It is our great pleasure to invite delegates from all sections of the horticultural industry worldwide to Cairns, North Queensland for a series of ISHS symposia on tropical and temperature horticulture. Cairns is arguably the best tourist destination in Australia and is the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, the outback, Australian fauna and tropical rainforests containing unique Australian flora.

We will convene in the Cairns Convention Centre which was awarded the “World’s Best Convention Centre” by AIPC in 2014 in recognition of the highest client rating received by a convention centre. Thus you can expect a culture of friendly tropical hospitality.

The Congress is being hosted by the International Society for Horticultural Science, and will include meetings of regional horticultural societies and associations. We are planning to have competitions for local growers to exhibit their horticultural products. This will form part of a larger exhibition of horticultural products and industries.

The Scientific Program Committee will feature 7 new ISHS symposia in addition to a few established symposia. The new symposia include our first International Symposium on Beverage Crops. We will have a diversity of symposia on Tropical Horticulture under the theme “Now is the Era for Tropical Horticulture”. In collaboration with the Global Horticulture Initiative, we are convening the first International Symposium on Poverty, Hidden Hunger and Horticulture.

Horticulture is fundamentally important both now and in the future for our world, so please reserve the dates of November 20-25 2016 in your diary. On behalf of the Organising Committee, we encourage our global colleagues to join us, to participate in the program and to experience our friendly tropical hospitality and Tropical North Queensland.