ICMM ProgramICMM Program 

Dr Kim Sajet brings over 20 years-experience heading major cultural institutions and shaping museums as places for dialogue, scholarship and public engagement to her delivery of the keynote address on ‘courageous leadership’. Currently the Donna and Donald Baumgartner Director of the Milwaukee Art Museum, Dr Sajet previously served for 12 years as Director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The Washington Post described her significant achievements in this role as having ‘expanded the definition of portraiture and widened the scope of people considered worthy of representation in the nation’s portrait gallery’. 

Seb Chan, will be the keynote speaker for the theme, ‘Tomorrow’s Museum’. Director & CEO of ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) he has led the digital transformation of museums in the United States (Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum) and Australia (Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum and ACMI). His work has won international awards in the museum, design and media spheres. 
Seb serves on the international advisory board Art Science Museum (Singapore) and is a board member of the non-profit Tessitura Network (USA). He has also been an advisor to the National Museum of Australia, the National Heritage Board of Singapore, the Mellon Foundation’s Artstor and was a member of the Australian Government’s Gov2.0 Taskforce. In 2024, he was awarded the University of NSW Alumni Award for Art & Culture. In addition to his role at ACMI, he is Adjunct Professor in the School of Media and Communication, the College of Design and Social Context at RMIT. 

Hon Hieu Van Le AC is the Chair of the Council of the Australian National Maritime Museum. A former Governor of South Australia, he will deliver a keynote presentation focusing on his experiences of arriving by boat as a refugee from Vietnam in 1977. In addition to holding senior government positions, including as Deputy and later Chair of the South Australian Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Commission, he served as Lieutenant Governor for seven years before his appointment as Governor of South Australia in 2014. During his seven years in this role, Mr Le was patron of over 230 charitable and community organisations.

Mereoni Camailakeba will deliver a keynote exploring community engagement through an underwater archaeology lens, drawing on her work with the Fiji Museum. Grounded in Fiji’s identity as an oceanic nation, her presentation highlights the cultural significance of shipwrecks, sacred maritime landscapes and traditional seafaring knowledge in shaping historical understanding and contemporary identity. Emphasising community empowerment, capacity building and alignment with global standards such as the UNESCO 2001 Convention, her keynote positions Fiji as an active contributor to global maritime heritage discourse and presents a model for inclusive, locally grounded and sustainable heritage stewardship.

Sunday

14.00	Registration desk opens
16.00	Reception and registration: Australian National Maritime Museum

Monday

08.00	Registration
08:30	Welcome
09:00	Courageous Leadership Keynote + Q&A,  Dr Kim Sajet Director, Milwaukee Art Museum
09:45	Panel discussion featuring Kim Sajet, Carol Ann Scott and Enric Garcia-Domingo. Followed by a coffee break
10:45	Plenary session on Courageous Leadership featuring Larissa Nabuco Nogueira, Ulla Träs, Feng Zhao and Dmytro Kobaliia
12:00	Lunch
13:00	ICMM Greenhill-Johnston Life Fellow Award
13:15	Short presentations by Lars Amreus, Stirling Smith, Marco Ansaldo, Robert Rumble, Nurul Hamizah Afandi, Ian Murphy, Corioli Souter. Followed by networking break
14:45	Workshops, forums, panels and curatorial tours
16:30	Reception on the tall ship James Craig whilst sailing on Sydney Harbour

Tuesday 

09:00	Community Engagement Keynote + Q&A,  Mereoni Camailakeba, Fiji National Museum
09:45	Panel discussion featuring Mereoni Camailakeba, Andreia Conceicao and Zefeng You. Followed by a coffee break
10:45	Plenary session on Community Engagement featuring Anusha Kesarkar-Gavankar, Matthew Poll, Zwendeline Pieter and Jonathan Boulware
12:00	Lunch
13:15	Short presentations by Paul Stephanus, Catherine Phipps, Nina Bundgaard Trier, Vita Xu, Connie Ng, Daníel Péter Daníelsson, James Oluka, Anna Dentoni, Nia Ridwan and Zainab Thir. Followed by networking break
15:00	Workshops, forums, panels and curatorial tours
17:00	Australian Museum tour and reception

Wednesday

Historic Site Field Study Day

08:45	Quarantine Station Historic Site, Manly. Tour and lunch
14:00	Cockatoo Island Historic Site, Sydney Harbour West. Tour and early evening dinner

Thursday

09:00	Tomorrows Museum Keynote + Q&A, Seb Chan, Director, Australian Centre for the Moving Image
09:45	Panel discussion featuring Seb Chan followed by a coffee break
10:45	Plenary session on Tomorrow's Museums featuring Sarah Giersing, Jason Fair, Jeongsun Lee and Robert Domzal
12:00	Lunch
13:15	Short presentations by Matthew Tanner, Diana Lorentz, Shannon McKenzie, Nanette Louchart-Fletcher, James Boyd, Dong-sik Woo, Valérie Vattier, Vanusa Moraes and Tomasz Bednarz. Followed by networking break
15:00	Workshops, forums, panels and curatorial tours
17:00	State Library maps and charts exhibition and drinks

Friday 

09:00	Inclusion & Belonging Keynote + Q&A, Hieu Van Le, Chairman, Australian National Maritime Museum
09:45	Panel discussion featuring Panel Discussion: Hieu Van Le, Roland Leikauf and Christina Connett Brophy. Followed by a coffee break
10:45	Short presentations by Andrés Rodrigo, Caroline Nelson, Richard Wesley and Paul Stephanus
11:30	ICMM Life Fellowship Award
12:00	Lunch
13:15	ICMM General meeting
14:30	Round up and reflection
15:00	Free afternoon
18:00	Gala dinner at Australian National Maritime Museum