Registration for TDWG 2008 is now open at www.TDWG.org/conference2008/registration. The conference will be held at the Maritime Museum of Western Australia in Fremantle, about 20km southwest of Perth.

Details about the conference can be found on the TDWG site at http://www.tdwg.org/conference2008/. Note: The AUS$80 discount for registration will expire September 6.

There is a wide range of accommodation available in Fremantle within easy walking distance to the museum. But, as Fremantle is small, there is not a lot of any one type of accommodation available. The 4.5 star Esplanade Hotel has discounted rates for the conference (quote "Biodiversity of Information Standards 2008"). A cost-effective option for Fremantle is to share a house or apartment. Most of these are close to the venue but you will have to book quickly as there are only a limited number available. Please see http://www.tdwg.org/conference2008/accommodation/ for all conference details and use our Wiki http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/Conferences/SharedAccommodation to help find others who could share accommodation with you.

The outline of the conference program can be found at http://www.tdwg.org/conference2008/program. Session Chairs are being identified and are now seeking presenters. If you wish to present an oral presentation, a poster or a computer-based demonstration, please contact the relevant Session Chair as soon as possible as they will be identifying speakers for their sessions.

The program this year will centre around a the Atlas of Living Australia (Wednesday October 22). TDWG is keen to understand and to support this significant project. There is also a number of tutorials (session 8 and repeated session 13) that are aimed at presenting key TDWG activities in simple terms. Early registration for these tutorials would be appreciated. Please contact Adrian Rissone (a.rissone(at)nhm.ac.uk) for any other program details and lee(at)tdwg.org for any other information.

Lee Belbin
TDWG Secretariat