For a network as European Heritage Times with members working in different countries, remote from each other and with limited opportunities of physical meetings, it is very important to have a common understanding about the topic in order to be able to speak with one voice. Therefore the participation at a European Heritage Times Introduction and Training Seminar is a mandatory condition to become a part of European Heritage Times.

During the Introduction and Training Seminars the participants receive basic theoretical background about heritage and study different aspects of heritage. They get to know different tools useful for reporting about heritage and are instructed concerning journalistic standards. They have the opportunity to get to know each other, to exchange about their own experiences in these fields and to share best practise examples.

Central part of the seminars is the journalistic work “in the field” – exercises about real heritage-linked topics. During “Afternoons of Inspiration” the participants get to know various heritage sites representing different types of heritage and different approaches to handle heritage-linked issues. On the following day they are asked to work in groups of two persons concerning one or more of these sites while following special thematic lines as “hidden heritage”, “multilayered heritage”, “new ways of reception of heritage”, “public accessibility of heritage” or “heritage and civil society”. The results are presented to all participants, used as examples to discuss structural, content-linked and journalistic questions and are later published at the European Heritage Times website.

At the seminars which take place once a year in Germany, usually participate around twelve to fifteen new volunteers. The seminars are jointly facilitated by team that is composed of representatives of European Heritage Volunteers and two to five volunteers that are already part of European Heritage Times.

The participation at the seminar is free of charge; board and accommodation are paid by European Heritage Volunteers. For the volunteers that had been taken part already in previous seminars and are invited to create a bridge between the former groups of European Heritage Times volunteers and the current group European Heritage Volunteers coveres the travel costs, too; the new volunteers are asked to cover their travel costs themselves.

At the first seminar in September 2016, the first twelve volunteers from twelve different European countries, who were selected from a large number of applications, took part.

In September 2017, a second group of ten new volunteers had been trained and integrated into the existing network; in June 2018 the next ten volunteers had been trained.

The fourth European Heritage Times Introduction and Training Seminar took place in November 2019 in Ossmanstedt near Weimar / Thuringia and Freiberg / Saxony.

The fifth European Heritage Times Introduction and Traning Seminar had to be postponed due to corona from 2020 towards 2022 took place in May 2022 in the Cultural Landscape Erzgebirge / Krusnohori (Ore Mountains) which has been inscribed in 2019 as a transboundary site (Germany / Czechia) on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The Introduction and Training Seminar for the sixth cycle of European Heritage Times took place in April 2023 Leipzig / Germany.

The next Introduction and Training Seminar will take place in spring 2024. The call for applications is still open. The application process is described on our website under European Heritage Times / How to participate.