The papers in this issue were first presented at the interdisciplinary conference “Applied Cultural Heritage: How telling the past at historic sites benefits society” held at Linnaeus University in Kalmar, Sweden, 17-19 November 2010. The conference was organised jointly by Linnaeus University, Kalmar County Museum and Bridging Ages, International Organisation in Historic Environment Education and Time Travels. The aim of the conference was to explore how cultural heritage and stories about the past benefit society today. Given the major changes of society in recent decades and a fast developing globalisation, we proposed that it is no longer self-evident which historic sites are meaningful (and to whom), which stories about the past should be told (and why), and how cultural heritage can best benefit society (and what that means). It was therefore time to ask these questions anew and explore them together with practitioners in the heritage sector from around the world.