The International Social Housing Festival (ISHF) 2025, held in Dublin, brought more than 2,000 global delegates together to explore hard-hitting housing themes—affordability, retrofitting, climate resilience, and accessibility. At the heart of the event was a strategic aim to build lasting social impact, executed through a deeply human “tenant’s voice” initiative.
Fáilte Ireland’s Legacy Toolkit underpinned this storytelling mission, setting a model for conferences seeking measurable community outcomes. As part of this, the Oral History Project captured six deeply personal stories from social housing residents. These narratives—collected through face-to-face interviews—have been archived on ISHF’s website as a permanent resource, and will shape future editions of the Festival worldwide.
For associations, the ISHF 2025 model offers a powerful blueprint: design events that do more than inform—events that amplify lived experience, build collective memory, and embed legacy through tangible resources. When destinations and organizers prioritize social impact alongside program planning, conferences become platforms for unity, empathy, and long-term relevance.
