Introduction
Mary Anderson. Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre, University of Nottingham. UK
email: arabidopsis@nottingham.ac.uk
The 7th International Arabidopsis Meeting was held at UEA in Norwich 23-27th June 1996. The conference was extremely well attended with over 500 delegates. There were 100 speakers at the 9 sessions and 5 workshops. Over 350 posters were presented.On behalf of the community I would like to express our thanks to the organising committee Caroline Dean, George Coupland, Nic Harberd, Dick Flavell and Dee Rawsthorne.
As well as a great scientific meeting (see the chairpersons reports and on-line abstracts) this meeting will hold other memories. Perhaps of particular note was the wonderful conference meal held at St Andrews Hall, a former Monastry, dating from the 13th Century. The idea of a Pimms reception in this historic building was a great enticement, at least for some of us, against the competition of the European football semi-final between Germany and England. Even those who attended could follow the excitement of the penalty shoot-out crammed round a 2inch TV monitor and we were all able to vent our anguish or joy on the dance floor under the gaze of the ex-Mayors of Norwich.
Following on from the well received report structure we used for the 6th Arabidopsis conference held in Madison last year, we have stayed with the design. Reports of each session have been written by the session or workshop chairpersons. Many thanks to them for their contributions.