This year’s staff conference took place over three days in Amsterdam, where we went to how companies in other countries manage their archives. The entire staff participated - and we were also joined on all our visits by Vrunda Pathare,Chief Archivist at the Indian industrial group Godrej, who provided additional, valuable international perspectives.
Following an initial conference session on Wednesday, Thursday’s study visit took the group to the banking giant ING. At Lemelerbergweg, archivists Eva Vreeburgand Jacoline Bodewes provided an overview of the bank’s corporate historical archives, ING Corporate Historical Archive. The visit offered insights into how one of the world’s leading financial groups structures and brings to life its centuries-old heritage—spanning everything from early merchant and savings banks to a modern, large-scale digital bank.
We spent Thursday afternoon at Heineken, hosted by chief (hi)storyteller and head of archives Demelza van der Maas . We gained a comprehensive overview by visiting the brewery's historic headquarters, its internal archives and artifact collection, and the public-facing Heineken Experience Center. It was a combination that demonstrated how robust archival work and commercial storytelling can work in tandem—ranging from the meticulous preservation of source material at headquarters to interactive, experience-based "history marketing" within the historic brewery itself.
Friday was dedicated to world-class financial history at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (Euronext Amsterdam), the world's oldest still active stock exchange. At Beursplein 5, we were guided by the archivist Siebert Weitenberg through the collections, managed by the foundation Stichting Capital Amsterdam (SCA). Studying the original documents from early stock and bond trading provided methodological inspiration—and historical awe.
It was a trip that provided deeper professional insights and concrete examples of how corporate history is managed and communicated internationally. (In addition, CEO Anders Sjöman had, just days prior, attended the annual conference of the ICA Section on Business Archives, held this year in Brussels.) We gained knowledge and inspiration to carry forward into our work back home.
