The first BigStuff conference was held at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia in 2004. Three years later Big Stuff 2007 was held in Bochum, Germany; Big Stuff 2010 was held at Duxford in the UK; Big Stuff 2013 was held in Ottawa, Canada and Big Stuff 2015 in Leward in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France. The most recent conference, Big Stuff 2019 was held on 11-13 September 2019 in Katowice in Poland.
Each conference page provides a pdf of of the plenary session papers from the conference.
Big Stuff 2022
Big Stuff 2022 was hosted in Seixal in Portugal (across the Tagus River from Lisbon). The conference focused on the Seixal Ecomuseum (Ecomuseu Municipal do Seixal) and the amazing Vale de Milhaços Gunpowder Factory with its operating steam equipment, water cooling fountain and beautiful forest setting. The organising committee were keen to hold an on-site conference but, recognising that many people were still not able to travel internationally at that time, there was also an option for online participation. The theme for the conference is “Working together? Conservation and safeguarding of industrial and technology heritage”.
Big Stuff 2019
From 11-13 September, 2019 lovers of big industrial machinery gathered at Katowice in Poland for the sixth Big Stuff conference. With the theme “Preserving large industrial objects in a changing environment”, the conference addressed the future of large scale industrial heritage in the face of a rapidly changing environment, where social relations, architectural and urban design, landscape environments, mobility infrastructures and spatial functions are all being transformed, and where climate change adds another unknown to the preservation of historic buildings and machinery.
Big Stuff 2015
The Big Stuff 2015 large technology heritage conference was held at the Centre Historique Minier in Lewarde, France. This is in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France which is full of amazing industrial heritage – coal mines, textile mills, lace works etc. The conference was timed to coincide with the TICCIH 2015 industrial heritage conference in Liile in the same area, so it was a feast of all things French and industrial for the better part of two weeks.
Big Stuff 2013
Big Stuff 2013 was held in Ottowa, Canada at the Canada Science and Technology Museum and the Canada Aviation and Space Museum.
Big Stuff 2010
Big Stuff 2010 was held at the Imperial War Museum campus at Duxford in the United Kingdom and was followed by a visit to the naval warship HMS Belfast floating in the Thames River in London.
Big Stuff 2007
Big Stuff 2007 was held at the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum (German Mining Museum) in Bochum in the Ruhr region of Germany, with sessions at the Henrichshütte ironworks site in Hattingen, and the Zollverein coal mine complex in Essen.
Big Stuff 2004
Big Stuff 2004, the inaugural Big Stuff conference, was held at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia.
