archivist at The Photographers’ Gallery London), wasn’t able to join us at the conference this year, but we were hugely grateful for the time and expertise all four judges contributed to selecting our 2026 recipients.

Nathanael Liu had the pleasure of presenting the announcement to reveal this year’s 10 winning organisations, who will each receive £3,000 funding towards a digitisation project with us.

Watch the announcement video below.

A huge congratulations once again to all 10 of our 2026 Digitisation Grant winners. We’re looking forward to following their projects and seeing the collections they have chosen brought to a wider audience.

Read more about each of the ten winners' projects here.

Thursday evening brought another highlight of the conference with the ARA Gala Dinner and Awards.

Held in the Megalithic Suite at the Radisson Blu, the evening brought everyone together away from the exhibition and conference sessions for arrival drinks, dinner, the ARA Awards and, later on, dancing.

After two very busy days, it was a brilliant opportunity to relax, spend more time with friends and colleagues from across the sector and celebrate some of the people doing exceptional work within archives and records management.

It was certainly one of the standout moments of our time in Glasgow!

By Friday afternoon, three days of exhibiting, sessions, conversations, celebrations and plenty of coffee had flown by.

ARA remains one of the highlights of our calendar because of the community that surrounds it. Having so many people from across the archive and records sector together in one place creates an invaluable opportunity to exchange ideas, discover new projects and, most importantly, reconnect in person.

A huge thank you to the Archives & Records Association and everyone involved in organising ARA 2026, as well as everybody who came over to speak to us throughout the conference.

And, of course, congratulations once again to our 10 Digitisation Grant winners.

Glasgow, you were fantastic.

We'll see you all next year at the ARA Conference 2027!