This message contains time-critical information. Please read it now. The 2006 Annual Meeting and Symposium of the Taxonomic Databases Working Group will be held at the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, from 15 - 22 October 2006. The meeting web site can be accessed here: http://tdwg2006.tdwg.org/ The Theme of the Symposium is Building Biodiversity Data Applications * From Nomenclators to managing inconsistent taxonomies (including Zoobank, IPNI, etc.) * Species Banks and the taxonomic work process (including EDIT) * Integrating & sharing biotic information * "Boxed" Solutions * Applications and Standards for Invasive Species * Applications and Standards for Conservation Additional Themes for the Meeting will include (in no particular order): * The new TDWG Infrastructure * New and emerging standards * Integrating standards * Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs) * Imaging * Ontologies & semantics * Data representation languages (UML, BNF, RDF, XML) * Biodiversity Heritage Library The Meeting will also include presentation of the work of TDWG Subgroups/Interest Groups, with working sessions during the week. For details of current TDWG Subgroups please visit the main TDWG web site. Registration is open now. There is an active link on the Registration Page to the RegOnline system which is handling registration for the meeting and has further links to discount booking at the recommended hotel and discount car rental. The deadline for hotel discount is 14 July 2006. A late registration penalty fee will apply after 14 July 2006. Abstracts for presentations by delegates are invited. Please see the Abstracts Page for details and Instructions for Authors. Abstracts MUST be submitted in the required format and MUST be received by 20 August 2006. Priority in the busy meeting schedule will be given to abstracts received by 15 July 2006. All abstracts will be peer reviewed. Please accept our apologies for cross-posting if you receive this message more than once. On behalf of the TDWG Executive I would like to welcome you to TDWG 2006 and look forward to seeing you in St. Louis. Regards, Adrian