Reflecting on the past two years, we feel incredibly fortunate to have led the CIPA EP community through a unique period of transition, from predominantly online activities during the global pandemic to finally being able to meet and collaborate in person. It has been a privilege to connect with Emerging Professionals from around the world, whether online or at various workshops and conferences: from PYTDR and ICOMOS EPWG online events, to the CIPA Spring School in Montecatini, CIPA2023 in Florence, ISDH2023 in South Korea, Joe’s lecture at CIMS in Ottawa, the APT workshop in Ithaca, CHCD2024 in Beijing, and the APT-NT Joint Conference in Montreal, among others.

We are truly grateful for the experiences, opportunities, and connections we have made as Co-Coordinators of this vibrant group. We want to thank the leadership of our colleagues in helping us to grow our CIPA EP initiatives and impact the CIPA community. The Present Your Thesis / Dissertation / Research (PYTDR) organizing team has worked hard to provide a platform for EPs to get valuable feedback and mentorship from our CIPA Experts, which has helped to further their research and/or gain confidence for defenses. The Interviews team has highlighted Expert and EP members within our community, and will be broadening this initiative in the new year. Collectively, our EPs have shared their academic and professional journeys at CIPA and CHCD symposia sessions to encourage other EPs to get involved and follow their passions for heritage documentation in meaningful ways. They have also individually represented CIPA EP at many international conferences this year and have shared their reflections and experiences with the EP community. The WeChat team has diligently translated and shared many CIPA and EP posts to increase our outreach to the Asia-Pacific membership. Our EPs within ICOMOS have made connections with their National Committees, other ISCs, and within ICOMOS EPWG, and our ISPRS EPs have fostered connections within Technical Commissions and the Student Consortium, and we enthusiastically anticipate the collaborations that will come from these efforts.

To our CIPA EP Leadership Team, whether you’ve been with us since the founding in 2019, or have recently joined us this year, we wholeheartedly thank you for enriching our lives and experience as CIPA EP Co-Coordinators. Margarita, Dina, Lydia, Thomas, Dani, Saanchi, Elyse, Hyeseung, Chloe, Anjo, Anna, Bindu, Dongqing, Fangming, Hyeong Rok, Jianzhuo, Kemuning, Lu, Malak, Matthias, Nefeli, Pedro, Renata, Shuyi, Stacy, Xiaoxu, Yogi, Zobia, and Jiayao, thank you, and know that this is not the end of our collaboration! We look forward to seeing Margarita and Yogender take the CIPA EP community to new heights, and we hope to continue crossing paths with you all in the future.