World Forum for Motor Museums

A biennial meeting for motor museum professionals, principals, owners and collectors.

 

 

Contacts

Micheal Penn – Chairman  contact
World Forum for Motor Museum

Wim Van Roy – Vice Chairmancontact
Mahymobiles, Belgium

Andrea Bishop  contact
National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, UK

Stephen Laing  contact
British Motor Industry Heritage Trust, UK

Sébastien de Baere contact
Autoworld, Brussels, Belgium

Colin Kiel  contact
Australasian Motor Museum Association (Australia and New Zealand)

Mark Vargas  contact
Americas Packard Museum, USA

Masahiro Nogi  contact
Toyota Automobile Museum, Japan

MISSION STATEMENT

To provide an international forum for meeting and exchanging knowledge with those who share a passion for motoring heritage, putting a global perspective on the issues and challenges facing motor museums throughout the world.

History

The World Forum for Motor Museums arose out of a proposal by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu and Michael Ware, Director of the National Motor Museum in summer 1988. They proposed a gathering of museum directors and curators that specifically collected and displayed road transport vehicles as their main objective.

 

Michael Ware consulted members of the National Motor Museum Advisory Council in particular Peter Mitchell, Managing Director of the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust, about the organisation and content of the proposed conference.

 

The first World Forum for Motor Museums entitled ‘The Way Ahead’ was held at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu UK in September 1989 and was attended by 104 delegated from twenty one countries. It proved to be an outstanding success and all the delegates proposed that the Forum should be held every two years hosted each time by a different museum.

 

The Motor Museum at Beaulieu (Michael Ware) acted as the co-ordinating body and supported and advised the staff of the museum selected to host the next conference on both the content and organisation of the Forum.

 

This system worked well until Michael Ware retired and the experience and processes were lost. It became apparent that this totally informal arrangement was not really satisfactory and it was decided at the Forum held in Paris that there should be a formalised Forum Secretariat established.

 

Peter Mitchell took over the role of Chairman of the World Forum Secretariat, but retired at the end of 2008 when Michael Penn of the Haynes International Motor Museum took over the Chairmanship. Currently the Secretariat has a panel of eight experienced members and grows by one every time the Forum is held.

 

The Forum has discussed matters as diverse as lock construction and the psychology of marketing but generally debates common problems and solutions encountered during the day to day running and development of motor museums world wide.