OPF would like to thank our members for their attendance and participation in the OAG.  We hope to see and meet you all at future events! 

Yesterday the first OPF Advisory Group took place! It was the perfect opportunity to bring together some brilliant minds and share enthusiasm amongst the digital preservation community. 

Our first challenge was getting our team to the JISC offices in time. This provided the epitome of the UK experience of delays, detours, and preventative LFTs. This only went to serve how brilliant the opportunity was for hybrid engagement to the event. 

It was great to see some of our members in the flesh, including staff from the National Archives (who will be sharing their work on PRONOM later this Summer) and some familiar faces from the National Archives of the Netherlands (who managed to arrive with no wild mishaps to share from their trans-European train adventure!)

After a lengthy discussion about the benefits of the Stroopwafel over our delicious lunch (courtesy of Jisc), the OAG was underway!

The inaugural meeting was the first hybrid event from OPF, as we attempt to continue fostering a culture of trust and belonging. We are grateful for this opportunity, which allowed for a greater reach of attendees, and for virtual and live members to connect in a shared space. 

A note on hybridity – a microphone mishap or two was dutifully handled; following a two-year pandemic, we all continue to retool our skills for future hybrid work!

Welcomed by our Executive Director, Julie Allen, the afternoon event was off to a warm start. As a member-only forum, the OAG was intended as a platform to update members on our work, and give them a greater say on developing our tools, special interest groups, and knowledge-sharing initiatives.

Carl spearheaded the conversations on product development, and Charlotte spoke of the various approaches to our member groups. Julie’s later wrangling of the final agenda notes established our new staff, and rolled out our new hopes for product champions and group leaders for a more consistent engagement with products and efforts between members and staff. 

The event was rounded up with a dinner at Wardrobe for those attending in person. For many of us, this was the first physical get-together with colleagues since 2019, and it was great to catch up on all things digipres (and not), over a nice meal and a beer.

It was pivotal to us that the OAG provided the opportunity for members to shape future events. Throughout, attendees were encouraged to have their say about OPFs priorities moving forward. Member feedback from the event has given us food for thought for future endeavours, and subsequent OAGs.

Overwhelmingly attendees enjoyed their time and found it helpful. We welcome you to reach out to us to share your ideas or expectations of our future events. 

But, for now, the OAG is something we have considered a success; creating a sense of togetherness and collaboration has been paramount. In future events, we hope to continue with larger, more in-person meetings and celebrations. We are grateful for this event to have happened so successfully, and to have seen so many participants. 

Earlier events from the day were a Github training session. The slides for this session will be available to members shortly, and we will be posting some of our reflections on this part of the event in an upcoming blog!