Herbert Münder, Ecsite president

Thirty years ago the European science centre field was a confidential but very rapidly growing stage.

Convinced that learning from each would help them serve their audiences better, two dozen European science centres founded their own professional exchange hub: Ecsite, the European network of science centres and museums, was born.

In three decades, membership numbers have grown exponentially. In spite of this impressive growth and diversification beyond Ecsite's "historic" science centre and science museum membership, the founding values of cooperation, openness, professionalism, generosity and diversity are intact.

Mirroring the network's gestation that took multiple gatherings and several revolutions around the Sun, thirty years later we decided to grant ourselves the luxury of time: the whole science engagement field is invited to an anniversary season that started last year and is spanning the next several months.

This is an invitation to celebrate, reflect and act. Of course we take pride in our accomplishments and cheered together at the 2019 Ecsite Conference in June. But we are also using this opportunity to look ahead and shape the future, building on our strategic insights and collective creativity.