On August 11 - 12 a small workshop was held at St Fagans National History Museum, Wales, attended by four contributors from the Netherlands, Italy and Germany as well as Wales. The aim of this diverse group was to begin thinking about the issues which face Archaeological Open-Air Museums and to discuss how some of these can be addressed by OpenArch over the coming years.

Discussions took place at St Fagans in the morning of the 11th, and continued in the afternoon during a trip to Llancaiach Fawr manor house, whose focus on living history provided much stimulus for debate.

The principle issues under discussion were the ways in which the value of Archaeological Open-Air Museums could be assessed and increased professionalism assured. Potential measures of value included cultural, academic, social and economic with a particular concern being the ways in which AOAMs could communicate their value in order to ensure their continued existence at a time of economic stress.

This initial workshop was deliberately kept small so as to encourage brainstorming, but it is the intention to increase the number of contributors quickly so as to get a wider range of opinions on the issues discussed.