The upcoming XXV International Congress of Entomology will be held in Orlando, Florida, 25-30 September 2016* http://ice2016orlando.org/. Many in TDWG are entomologists (or know entomologists, or count them as friends), and this Congress is a chance for those of us working with biodiversity information standards to reach a wider group of entomologists from around the world and to share information and experiences.

I am one of three conveners for Section 5: Biodiversity, Biogeography and Conservation Biology http://ice2016orlando.org/scientific-program/sections-conveners/. So far only two symposia have been submitted for this section, and the deadline is fast approaching (2 March 2015) http://ice2016orlando.org/call-for-symposia-for-the-2016-international-congr....

Nico Franz is soliciting potential speakers for a symposium he is organizing with Katja Seltmann http://taxonbytes.org/ice-2016-orlando-symposium-proposal-building-the-biodi... under Section 5, and I’d would love to see additional TDWG-related symposia submitted.

This is a wonderful opportunity to feature and involve colleagues from around the globe at this venue. Please consider submitting a proposal for a symposium by the deadline (or earlier!!). Please contact me if you might be interested in submitting a symposium proposal, have an appropriate topic you want to hear, or even if you have a talk you’re thinking about presenting within the theme of Biodiversity, Biogeography and Conservation Biology.

All the best, Gail

* P.S. For us in the United States, we’re very excited to be bringing the Congress back to the US for the first time since our country’s bicentennial in 1976. I wasn’t even an entomologist then, but I was working with one of the first efforts to convert a traditional library card catalog into something digital (complete with acoustic coupler modem on a phone handset) at the Boston Public Library. Who knew?

Gail E. Kampmeier Illinois Natural History Survey Prairie Research Institute University of Illinois 1816 So. Oak St. Champaign, IL 61820 www.inhs.illinois.edu/~gkamphttp://www.inhs.illinois.edu/~gkamp