This week marks my first year as Managing Director for the IIIF Consortium. It’s been a busy year and full of notable events. The first of these that I’d like to call out is the most recent, the 2025 Annual Meeting and Showcase (2-5 June 2025) held at the University of Leeds (United Kingdom). Thanks to the great work by our partners at the University (led by Claire Knowles and Karen Abel) and the coordination and planning by Caitlin Perry and Glen Robson to ensure a successful conference. With nearly 200 attendees for the Conference and an additional 143 for the Showcase representing 23 countries, it was one of the best attended conferences to date.
The Conference also saw the soft launch of the IIIF specification for 3D – more to come on that in 2026!
During the week of 12-14 November 2024, I was also able to participate in the IIIF Online Meeting which provided an opportunity to the nearly 500 IIIF community members to engage virtually.
Out in the Community
I’ve also had the chance to meet with many of the community partners of IIIF. Though most of these meetings have been online, I’ve also had the opportunity to visit and give presentations for community members at The British Library, The National Archives (UK), the Wellcome Collections, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Cambridge University, The Flickr Foundation, The National Gallery of Art (U.S.), and Vanderbilt University.
6 New Members
The past year has also seen the IIIF Consortium add new members: the French Ministry of Culture, The National Archives (United Kingdom), the National Library of Finland, Systemik Solutions, KB National Library of the Netherlands (in conjunction with the Dutch Digital Network), and the University of Amsterdam.
Representing the IIIF Consortium
I’ve also represented the IIIF-C at the Colocate2 Unconference held 26-28 February 2025 in the David Rumsey Map Center at Stanford University Libraries. I also presented (virtually) on IIIF and the IIIF Consortium at the Simposio Internacional sobre Ciencia Abierta 2025 hosted by University of Havana (Cuba) on 28 May 2025.
Along with Glen Robson, I attended the 2024 Fantastic Futures(AI4LAM) conference in Canberra, hosted by the National National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. IIIF-C staff hosted a well attended IIIF Showcase for a primarily Australia and New Zealand audience; a hands-on IIIF workshop (by Glen Robson); and a Glycerine Workbench training (led by Ian McCrabb). The time in Australia also provided an opportunity for fruitful side meetings with colleagues in Canberra, Melbourne, and Sydney.
Other meetings included Futurescape Libraries: Mapping Possibilities for Tomorrow’s Information Hubs (7-8 December 2024); this workshop focused on identifying and analyzing the potential consequences, challenges, and opportunities that may arise from AI, specifically focusing on the ARL/CNI AI Scenarios: AI-Influenced Futures document (full document and related materials can be found at the preceding link). The meeting also provided a good networking opportunity with IIIF-C institutional partners. I also attended the CNI Fall 2024 Membership Meeting (9-10 December 2025).
Looking Ahead
Planning is already underway for the 2026 Online meeting (January 2026) and the 2026 Annual Meeting and Showcase (June 2026 in the Netherlands). I’m looking forward to seeing many of you at those meetings as well as the regular community group calls.
The first year at the IIIF Consortium had been a great opportunity to work with the skilled and knowledgeable staff (Caitlin Perry and Glen Robson), the members of the IIIF Consortium Executive Committee, and the thousands of community members from around the world.