The World Canals Conference (WCC) is an annual conference about canals and other waterways worldwide. The first conference took place in 1988, and the 2019 conference was the thirty-second. People with an interest in canals gather together to learn more about them, to exchange views, and to enjoy and celebrate successful canal restoration projects.
The organisation has undergone some name changes. The conference in 1988 was known as the "First National Conference on Historic Canals". In 1990, the "national" gave way to the "International Conference on Historic Canals", and in 1996 it became the World Canals Conference.
Attendees
The conferences are attended by large numbers of canal professionals, tourism experts and academics, as well as many canal enthusiasts and boaters, from all over the world. Their particular concerns and interests include:
preservation
restoration
urban and rural economic regeneration
sustainable development
ways of attracting tourists
education and interpretation
involvement of volunteers and the community
The Conference programme duly addresses these interests by providing a varied lecture programme and relevant excursions to local canal projects.
The prospectus of the 2007 Conference in Liverpool (see external link below) offers not only lectures, including on the Anderton Boat Lift, the Tate Liverpool canal warehouse conversion to a museum, the Liverpool Canal Link and the Roubaix Canal, but also local excursions and site visits, e.g. Manchester's Castlefield canals, Stalybridge on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, and the Barton Swing Aqueduct on the Manchester Ship Canal.
Further afield, there were trips to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, the Chirk Aqueduct, the Llangollen Canal and the Montgomery Canal restoration project.
Year, location and theme
1988 Illinois & Michigan Canal
1989 Delaware Canal
1990 Rideau Canal, National Historic Site of Canada
1991 Ohio & Erie Canal, a National Heritage Corridor in the US
1992 Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, a National Historic Park in the US
1993 Shubenacadie Canal, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
1994 Trent-Severn Waterway, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
1995 Augusta Canal, a National Heritage Area
1996 Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
1997 Blackstone River Valley, a National Heritage Corridor in the US
1998 Illinois & Michigan Canal
1999 Lille, France and La Louvière, Belgium
2000 New York State Canal System, Rochester, NY
2001 Dublin, Republic of Ireland, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
2002 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
2003 Scottish canals, Scotland, United Kingdom
2004 Welland Canal, St Catharines, Ontario, Canada
2005 Sweden Theme: "Six Canals in Six Days" 2006 Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, US Theme: "Industry to recreation: Greening the Coal Canals" 2007 Liverpool, England, United Kingdom 2008 Rideau Canal, Kingston, Ontario, Canada - Theme: "Managing Canal Corridors in the 21st Century" 2009 Novi Sad, Serbia 2010 Rochester, New York 2011 Groningen, the Netherlands 2012 Granal Canal, China 2013 Canal du Midi, Toulouse, France 2014 Milan, Italy 2015 Ghent, Belgium 2016 Inverness, Scotland 2017 Syracuse, NY, USA 2018 Athlone, Ireland 2019 Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China
External links
[http://www.inlandwaterwaysinternational.org/world-canals-conference
World Canals Conferences 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007
Towpath Topics - Report on 1999 Conference in Lille and La Louvière
PDF document on 2001 WCC Ireland
Report in WCC 2003 by Scottish Government
Clippings from the 2003 WCC in Ontario
WCC 2005 Sweden website
Report by IWA on the 2007 WCC at Liverpool
Prospectus of the 2007 WCC at Liverpool
World Canals Conference 2008
Official website of The World Canals Conference 2008 in Canada (Colloque international sur les canaux 2008) WCC 2008 slides and talks Site of the Rideau Canal National Historic Site of Canada