There is no interruption since the first one
in St. Louis, Missouri, USA in 1954, then in Honolulu, London, Singapore,
Long Beach, Sydney, Medellin, Frankfurt, Bangkok, Durban, Miami, Tokyo,
Auckland, Glasgow, Rio de Janeiro, Vancouver, Shah Alam (Malaysia) and
Dijon.
The 19th is scheduled for Miami Beach in Florida, USA in February/March 2008 (http://www.19WOC.com) and the 20th for Singapore in September 2011. France-Orchidées was the organism responsible for the 18th WOC and the president is Mrs. Vinciane Dumont. Mrs. Vinciane Dumont and her European team made this event a success: Mrs. Micheline Rusterholz (for the lecturers and authors of posters), Jean-Jacques Beguin (site), Danou De Cordier (mail) , Rik Neyrinck (judgment), Jean-Michel Vieillard (Editions and promotion), Philippe Lecoufle (Show), Anne-Marie Gabriel (Exhibitors) and Jean-Pierre Fourlon (Customs). In the opening of the Conference, Mrs. Vinciane Dumont and Mrs. Joyce Stewart, as the President of the World Orchid Conference Trust, gave the Welcome Message to all participants. The program were intense and 75 world-renowned speakers and expert orchidists coming from more than 30 countries presented more than 70 lectures concerned many scientific subjects, horticultural, computer techniques of communication and conservation. Here you will find the abstract of the lectures. The judgment of plants, flowers, stand, sites, photography and fine arts were assured by at about 250 judges coming from all over the world. For the first, the sites about orchids were judged and we had the pleasure to see our site Brazilian Orchids won the Gold Medal for the best amateur site and Trophy Grand Prix, which are, no doubt about, a reason for us taking a pride and so the Brazil. At about 1.000 registrants from all over world were there. Brazil was represented by Sergio Araujo e Delfina Araujo, in the section "Computer Techniques of Communication", who talked about this virtual magazine - Orchid News - seen as innovator in the diffusion of news and knowledge, through the Internet; in the scientific field by Cassio van den Berg who presented a lecturer about Molecular Data and Systematic of genera and species of Laeliinae, and in the posters by Vitorino Paiva Castro Neto (with two posters "Baptistonia and the biome 'Atlantic Forest' " and "Hoffmannseggella, Microlaelia, Dungsia & Hadrolealia", with the co-author Guy Chiron) and by Melissa Bocayuva (a poster, with the co-author, Marta Moraes, about the Biological Reserve of Tinguá, in the state of Rio de Janeiro) and Fernando Setembrino, as judge. Orchid societies from France (AAOE, AOEF, AFCPO, Amicale des Orchidophiles du Languedoc-Roussillon) and foreign such as Ecuador (Association de Orchideologia Quito), Italy (Associazione Italiana di Orchidologia), Great Britain (Bournemouth Orchid Society), from Germany (German Friends of Orchids Association), New Zealand (Orchid Council of New Zealand), Switzerland (SSO Groupe Romandie), Romania (Orchid Club Romania). French Botanical Gardens (Amis du Jardin Botanique de Strasbourg, les Jardins de Luxembourg - Serres du Sénat, Jardin Botanique de Lyon et Dijon), from Germany (Botanical Garden of Munich), from England (Royal Horticultural Society ) and from Singapura (Singapore National Gardens). Also commercial nurseries coming from around the world were there, from Brazil (Aranda, Floralia and CPO & Eco Orquídeas), as well as from Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore, Sri Lanka, many from Taiwan, Thailand, Peru and so on. Many artists showed their work in the "Palais du Congress", in the "Palais des Ducs" and at the "Museum et Jardin des Sciences de l' Arquebuse". Many publications (in different languages) were available. Exhibitors coming from all continents to show their plants in a area of about 8600m2 for 200.000 visitors. In this special edition of Orchid News, we intend to give a vision, even though superficial, of what this Congress was. Let's go. 
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