On 8 July 2021, the Devawongse Varopakarn Institute of Foreign Affairs launched a DVIFA Sharing Knowledge Programme by organizing a special virtual lecture on the topic "Designing Community Museum and Community Tourism.” by Mr. Suthipong Suriya, Managing Director of Khab Style Co., Ltd. and founder of the Community Museum in So Phisai District, Bueng Kan Province as a speaker. The special lecture was intended to empower the Ministry’s officials with skills, knowledge and mindsets necessary for achieving self-development through lifelong learning as well as to promote the image of the Ministry as a learning organization.  Ms. Wiraka Moodhitaporn, Director of the Devawongse Varopakarn Institute of Foreign Affairs, gave a welcome speech and attended the special lecture.

               The speaker provided the audience with an overview of community museums and community tourism, with a special focus on his founded community museum in So Phisai District Bueng Kan Province.  He highlighted the significance of Naga God and ethno-linguistic diversity in northern Isarn region as a source of his inspiration for community museum, explaining how local people appreciated and successfully translated some of their cultural heritage, social memory and local wisdom into a more tangible form of cultural assets and how the community museum generated incomes among local people, easing the local problem of unemployment, driving and diversifying local economy.  This kind of tourism is quite recent.  However, it is gaining recognition.  Moreover, the community museum can create opportunities for people of the next generation to learn and preserve their culture and local wisdom in order to enrich their life.  The community museum also forms a basis for adding value to their local tourism and education.

               At the end of his presentation, Suthipong Suriya answered questions from the audience and shared his experience with the audience, reiterating the fact that sharing cultural heritage is the best way to preserve it as this helps slow down the process where our culture is dying out.