June 1999, Volume 20 No. 2

• Editorial
• General News
• Training News
• Internet Round-Up
• Announcements
• Conference Reports
• Biorational
• New Books

Conference Reports

Nicaragua Hosts Joint Event

Concurrent society and professional meetings are becoming more popular because they unite a larger group of people with overlapping interests. Such was done in Montelimar, Nicaragua on 26-30 October 1998, to bring together the VII International Integrated Pest Management Congress, the VII Caribbean Latinamerican Whitefly and Geminivirus Workshop and the XXXVIII Annual Meeting of the Caribbean Division of the American Phytopathology Society (APS). The joint event was made possible through the combined efforts of various people and institutions. The interinstitutional organization was fundamental to the development of the three meetings. The relationships between different groups and disciplines permitted a greater coverage of technical areas. Contacts with international and Nicaraguan specialists for organizing the different scientific activities were acomplished through a collaborative network among international and Nicaraguan institutions.

Four magistrate conferences were presented: (1) `Gender and agriculture: ideological obstacles to a gender focus' by Lic. Irma Ortega and Lic. Victor Flores; (2) `The current context of IPM' by Dr Keith L. Andrews; (3) `The evolution of viral diseases in traditional and export crops in Latin America' by Dr Francisco Morales; and (4) `Participative implementation and IPM: lessons and future directions' by Dr Ann Braun. For the IPM Congress there were five special conferences, one forum (`Politics, strategy and incentives for international organisms to implement IPM'), one symposium (`World initiatives in IPM') and two panel discussions (`Biological control in vegetables, and `Gender in agriculture'), plus 144 short presentations and 45 posters. For the Whitefly Workshop, three special conferences were presented, plus three panel discussions