ICOM SUSTAIN, the International Council of Museums' committee on museums and sustainable development, has opened free registration for its 2026 annual conference and published the full programme, bringing together speakers from 26 countries for a 12-hour online gathering on Thursday 19 November 2026.

The conference, titled "Museums for Our Futures: Adapt, Regenerate, Sustain", runs from 08:00 to 20:00 UTC in three three-hour blocks, each built around a keynote, a panel discussion and short lightning talks. Melissa Malu, head of Pasifika collections and engagement at the Australian Museum in Sydney, opens the Adapt block; Fabio Scarano, professor of ecology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and UNESCO Chair on Futures Literacy at the Museum of Tomorrow, leads the Regenerate block; and Prossy Nanyondo, manager of the Railway Museum in Uganda, closes the day with the Sustain block.

Sessions range from climate leadership and the world's first zero-energy digital exhibition to circular approaches to exhibition reuse, collection care in the Gulf, and Indigenous knowledge in collecting practice. Lightning rounds in each block give three-minute slots to researchers and practitioners from countries including Vietnam, India, Cyprus, Brazil, Zambia and Jamaica, covering subjects from flood management and riverine heritage to carbon governance and the reuse of industrial buildings as museums. SUSTAIN's annual general assembly sits in the midday gap, from 12:00 to 13:30 UTC, and is open for anyone to attend, although only members can vote.

Registration is free through Eventbrite, and the committee is encouraging museums to form local watch groups to follow the stream together. The event is open to participants worldwide, with a time-zone chart published alongside the schedule to help attendees plan which sessions to join.