If you answered that they are all existing events which were taken under the Highland 2007 Year of Culture banner, you would be correct.

However, this week it emerged there is another link. They have now been appropriated by Homecoming Scotland 2009 and feature in its new brochure as part of the Highlands' contribution to the Scottish Government-funded jamboree. This is perhaps not surprising as Fiona Hampton, who headed the Highland 2007 organising team, is also leading Homecoming Scotland in the region.

But is simply sticking a logo on events which are already established and claiming they are "planned as part of next year's Homecoming Scotland celebrations" really the way to get local people excited by, and involved in, what is meant to be a high profile national celebration?

A scan through the programme finds only a handful of genuinely new events taking place in the Inverness area, certainly far fewer than in the Central Belt, even though many of the people the initiative is primarily aimed at — people of Scots descent living abroad — trace their roots back to this region.

The notable exception is a conference, Scotland's Global Impact, which will bring historians and other experts to Inverness in October to discuss the impact Scots have had on the rest of the world. While perhaps not a crowd puller in itself, the accompanying programme of exhibitions and talks should prove of wider interest, if properly promoted.

As an initiative Homecoming Scotland, first suggested by the previous Labour/Liberal Democrat administration at Holyrood and picked up enthusiastically by the SNP, is a sound enough idea to boost the tourist trade and should be helped by the weakness of sterling. To be successful it must appeal to exiles' sense of history and belonging as well as generating interest amongst Scots themselves. Unfortunately, in the Highlands at least, it is some way from achieving that. Little is being made of our clan heritage, a subject people of Scots descent abroad often follow more keenly than we do ourselves and a guaranteed draw, yet there is no shortage of ideas..

During the summer specific weeks could be designated to individual clans and a range of events staged over seven days in that clan's traditional area. Existing clan societies would enable marketing to be highly focused with, for instance, all the Urquharts around the world being encouraged to descend on the Black Isle for a week in June.

In this way local people might also be actively involved, arranging ceilidhs and decorating villages in readiness for the week-long invasion. Areas could even compete against each other to put on the best show for their visitors.

None of this need be expensive.

What it does need is fresh thinking and imagination. And that is lacking in a brochure which could almost be a reprint of the Highland 2007 programme.

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