ASDS8 – conference support for vegetable specialists
The 8th Australasian Soil-borne Diseases Symposium (8ASDS) was held in Hobart 10-13th November 2014. This is one of the premier meetings for scientists working with soil-borne disease, soil microbial ecology and plant-microbe interactions in Australasia. The conference attracted 85 scientists and other attendees from seven countries with research students networking strongly encouraged. The scientific programme encompassed topics including pesticides and soil amendments, integrated pest management, plantpathogen interactions, biological control and disease suppression, resistance, pathogen ecology and epidemiology, and diagnostics and risk management. Two international specialists in vegetable soil-borne disease R,D&E (Dr Alison Lees, The James Hutton Institute, UK; and Dr Krishna Subbarao, University of California, Davis, USA) were supported to attend the conference. They presented keynote addresses and participated in an industry workshop in NW Tasmania following the conference where they presented to an industry audience. The ASDS8 meeting provided an important opportunity for scientists to share their latest results and thoughts, network and develop collaborations that will aid in the development of more efficient and effective R,D&E in the future. The industry workshop enabled industry to learn from the experiences of our international specialists in a non-academic setting providing time for questions and informal discussions.