EXPERIENCES OF A LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS COMMITTEE FOR A LARGE SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE

This paper describes the history and organization of the combined conference of the VI International Solanaceae Conference, the 90^th Annual Meeting of the Potato Association of America and the III Solanaceae Genomics Conference of the Solanaceae Genomics Network. The unifying theme of these three groups is the science of the Solanaceae. The theme of the SolanaceaeConference: Genomics Meets Biodiversity, describes the goal of integrating all phases of Solanaceae science with the emerging field of genomics. This goal is fostered by the parallel DNA sequencing efforts of both the tomato and potato genomes. This paper details the challenges and opportunities of organizing a scientific conference, shows statistics of the conference, and provide insights in ways to make future conferences easier to organize.