Leaping into the second decade of the 21st century, museums from all corners of the world have witnessed irrevocable changes brought about by technological innovations such as smartphones, tablets, cloud-computing, big data, among others. The advent of social media that comes along with these contrivances has further reshaped the lives of different generations of people who have become increasingly attuned to issues in information and media literacy as well as environmental and global cultural awareness, all made possible by the popular as ever web-savvy information-searching skills and data mining techniques.

Traditionally hailed as venerable bastions of culture and heritage, museums that have been widely glorified in the past centuries are now facing a whole new set of challenges. Against the backdrop of shifting demographics, evolving visitor expectations and ever-escalating technologies, museums may have to rethink and rework their spaces and programmes to provide a more profound understanding of their collections and at the same time allow greater interactivity with a wide range of audiences.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department is proud to present for the first time an international Museum Summit with the theme “Museums in a New Era” on 26-27 June 2017 in Hong Kong in association with the Palace Museum. The Summit invites leading figures and professionals from world-renowned museum institutions of different streams across the globe to share with summit participants their precious experiences and insights on a wide array of topics, as well as their visions and blueprints in the face of the challenges in the new era. It will be a never-to-be-missed opportunity for museum professionals and cohorts to meet, to share, to inspire and to connect.