Chair

I have been involved with interpretation professionally since 1969 and in these 40+ years have undertaken a great deal of successful interpretive planning and creative writing.

I have also been heavily involved with the profession over the years, in the role of AHI committee member, as its administrator for eight years and as a teacher and trainer.

I am an internationalist and believe passionately in the need for us Europeans to share our experience and expertise in interpretation and to make it widely available. I hope, with the rest of the Supervisory Committee, our Advisory Group and our excellent Executive Directors, that we can achieve our collective aims.

Vice Chair

I “was” a  biologist, but since 1970 I have spent my life not researching on viruses in a lab, but campaigning and educating for environment and conservation.
I have started my so called career with WWF Italy and then I have been the director of the park service of the Lazio region, working to develop a system of protected areas and experimenting new pathways for sustainable development. After 15 years and 35 new parks established, I left this position to found Greenpeace Italy, which I chaired for sometime, before my decision to create a “campus” for environmental education and training, founding an NGO, the Pangea Institute, still alive and kicking.

I consider human resources our first natural resource and for this reason I have focused my commitment also on capacity building, literally introducing environmental interpretation in Italy, implementing the basic principles of interpretation adapted to our Italian national and European culture while training the “official park guides” of the Italian national and regional parks. I have traveled and worked in many countries, always looking for the inspiration and the emotion generously offered by Nature. Now I am still on the stage (although my nickname being “Jurassic Park”) and I am leading a national inter-university project aimed to create a network of campuses, specialized in protected areas management matters, where interpretation will play, once more, a significant role.

I believe that environmental interpretation may be a powerful tool to involve citizens of all age in conserving our cultural and natural heritage. The process of rethinking the role of European protected areas in a changing world should count on the “passion made profession” typical of the environmental interpreters: I am sure that working with the many “continent wide” lively experiences of the wonderful people involved in our Association, a young NGO, but with old and deep roots, will be an exciting and inspiring adventure.

Throughout childhood any kind of Great Wonders of the World books were his favourites. After school, during studies and after graduation (MA in Ethnology and Museology/Heritage Studies) he accumulated diverse working experiences such as being a project manager on international projects, a conferences organiser and an editor, organiser and PR for events and exhibitions, an archivist as well as an assistant on National TV. He defended his PhD thesis on topic of heritage literacy as quite specific heritage management tool - feel free to ask if you want to know more about it.

So these days, for last few years, he is working as a senior researcher and a lecturer at the University of Zagreb, Croatia covering different topics within heritage field and museology, yet his favourites will always remain heritage interpretation, heritage literacy and heritage of the Mediterranean. At the same time he is working as a part-time heritage consultant and running small scale NGO. He gladly joined challenge to assist the blossom of heritage interpretation in Europe just because: it's not work - it is love.

I work as a consultant in cooperation for development specialized in tourism, mainly in Spain and Latin America, and use intensively heritage interpretation in the design of tourism routes, services and products. My principal specialities are destination marketing and product design, and I work mainly in developing areas and countries. The fields of rural tourism, cultural tourism, nature tourism and ecotourism, are the main interests of me and my team.

The natural protected areas are my favorite space, as to the cultural heritage destinations and indigenous communities all over the world.Both in Spain and Latin America, I devote quite a good time to teach tourism marketing and heritage interpretation to local authorities, tourism guides, entrepreneurs, wine cellars, archaeological spaces, etc.

I also believe very much in the power of heritage interpretation as a tool to change the face of the heritage, to approach it to the local people and to the tourists, as to enhance the value of the heritage.

To develop all these jobs, I run my own consultancy firm, KOAN Consulting, based in Madrid; and also I am partner of another company, DMC-Destination Management, where we are in charge of the European Cemeteries Route and other cultural and historical routes all over Europe.

I am really confident that Interpret Europe is a wonderful idea and team and look forward to start new projects all over Europe and to extend the knowledge to the rest of the world.

Stories and storytelling have always been a part of my life. Thanks to my wonderful parents – my mother an actress and historian of art, my father a sculpturor and a mountain guide – I grew up immersed in nature experiences, theatre, van Loon's Story of Mankind and the poetry of Winnie the Pooh. I love stories told by people – all sorts of people. And I also love stories told by trees, wind, bears, stones and stars... Stories are everywhere. They seem to be fond of me to: they keep coming to me, astonishing, revealing, enchanting.

I graduated in history and ethnology but unfortunately failed to graduate in biology - in spite of trying  (I very much prefer stories about frogs over vivisecting them...). When I was still a student I (almost) incidently started working for Slovenian National Television – first as a reporter, than as a script writer and finally as a director of documentary films and an editor in educational programmes. I found television a wonderful tool for telling stories, so I studied media and film directing to be able to do it better. At that time I also discovered interpretation. I grabbed everything written about it and took some courses... It helped. A lot! I won »Victor« - the highest Slovenian prize for media achievements and several awards at film festivals, mainly for TV programmes and films on natural and cultural heritage, produced in an interpretive style. My love for TV was unfortunately much stronger than TV's love for me, so I undertook postgraduate studies in Nature Conservation and started working as a lecturer and advisor in heritage tourism, interpretation and experience design. Since 2008 I have worked for the Slovenian Institute of Public Health using communication and interpretation skills to tell stories – but not about heritage. About colon cancer and its prevention. Stories can heal, you know.

I have lived in a number of different countries and have an international perspective. My first interpretive memory is of a ranger from the Pennsylvania Fish and Game commission explaining the significance of local wildlife to me at the age of ten.

After completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Countryside Management at Manchester Metropolitan University in 1994 I became a Country Park Ranger at Oakwell Hall Country Park near Bradford, England. I did lots of first person interpretation including leading guided walks and running many events, as well as tackling my first panels and leaflets. I quickly became Head Ranger and stayed until 1999 to become a Recreation Ranger for Forestry Commission Wales.

In 2002 I co-ordinated the creation of two new visitor centres for Forestry Commission Wales, getting the first interpretive plans done by consultants. Late in 2002 I was promoted to Interpretation Manager, and I worked with a number of interpretive consultants to get Visitor Experience and Interpretation Plans done for our key sites across Wales. The reason for not just doing interpretation plans was that I quickly realised that I needed to have certain things in place before trying to connect visitors with the stories in the forest, namely leaflets, signage, orientation, and addressing people's basic needs, so that they are then in the right frame of mind for some memorable (hopefully!) experiences and encountering thematic interpretation.

I gradually received responsibility for design and branding and changed my job title this year to Visitor Experience Manager to reflect the fact that I oversee the whole visitor experience for Forestry Commission Wales, including our recreation internet pages, as well as being easy to explain!

I am also a member of the Association of Heritage Interpretation (AHI) Executive Committee and a Steering Group Member of Dehongli Cymru/Interpret Wales.

I’ve worked in environmental conservation for over 30 years.  I’ve set up and run nature reserves, managed ranger services, and been the lead officer of one of the UK’s largest protected areas.  For the last 15 years I have been co-director of an environmental consultancy, Red Kite Environment, which works in heritage interpretation, environmental strategy and aspects of sustainable tourism and development.

In all my work I have been as concerned about encouraging people to understand and enjoy the environment as I have about conserving nature.  Interpretation for me is all about linking people with place.  When people understand the environment they have a better chance of appreciating its value and enjoying its benefits.  They can also make more informed decisions about how it can be protected, now and in the future.

I have completed B.A. in Pedagogics in Ukraine and M.A. in World Heritage Studies in Germany. During my master studies I came into contact with heritage interpretation for the first time.

A UNESCO scholarship within the “World Heritage Site Managers” Programme, which I was awarded, enabled me to spend six months with Edinburgh World Heritage Trust. There I came across the concept of heritage interpretation and was immediately fascinated by it. I even changed my research topic from pure management focus into the role of interpretation in management.

For the last five years I have been doing research in the field of heritage interpretation, which resulted in several article and book publications. With the time I grew more and more anxious to implement the knowledge I have obtained into practice. Thus, in October 2009 I became a co-founder of a consulting company working in the field of strategic interpretive planning for cultural heritage sites.

I believe that heritage interpretation is a key to sustainable development of heritage sites and I want to prove that through my work.