"Trends" Organizes a seminar "Preserving cultural heritage in the digital age" Within the Hong Kong Book Fair
Hong Kong, July 19, 2017 – Trends Global, a subsidiary of the Trends Group, organized a panel discussion entitled “Preserving Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age: How Youth Are Redefining Heritage,” as part of its participation in the Hong Kong International Book Fair 2026, and under the umbrella of cultural and knowledge diplomacy.
The seminar, which was held at the Trends Pavilion at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, in the presence of Sheikh Saud bin Ali Al Mualla, Consul General of the UAE in Hong Kong, and a number of academics, researchers, and those interested in identity and digital technology, brought together an elite group of young research cadres at Trends, along with leaders of Islamic youth and cultural work in Hong Kong, to discuss how to enable the new digital generation to use future tools, such as artificial intelligence and interactive platforms, to protect… The authenticity of the past, and making the cultural heritage alive and circulating between generations.
Trends Center researchers, Rawda Al Marzouqi, Head of the Distribution and Exhibitions Sector, Warda Al Menhali, Head of the Corporate Communications Sector, Zayed Al Dhaheri, Director of the Distribution Department, and Hazza Al Hammadi, Director of the Exhibitions Department, confirmed that the UAE provides an inspiring model in balancing authenticity and modernity, pointing out that technology is no longer just a tool for luxury, but has become the “new infrastructure” through which national and cultural identities will cross into the future, provided that young people consciously lead this process. And responsibility.
Ibrahim Set, Director of the Islamic Cultural Society of Hong Kong, and Abdul Aziz Ma, Vice President of the Islamic Youth Society of Hong Kong, presented a working paper that focused on the unique challenges facing cultural and religious identities in multicultural societies, noting that the digital space represents an opportunity to build “museums without walls” that introduce global communities to shared human values and authentic heritage.
The seminar’s topics were divided into three main tracks. The first dealt with artificial intelligence as a guardian of heritage and a protector of memory. The second discussed the role of social media platforms and the concept of the “open museum,” and the third, under the title “Youth as the New Narrators of History,” focused on the moral and historical responsibility placed on young people.
Participants in the panel discussion called on research centers and knowledge institutions to cooperate with programming companies to develop artificial linguistic intelligence models (LLMs) specialized in reviving and preserving local languages and heritage dialects that are threatened with extinction, and recommended launching joint training programs to qualify young people in the fields of heritage journalism and digital documentation, and to enable them to produce attractive and scientifically documented cultural content.
Participants also called for the development of digital protocols and “smart watermarks” to protect digitally archived historical images and documents from forgery or manipulation using deepfake techniques, and for the establishment of a joint interactive youth digital platform that brings together young researchers from the Middle East and East Asia, with the aim of exchanging experiences in the field of digitizing heritage, and promoting the values of human tolerance and cultural coexistence.
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