Global Academic Leadership

Headline Keynotes, Plenary Addresses & Policy Summits

Most Recent Keynote

18 September 2026. Hong Kong Baptist University.
Digital Soft Power of Heritage Media in the Age of AI

Associate Professor Natalia Grincheva delivered keynote at the 4th Forum on Digital Dissemination and Innovative Development of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH Forum 2026), held on 18–19 September 2026 at the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) campus. Centered on the theme "Intangible Cultural Heritage in the AI Age: Strategic Communication, Innovation, and Global Engagement," the address provided an exclusive sneak peek into Prof Grincheva's forthcoming monograph, Digital Soft Power of Heritage Media.

The presentation critically interrogated how heritage institutions' global media strategies are reshaped by artificial intelligence, moving beyond conventional platformization paradigms to re-evaluate digital soft power across content, audiences, and narratives. It examined how generative multi-modal models transform digitized heritage, how online audiences become algorithmically mediated co-creators, and how curated narratives face contestation within automated, post-truth digital ecosystems. Drawing on empirical computational insights from the Data to Power mapping platform and smart cultural data intelligence frameworks, the keynote deconstructed the algorithmic governance shaping contemporary cultural diplomacy. Ultimately, it exposed the risks of digital drain and algorithmic censorship alongside participatory possibilities, offering a nuanced critique of how heritage media can ethically navigate generative AI across fragmented geopolitical landscapes.

Keynotes & Plenaries

  1. 2026 Digital Soft Power of Heritage Media in the Age of AI. Presented at the 4th Forum on Digital Dissemination and Innovative Development of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, SAR.
  2. 2025 Beyond Artificial Intelligence: Connecting Data, Culture, and Community through Creative Smart City Nexus. Presented at the 22nd Urban Forum, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
  3. 2024 Mediatization of diplomacy and soft power evaluations: Mapping soft power of global contraflows. Presented online at the Plenary session of the Conference Mediatization versus Datafication: Dialogue of Competition?. Lublin, Poland.
  4. 2023 Smart Heritage in Smart Cities: Towards Intelligent Data Infrastructures. Presented at the Communicating the Arts Conference. Singapore.
  5. 2022 The Past, Present and Future of Cultural Diplomacy. Presented online at the international academic conference "Cultural Diplomacy and Cultural Relations: Strengthening Fair Cooperation, Diversity and Dialogue". Belgrade, Serbia.
  6. 2020 How to Connect and Build Relationships in the Digital Age? The Digital Shift: Digital & AI Week, EU National Institutes for Culture, Brussels, Belgium.
  7. 2020 Playing with Museum Data: Advancing Digital Humanities Research from Data Aggregation to Data Intelligence. Online Showcase: Approaches to Digital Humanities for Researchers. Melbourne, Australia.
  8. 2020 Digital diplomacy and soft power of museums. Presented at the ICOM UK Conference in the Digital Soft Power Section "Can Museums and Galleries Save UK Diplomacy? Soft Power in Turbulent Times". Leeds, UK.
  9. 2018 Boom of the Museum Industry in China. Presented at the Asia Education Foundation & the Confucius Institute, Melbourne, Australia.
  10. 2017 International Policy Issues in Cultural Entrepreneurship: Who Set Global Cultural Agenda? Cultural Entrepreneurship Program, Cultural Infusion Inc., Melbourne, Australia.
  11. 2016 Cultural Heritage Spaces as Sites of Cultural Diplomacy. Presented at the Annual Policy Research Group Meeting at Canadian Heritage, Government of Canada, Ottawa, Canada.

Connect on

LinkedIn

Watch on

YouTube

Write to

Click to reveal