FOCAL Festival of Archives 2026 Panels

Explore a series of expert-led panels at the FOCAL Festival of Archives 2026 in Association with Reuters Connect. Covering topics from archive storytelling and rights clearance to digitisation strategy and the future of regional collections, these sessions offer valuable insights from across the industry.

Spaces are limited, and festival attendees are required to register in advance via the link on this page.

Don't have your Festival of Archives ticket? Secure your place today here.

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10:30 AM | 'One to One: John and Yoko' - from Concept to Clearance?

One to One: John and Yoko is an immersive film made almost entirely from archive material, which won the FOCAL Award Music category in 2025. This discussion reviews all aspects of the material in the film from the restored concert footage that initiated the production through to the obscure TV clips that illustrate the wider world that John and Yoko were watching at that time.

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12:15 PM | Then and Now: How Today's Headlines Shape Tomorrow's Archive

In this panel, Helen Walker and Rory Carruthers from the Reuters Archive Team explore how the contemporary news cycle can serve as a guide for archive digitisation strategy. Rather than working through collections chronologically or by condition alone, they have found that both today's headlines and tomorrow's anniversaries offer a useful framework for prioritising what we digitise and when we make it available.

From re-digitised 16mm footage of the Iranian Revolution to images captured by the Reuters News Picture Service during the Tanker War, we'll explore how developments in Iran, and upcoming anniversaries, have shaped what is currently coming into focus in the archive.

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2:30 PM | Regional Archives - Value and Viability: Sustaining and Sharing Unique Stories

How regional archives can generate income while remaining publicly accountable and firmly values-led.

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